Politics: All liberal Democrat all the time. 7/2/2022 #1 of 3

It's really all about ignorance.

It's a circle jerk

They built that?

A great discussion on how government subsidies make the millionaires and billionaires their fortunes. This video is a little long, but it is VERY informative.

Some rambling on the economy

I'm no expert when it comes to economics - I took a couple of undergrad courses in the subject when I was in college 40 years ago and I read the occasional article in Time magazine or on the Internet, but I still have my opinions and I guess I fall mostly on the "demand side" of the supply and demand debate. It just seems to me that the US became the world's great economic superpower when we developed a fairly wealthy middle class that could afford to buy stuff being produced in our factories.

So that is my opinion as I waded into this brief video that is a week or two old...



So you see, it looks to me like the investors and market traders have it wrong. They want government to stop spending - to cut unemployment, to stop works projects, to deny aid to states and local governments and maybe even, some of them, to reduce the military. Their point, best as I can tell is to have millions more people out of work and hungry so that they will take jobs paying minimum wage - not just to freeze personal income levels in the U.S., but to actually lower them so that we can hire as cheaply here as they do in China.

There's some logic to that - it might add more jobs to our economy - but the jobs will only pay subsistence wages. The demand for other goods - things like personal entertainment, new cars, decent clothes, etc. will decline. Business will fall off. I can't see how their plan helps them in the long run.

I just think that conservatives like Santelli are batshit crazy.

The Collapse of the US Dollar

Perceptions Are An Important Part of the Political Process

The last President (and the only President within the last 60 years) t0 cut spending and balance the federal budget for 3 straight years was Bill Clinton - a Democrat. (CNN wrote, in September of 2000, "It is the third year in a row the federal government has taken in more than it spent, and has paid down the debt. The last time the U.S. government had a third consecutive year of national debt reduction was 1949, said the official."

The Republicans, on the other hand, love to spend money they don't have - just like the vast majority of Americans. There is clearly a strong love by people who love to spend money they don't have for government leaders who spend money they don't have.

And one of the things you've got to love about John McCain's bid for the Presidency is that he's clearly ready to spend MORE of the money the government won't have as he plans to cut taxes even further at a time when the government is pending over a trillion dollars to bail out rich folks.

What is even more intriguing about the stupidity of the average American is the fact that they still cling to the Republican canard that Democrats are all "tax and spend liberals."

What a hoot. You've got love it. And what prompted this tirade of mine? See the following two charts which show that, even though 95% of Americans would get a tax DECREASE under Barack Obama's economic plan for the country, over 50% believe their taxes will go up under his Presidency.

I guess it makes sense that our nation should go bankrupt when the majority of our citizens are financial and political idiots.

Economic Realism?

Our economy is, as economist John Mauldin often expresses it, in a "muddle-through" state. The stock market is doing quite well resulting in huge profits for most of the wealthy folks in this country. But the economy for the middle and lower classes is poor - the number of families covered by health insurance is shrinking; the number of workers covered by fixed retirement plans is shrinking; minimum wage is stagnant - even the newest increases do not keep it steady against the cost of living increases; savings rates are stagnant; home prices are falling and the number of foreclosures is rising.

But the Republican have an answer - from Crooks and Liars...

The WaPo’s Steven Pearlstein had the spot-on response to yesterday’s debate for the Republican presidential field:

To hear it from the Republican presidential hopefuls, the only way for the party to win back the trust of voters on economic issues is to start telling the truth.

Well, fellas, what are you waiting for?

Instead, for two hours yesterday, the nine white men who would be president were each peddling the Big Lie that the only way to ensure economic growth is by cutting all the taxes ever created — and when you’re finished with that, cutting them some more….

It is becoming clear, not just from this and previous debates but also from their speeches and position papers, that the leading Republican candidates aren’t serious about economic issues.