What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

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.......the United Nations itself last week called for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy, which had allowed the United States the "privilege" of building up a huge trade deficit.

UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, Sha Zukang, said "important progress in managing imbalances can be made by reducing the (dollar) reserve currency country's 'privilege' to run external deficits in order to provide international liquidity."

Zukang was speaking at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, whose President Robert Zoellick recently warned that the United States should not "take for granted" the dollar's role as preeminent global reserve currency......


Bet this will not help the USD. Got gold?
 
With the Dow climbing near 10,000 again what's happened to all of the dire, end of the world ravings of our resident "conservative" economists?

Where is all of this inflation we were warned about? According to reports the Consumer Price Index is down 1.5% overall from last year. Despite Augusts increase in prices, gasoline is still down 30% from the high a year ago.

Despite the dire warnings of some of Lit's resident math wizards the Chinese are still very much interested in buying US Treasury securities.

I guess the sky isn't falling after all. :cool:

It is falling for the ever increasing number of folks that continue to lose their jobs. But what do they matter as long as the Dow is over 10,000...right?

Oh, and the fact that we are now saddled with a record debt that will negatively impact our economy for decades.

But I guess we can ignore it all and look at the bright side...the dow is over 10,000 and gas prices are low!
 
The unemployment rate is leveling off. Monthly job losses aren't nearly as high as they were.

The deficit is bigger, it takes money to recover from the economic malfeasance that got us where we were at the end of last year.

Ditto for the debt..

Gasoline is down by 30% over last summer's high of over $4 per gallon.

Are you going to actually answer any of the questions I asked or just ignore them and pose your own questions instead?

Unemployment rate is leveling off? Are you serious? Our own government predicts it will get worse over the next 18 months, peaking somewhere near 11%.

Your ignorance astounds me.

It takes spending money we don't have to get us out of a recession? That is the kind of logic that got us into this hole in the first place. Please explain to me how increasing the debt by 4 TRILLION dollars and doubling the national deficit will help us.
 
<snip>...

Your ignorance astounds me.

It takes spending money we don't have to get us out of a recession? That is the kind of logic that got us into this hole in the first place. Please explain to me how increasing the debt by 4 TRILLION dollars and doubling the national deficit will help us.

YOUR ignorance astounds me.

Google "Kenyesian economic theory" (specifically "priming the pump" and get back to us. Though not all economists agree with Keynes, his theory remains a valid school of thought in mainstream economics.
 
Unemployment rate is leveling off? Are you serious? Our own government predicts it will get worse over the next 18 months, peaking somewhere near 11%.

.

the same government predicted 8% unemployment....
 
When economists show that market arrangements fail, they usually make the simple recommendation that “the” state should take care of these problems. Elinor Ostrom has demonstrated empirically that “the” state may not be “the” solution. Her work argues for the wisdom of institutional diversity, looking to individuals to solve problems rather than relying on top down, one-size-fits-all solutions. The conventional wisdom assumes that natural resources and environmental problems should be solved in a centralized—and if possible, global—manner. Through innovative analysis in the field, in the experimental laboratory, and in theory, Ostrom’s work has show that creative solutions to problems such as the depletion of common pool resources exist outside of the sphere of national governments. Hence today’s announcement that she had received the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

But there is more to Elinor Ostrom’s work. In fact, one may say that, together with Vincent Ostrom, she has mounted a remarkable challenge to the mainstream views in economics and political science. As she described it herself, her work is a systematic attempt to transcend the basic dichotomy of modern political economy.

On the one hand, there is the tradition defined by Adam Smith's theory of social order. Smith and his intellectual descendants focused on the pattern of order and the positive consequences emerging out of the independent actions of individuals pursuing their own interests within a given system of rules. That was the “spontaneous order” tradition where the study of markets—the competition among producers and consumers of pure private goods leading to a better allocation of resources—occupied a preeminent place.

On the other hand, there is the tradition rooted in Thomas Hobbes’ theory of social order. From that perspective, individual actors pursuing their own interests and trying to maximize their welfare lead inevitably to chaos and conflict. From that is derived the necessity of a single center of power imposing order. In Hobbes’ view, social order is the creation of the unique “Leviathan,” which wields the monopoly power to make and enforce law. Self-organized and independent individuals thus have nothing to do with making order. Most modern theories of “The State" have their origins in Hobbes’ vision of Leviathan.

In Ostrom’s view, the theorists in both traditions managed to keep not only the theories of market and state alienated from each other, they also managed to keep the basic visions of the two separated. Smith's concept of market order was considered applicable for all private goods while Hobbes's conception of the single center of power and decision applied for all collective goods. But what if the domains of modern political-economic life could not be understood or organized by relying only on the concepts of markets or states? What if we need "a richer set of policy formulations" than just "the" market or "the" state? Answering that challenge is probably the best way to see Ostrom’s work on governance and common pool resources: It’s an empirically-based contribution to a larger and bolder attempt to build an alternative to the basic dichotomy of modern political economy, an effort to find an alternative to the conceptions derived from Smith and Hobbes.

“The presence of order in the world,” Ostrom writes, “is largely dependent upon the theories used to understand the world. We are not limited, however, to only the conceptions of order derived from the work of Smith and Hobbes.” We need a theory that “offers an alternative that can be used to analyze and prescribe a variety of institutional arrangements to match the extensive variety of collective goods in the world.” In response to that need, Ostrom has explored a new domain of the complex institutional reality of social life—the rich institutional arrangements that are neither states nor markets. These are for-profit or not-for-profit entities that produce collective goods for “collective consumption units.” Examples of such “consumption units” abound. They are small and large, multi-purpose or just focused on one good or service: suburban municipalities, neighborhood organizations, condominiums, churches, voluntary associations, or informal entities like those solving the common-pool resources dilemmas studied and documented by Ostrom around the world. Yet, once the functional principle behind them was the identified, the very diverse forms could be understood as part of a broader pattern, and the logic of the institutional process involved could be revealed with relative ease. They could be seen as a “third sector” related to but different from both “the state” and “the market”.

And thus Ostrom’s study of governance is not only a source of inspiration, it is also a challenge to libertarians. In study after study, she has shown that the principles of individual freedom, responsibility, entrepreneurial creativity, and resourcefulness apply not only to the production and distribution of private goods, they also apply to a large institutional domain outside the market order. This “third sector,” which is “neither state nor market,” may in fact be as important a battleground for the preservation of a free and prosperous social order as the market itself.

http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/12/elinor-ostrom-on-the-the-marke
 
On October 2 the U.S. Labor Department released its September 2009 jobs report. The sycophants in the mainstream media breathed a sigh of relief that only 263,000 people lost their jobs and the unemployment rate went up a slight .1%. Per the same Labor Department report the current labor force is: 154,006,000 and those employed are 138,864,000, thus the unemployment rate of 9.8%.

However, per a projected Labor Force Change Report the Labor Department predicts the labor force will be 157,721,000 by the end of 2010 and 162,822,000 by the end of 2015.

To maintain the same unemployment rate as we have now (9.8%) the economy would have to create over 3,000,000 new jobs by the end of 2010 and 7,700,000 new jobs by the end of 2015. (Note 1)

This cannot be done as long as the private sector is hamstrung by new taxes and regulations and the annual government deficits continue in the near trillion dollar range for the next ten years.

In recent days there have been headlines, articles and proclamations by the Obama Administration stating that the recovery has begun and the economy has hit bottom. They point to the stock market rebound as a major indicator that the country is on the road to recovery. However, many of the companies listed on the major exchanges have seen recovery in their profits due to a reduction in costs (e.g. job cuts) and the rapidly sinking value of the dollar inflating their overseas operations measured in dollars. The banking and financial sector's improvement has come at the expense of the American taxpayer and borrower.

This Administration is adept at Orwellian double-speak, so perhaps they will succeed in promoting an economic oxymoron: a jobless recovery. That is what we are faced with today as businesses both large and small continue to sit on the sidelines. Unfortunately, those in the Obama hierarchy, most of whom have no hands-on business experience, fail to understand that job creation and business expansion depends, in great part, on the knowledge that there will be a stable economic environment for the foreseeable future. The more cynical among us might say Obama and his underlings are aware of this but are so determined to pass their radical agenda they do not care.

As long as the Euro-socialist policies of this Administration are pursued or passed, uncertainty will reign supreme and the necessary jobs will not be created as we watch the rest of the world experience economic growth.

The current budget, as approved by Congress, averages nearly a trillion dollar annual deficit for the next ten years. That despite the largest proposed tax increase in our history, virtually all of which will fall on higher income earners and businesses. However, as reflected by the annual deficit levels, taxes will have to be raised even more in the coming years as those budget shortfalls will be unsustainable. We will have entered into a vicious cycle where higher spending will require higher taxes and higher taxes will reduce tax receipts to the government and cash available for business expansion thereby perpetuating a never ending downward spiral unless government spending is greatly curtailed.

In Congress and the White House there exists a determination to involve government in the day to day activity of businesses large and small, whether by passing new laws (e.g. Cap and Trade, Health Care Reform, Union Card Check), issuing more invasive regulations, making veiled or direct audit threats or holding public hearings to demonize capitalism as a whole. As long as this excessive government involvement continues, the engine of business that produces virtually all the jobs (and by doing so produces the government's income stream) will operate at a level barely sufficient to stay in operation, look to relocate off shore if feasible and find ways to minimize costs (labor being the largest), and wait out the storm until some sanity returns while hoping the damage done to the economy is not irreversible.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/is_there_really_a_recovery_on.html
 
This is serious: Since 1999, global central banks have been placing an average of 63% of their reserves into dollars. But as the Obama administration dumped billions of dollars in new debt on the markets in April, May and June, world leaders began diversifying OUT of dollars and INTO euros and yen, putting only 37% of new reserves into dollars, a new record low.

As a result, the greenback has plunged 14% in value in the last seven months, one of the biggest drops since 1991
:eek:
 
This is serious: Since 1999, global central banks have been placing an average of 63% of their reserves into dollars. But as the Obama administration dumped billions of dollars in new debt on the markets in April, May and June, world leaders began diversifying OUT of dollars and INTO euros and yen, putting only 37% of new reserves into dollars, a new record low.

As a result, the greenback has plunged 14% in value in the last seven months, one of the biggest drops since 1991
:eek:

Look at the bright side, they can print money like Somalia, just on one side. They can make it faster then and save ink.
 
Pssshawww...



U_D's 401K is back to Bush levels, HE's working, HE's going to college, HIS KID is going to college, HIS wife is working...,

So every thing's all right,
Yes every thing's fine,
And we want you to sleep well tonight,
Close your eyes, close your eyes,
Relax and think of nothing tonight...


[chorus][tone=gusto]

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!
[/tone]

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama...

 
The Obama Administration: Eyes Wide SHUT!!! Witness AIG!

We bailed them out without understanding how their business was operated.

Sound familiar?

Now the same critters you hated before are still walking away with millions...

http://home.myhughesnet.com/news/re...ass&action=1&lang=en&_LT=HOME_BUNWC00L1_UNEWS

Good ol' Turbo Tax-cheat Timmy! The rich guy is doing pretty good under Obama while his party rushes though the health care plan as fast as they can which will raise the taxes on the middles-class in order to support insurance for the poor.
__________________
"Observe...the intellectual precision of the Founding Fathers: they spoke of the right to the pursuit of happiness -- not of the right to happiness. It means that a man has the right to take the actions he deems necessary to achieve his happiness; it does not mean that others must make him happy.... The right to life [and liberty] means that a man has the right to support his life by his own work (on any economic level, as high as his ability will carry him); it does not mean that others must provide him with the necessities of life...The right to property means that a man has the right to take the economic actions necessary to earn property, to use it and to dispose of it; it does not mean that others must provide him with property."
Ayn Rand
 
Pssshawww...



U_D's 401K is back to Bush levels, HE's working, HE's going to college, HIS KID is going to college, HIS wife is working...,

So every thing's all right,
Yes every thing's fine,
And we want you to sleep well tonight,
Close your eyes, close your eyes,
Relax and think of nothing tonight...


[chorus][tone=gusto]

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!
[/tone]

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama!

OH! Bama hey bama, bama, bama, ho!
Bama hey bama OH! Bama...


Uncle Frisco ain't never been the same since them chemicals done fucked 'im up...damn shame...

istockphoto_3927719_man_up_in_a_straitjacket.jpg
 
Another typical Democratic response. If you don't have command of the issue, make fun of the poster who says something you simply cannot refute.
 
Another typical Democratic response. If you don't have command of the issue, make fun of the poster who says something you simply cannot refute.

Issue?

You do a little song and dance trying to be snarky cute as usual and you say you have an issue?

How cum you the only one who can be snarky cute on here, huh? How cum I can't do it, too? Huh? Did I make you cry or something? How am I supposed to refute you trying to be Oscar Hammerstein an' doin' shows so early in the morning?
 
In Conclusion...

Kyle-Ann Shiver
American Thinker

It has taken Soros much longer than he perhaps anticipated to bring down the U.S. dollar. By 2003, Soros was already predicting the downfall of the dollar. In a CNBC interview, amid a slump in the dollar's value against the euro, Soros added fuel to that fire by stating that he was already selling dollars. His statement, in turn, caused a further decline in the international worth of the dollar.

In Davos last year, at the World Economic Forum, Soros even went so far as to say that the current housing "bust" would signal the end of the dollar as the world's default currency. "The current crisis is not only the bust that follows the housing boom," Soros said. "It's basically the end of a 60-year period of continuing credit expansion based on the dollar as the reserve currency," he stated to the press.

One would have to be living under a rock these days not to see that the American dollar has been walloped under the leadership of Barack Obama. Weeding out the truth of which nations are actively working (Some would say, "conspiring.") to ditch the dollar as the preeminent world currency is proving difficult. Reports surface only to be denied a day later.

But this much is certain. Soros has long thought America far too powerful, and has seen the dollar's supremacy as every bit as dangerous to his internationalist schemes as our military strength. So far, President Barack Obama has done nothing whatsoever which would seem at odds with those scheming Soros doctrines.

If all of this does not hint at a shadow presidency with a powerful oligarch pulling the strings on a neophyte president, I honestly don't know what would.
 
Another blast of right wing hot air from American Thinker. When are you going to do your own thinking, Slug?

Same thing from the guy who knows Hitler backwards and forwards.

Just attack.

That way you don't have to read and/or rebut...

You don't even have to bother to Wiki an argument.
 
Same thing from the guy who knows Hitler backwards and forwards.

Just attack.

That way you don't have to read and/or rebut...

You don't even have to bother to Wiki an argument.

I also read F.A. Hayek, remember? That's more than you can say.

Hitler had insights into human nature. Ayn Rand had nothing but pompous assertions of her appalling value system.

If you post a comment that indicates learning and original thought, Slug, I will read it. Otherwise I will just point and laugh. You are glib, and very pleased with yourself, but you rarely have anything to say that is worth considering. You're just a stupid waste of computer memory.
 
Again, typical liberal behavior in assigning smarts and intelligence, but I still remember you praising my intellect when we agreed on a topic.

You assure me, I'm not worthy, as if you were an unbiased judge of some sort.

You're an elitist without accomplishment.
__________________
"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."
Eric Hoffer
 
Look at the bright side, they can print money like Somalia, just on one side. They can make it faster then and save ink.

:rolleyes:

They have lowered the bar so low that the DJIA companies can't help but to beat expectations. Dow should get as close to 10,000 today as it has in a long time. Poor saps don't even hear the Theme from Jaws getting faster and faster.
 
We put some money in at the first of the year for tax purposes. When we hit the magic mark (or begin sliding, each is equally probable) I'm putting it into a fixed account.

I've been fairly good to date in my timing of these events.
__________________
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
Cornelius Tacitus
 
This is serious: Since 1999, global central banks have been placing an average of 63% of their reserves into dollars. But as the Obama administration dumped billions of dollars in new debt on the markets in April, May and June, world leaders began diversifying OUT of dollars and INTO euros and yen, putting only 37% of new reserves into dollars, a new record low.

As a result, the greenback has plunged 14% in value in the last seven months, one of the biggest drops since 1991
:eek:

The short-term loss in the value of the dollar is due to the feds low interest rates, not an increase in the money supply. Low interest rates stimulate growth, but make the dollar less valuable for investor's. It's a balancing act.
 
The short-term loss in the value of the dollar is due to the feds low interest rates, not an increase in the money supply. Low interest rates stimulate growth, but make the dollar less valuable for investor's. It's a balancing act.

Where should I be investing?
 
Short-term?

When we get the health care tax, the green tax, the sunset of the Bush tax cuts, and the cost of never-ending war in Afghanistan, you think the dollar's gonna go up in value?

Plus next year, the dollars for votes program kicks into high gear as we get a lot of dollars facing fewer goods.

I'm looking at this morning's WSJ and the only enrichment I see is in the people who play with money for a living...
 
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