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

Frisco_Slug_Esq said:

Why not? it's the kind of rat-fuck tactics that you so relish in; your verbal ju-jitsu...

You do everything you can to get people to put you on ignore and then you act like it's some kind of grand victory because they aren't tough enough for debate and what you loosely call the truth...

Click to expand...

Nonsense, my boy, I relish in the debate! I enjoy deconstructing your flimsy arguments and pointin' out the myriad logical fallacies that permeate your effluvia on a near-daily basis. You've devolved into a caricature, a simplistic stereotype of myopic far-right excess.

Give my best to your wife and Princess Rentagook.

Let's blow economic bubbles!

When governments want to encourage what they believe is beneficial behavior, they subsidize it. Sounds like good public policy.

But there can be problems. Behavior that is beneficial for most people may not be so for everybody. And government subsidies can go too far.

Subsidies create incentives for what economists call rent-seeking behavior. Providers of supposedly beneficial goods or services try to sop up as much of the subsidy money as they can by raising prices. After all, their customers are paying with money supplied by the government.

Bubble money, as it turns out. And sooner or later, bubbles burst.

We are still suffering from the bursting of the housing bubble created by low interest rates, lowered mortgage standards, and subsidies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those policies encouraged the granting of mortgages to people who should never have gotten them — and when they defaulted, the whole financial sector nearly collapsed.

Now some people see signs that another bubble is bursting. They call it the higher-education bubble.

For years, government has assumed it’s a good thing to go to college. College graduates tend to earn more money than non–college graduates.

Politicians of both parties have called for giving everybody a chance to go to college, just as they called for giving everybody a chance to buy a home.

So government has been subsidizing higher education with low-interest college loans, Pell grants, and cheap tuition at state colleges and universities.

The predictable result is that higher-education costs have risen much faster than inflation, much faster than personal incomes, much faster than the economy has expanded over the past 40 years.

Moreover, you can’t get out of paying off those college loans, even by going through bankruptcy. At least with a home mortgage, you can walk away and let the bank foreclose and not owe any more money.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, is adept at spotting bubbles. He sold out for $500 million in March 2000, at the peak of the tech bubble, when his partners wanted to hold out for more. He refused to buy a house until the housing bubble burst.

“A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he has said. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States.”

But the combination of rising costs and dubious quality may be undermining that belief.

For what have institutions of higher learning done with their vast increases in revenues? The answer in all too many cases is administrative bloat.

Take the California State University system, the second tier in that state’s public higher education. Between 1975 and 2008, the number of full-time faculty members rose by 3 percent, to 12,019 positions. During those same years, the number of administrators rose 221 percent, to 12,183. That’s right: There are more administrators than teachers at Cal State now.

These people get paid to “liaise” and “facilitate” and produce reports on diversity. How that benefits Cal State students or California taxpayers is unclear.

It is often said that American colleges and universities are the best in the world. That’s undoubtedly true in the hard sciences.

But in the humanities and to a lesser extent in the social sciences, there’s a lot of garbage. Is a degree in religious and women’s studies worth $100,000 in student-loan debt? Probably not.

As economist Richard Vedder points out, 45 percent of those who enter four-year colleges don’t get a degree within six years. Given the low achievement level of most high-school graduates, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that many of them shouldn’t have bothered in the first place.

Click to expand...

Michael Barone
NRO

__________________
We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do. Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging our young people to do that.
Michelle Obama

mercury14 said:

Nobody cares. The fact is that Mo honestly think default wouldn't hurt us. Therefore he's an idiot.

Click to expand...

hey king idiot...this is what your way of spending gets us


"A Small City’s Depleted Pension Fund Rattles Rhode Island. The small city of Central Falls, R.I., appears to be headed for a rare municipal bankruptcy filing, and state officials are rushing to keep its woes from overwhelming the struggling state"


you greedy sick government bastards have bleed the cow dry, time for YOU to pay up

Municipal governments of all sizes are laying people off, even in the people's republic of Chicago...





I guess the stimulus could only save those jobs for so long.

It got them through ONE election cycle, one which still turned out to be a blood bath...

vetteman said:

Saint KRC and Mr. Dudley Do Right Pereginator where are you???? Why haven't you swooped in to right this wrong??? You know, like you do when somebody you disagree with says something objectionable, or do you share this imbecile's sentiments??? Inquiring minds want to know.

Click to expand...

here is the question of the day, has UD, Merc, Sean, Celeb, Richard ever address why such fine states as IL, CA, NY, NJ, RI, CT are in such a fucked up finical mess?

how long did it take for Obama Jr, once mayer of Chicago to demand cuts by the greedy corrupt union?

hum....

vetteman said:

Saint KRC and Mr. Dudley Do Right Pereginator where are you???? Why haven't you swooped in to right this wrong??? You know, like you do when somebody you disagree with says something objectionable, or do you share this imbecile's sentiments??? Inquiring minds want to know.

Click to expand...

Isn't he just the perfect example of the modern new-age liberal?

When we do it it's okay, if you do it it's like showing Mullah Omar a Mohammed cartoon...

__________________
A_J's corollary #6, “The New Age Liberal thinks, ‘When I do/say it, it is right because of my open-minded education and intelligence. When you do/say it, it serves to demonstrate how narrow-minded, poorly educated and stupid you are.’”

Look at Throbs' AV and you see the dignity with which he views a woman's role in his life, but only REPUBLICANS are misogynists!

All my love, all my kissin'
You don't know what you've been missin', oh boy,

It's palin to see,

OH! BOY!

(((LIPSTICK)))


[voice=Elvis][tone=THE KING!]
Misogyny trap. We can't hold back!
Because we hate you too much baybee... [/voice]

Feelings, nothing more than feelings... [/tone]

worth watching

Juan the HIS PAN ICK and KNEE GROW, so he is immune Willams

was told that Hannity was gonna read stuff that Cantor said about teh debt limit

Its a failure of leadership

its this bad its that bad,
the President sucks and thats why we are in this position

Willams then bashes Cantor

Then Hannity says

BUT WAIT........IT WAS OBAMA SAYING THIS IN 2006

Willams JAW DROPS~

busybody said:

Ok

this is worth watching

yet another juan who is cluless

and

is in

full

PROTECT THE NIGGER MODE

if you dont get a chuckle out of this

you are brain dead

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/sean-hannity-sucker-punches-juan-williams

if you do get a chuckle out of this, you may still be brain dead!

Click to expand...

busybody said:

worth watching

Juan the HIS PAN ICK and KNEE GROW, so he is immune Willams

was told that Hannity was gonna read stuff that Cantor said about teh debt limit

Its a failure of leadership

its this bad its that bad,
the President sucks and thats why we are in this position

Willams then bashes Cantor

Then Hannity says

BUT WAIT........IT WAS OBAMA SAYING THIS IN 2006

Willams JAW DROPS~

Click to expand...

Yeah, like we noticed before, there should be a lot of neck braces for the whiplash suffered by so many Democrats doing an abrupt 180 in order to support the policies of the first black president...

... who has turned out to be Bush on steroids.

Ees nawt a two-mur...

BUSINESS LACKS CONFIDENCE: Home Depot Co-Founder: ‘I’m Not Sure Obama Would Understand Anything That I’d Say.’ “In a discussion about the current moribund job climate, Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus discusses the situation today contrasted with when he first started up the retail giant in 1978. Remarkably, the darkest days of Jimmy Carter were brighter than today’s despair under the failed Obama presidency.”

Wynn's words resonate because America's weak economic growth and high unemployment can be laid in large part to the inexperience of this president and his just-as-callow advisers.

In such a climate, it's no surprise that executive outbursts are erupting like lava from scorched earth. Wynn's remarks echo those on a lengthening list of CEOs including:

• 3M's George Buckley, who blasted Obama last February as anti-business. "We know what his instincts are," Buckley said. "We've got a real choice between manufacturing in Canada or Mexico — which tends to be more pro-business — and America," he told the Financial Times.

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast • Boeing's Jim McNerney, who in the Wall Street Journal last May called Obama's handpicked National Labor Relations Board's suit against his company a "fundamental assault on the capitalist principles that have sustained America's competitiveness since it became the world's largest economy nearly 140 years ago."

• Intel's Paul Otellini, who told CNET last August that the U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business that there is likely to be "an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we're seeing today in Europe — this is the bitter truth."

• Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who observed to radio host Hugh Hewitt last month that Obama "never had to make payroll," that "nobody has ever created a job in this administration" and that the president is "surrounded by college professors."

• GE's Jeffrey Immelt, one of Obama's biggest supporters, who hit out at the president last year. "Business did not like the U.S. president and the president did not like business," the FT reported him saying. "People are in a really bad mood. We have to become an industrial powerhouse again, but you don't do this when government and entrepreneurs are not in sync."

• Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, another Obama backer, who blasted Obama's bank tax in January 2010 as a "guilt tax," once called Obama's carbon tax idea "regressive" and this month denounced Obama's obsession with corporate jets.

These aren't the only ones. CEOs of battered oil companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil, media companies like Fox News and Forbes, and business groups like the Chamber of Commerce have also spoken out. When the creators of jobs and wealth are saying the same thing, isn't it time for the White House to listen up?

vetteman said:

Amazing isn't it? Usually a puffed up crew of sanctimonious pretenders will come huffing in all trussed up in their moral piety...where are they now?

Click to expand...

Busily engaged in softer, more gentler forms of ad hominem to prove what clever thinkers they are...

Hell, zip's running around declaring that I cannot back up RightField's points in a thread that I had lost all interest in so therefore I cannot back up my points (while at the same time he's inferring that he cannot read what I post with comprehension)...

Frisco_Slug_Esq said:

Busily engaged in softer, more gentler forms of ad hominem to prove what clever thinkers they are...

Hell, zip's running around declaring that I cannot back up RightField's points in a thread that I had lost all interest in so therefore I cannot back up my points (while at the same time he's inferring that he cannot read what I post with comprehension)...

Click to expand...

But yet, you came runnin' to Koalabear's defense when I mocked his inability to refudiate an argument. I guess your patented situational outrage is more selective these days.

...or maybe you're just a coward.

vetteman said:

You mean the guy who voted for Obama because he was afraid the SCOTUS was going to enforce the Constitution? I mean, how heavy can his judgment possibly be on your shoulders?

Click to expand...

*chuckle*

Well, in his defense, he did get what he voted for! The absolute proof that Bush policies were a failure even when scaled up economically and scaled down when it comes to illegal wars based on lies...

rob, bad form. aj's argument's can be addressed without that.

AJ, no amount of backpeddling on your part now is gonna convince me that you understood the difference between friedman and keynes. maybe you NEED wiki to help you understand what you are reading.

thanks for the intro to the austrian school, though. some interesting stuff and some sort of wacky stuff.

The 32nd anniversary of Carter's May Lays speech

Obama is Carter's Second Term

ANTI-PROSPERITY, PRO-ISLAMIST PRESIDENT
PLUNGING WORLD'S GREATEST DEMOCRACY
INTO A STATE OF PERMANENT DEPRESSION


Failure to Revive Economy, Restore Confidence,

Create Millions of Well Paying, Permanent Jobs

Parallels Failed and Frightening Foreign Policy

I know

Lets recall teh WHITE guy

OK?



Wisconsin Creates 13,000 Private-Sector Jobs


According to new jobs figures, Wisconsin created 12,900 new private-sector jobs in June, almost as many as the 18,000 new jobs created nationwide last month. This represents the largest one-month gain of private-sector jobs in Wisconsin since 2003, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.

Gov. Scott Walker’s statement on the jobs numbers:

The addition of 9,500 new jobs in Wisconsin, including nearly 13,000 private sector jobs, in the last month is encouraging news and a positive indication that our state is on the right track. In light of national job numbers that saw our country create a net of only 18,000 jobs last month, our efforts in Wisconsin stand out. Most importantly the new jobs mean that thousands of families all across our state will now be getting a paycheck, in some cases for the first time in over a year.

We have made difficult decisions in our state, but they are beginning to payoff. Despite the state’s good news, we still have a lot of work to do to promote more job growth and reach our goal of helping create 250,000 private sector jobs in four years. The national job figures remind us that we can not rest after one month of good news; while there will be ups and downs along the way, we must help lead the nation to recovery.

Of course, these good jobs numbers occur at the same time Walker is fighting a public-union-instigated effort to recall him from office due to the collective-bargaining changes Walker recently signed into law. No word on how the public unions feel about the private-sector union jobs that Walker’s policies will likely create.

..Obama Legacy May Be Withering American Dream

By John Zogby | Forbes – 3 hrs ago
Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign trumpeted hope for the future, but his legacy may include presiding over the withering of the American Dream. Belief that the American Dream is possible has dropped by nearly 20 points since his election, falling just below one-half of U.S. adults.

My research since 1998 about the American Dream has shown its definition evolving away from material wealth and toward spiritual happiness (both secular and religious.) So this drop in belief hints that our economic and political problems are shaking American confidence about the future and even our way of life.

This should be an enormous problem for a President seeking re-election, especially since Republican opposition makes it nearly impossible to stimulate employment in ways Obama would prefer. However, stridency from that opposition and weakness of the Republican field put Obama in much better position than the situation should allow.

And here is another twist on why Obama can survive this national malaise. Demographic groups loyal to Republicans are more likely to believe in the American Dream than are Democratic base voters. In 2008, Obama carried voters who did not believe they could achieve the American Dream by two-to-one, lost to John McCain those who did believe in the dream and still won the election. Our July 15-18 IBOPE Zogby interactive poll showed the largest drops in belief coming from groups most likely to vote against Obama.

Let’s look at our data to give you a better understanding of these dynamics. In an interactive poll taken immediately after Obama’s 2008 election, 68% of adults said it is possible for them and their families to achieve the American Dream, and 18% said it did not exist. Almost as many (62%) agreed most middle class families could achieve it. Our poll taken a week ago showed 49.7% believing the dream was achievable for their families, 30% saying it did not exist and 44% agreeing it is achievable for most middle class families.

As you would expect, confidence to achieve the American Dream rises with household income, but changes from 2008 to now don’t consistently follow according to income. The group whose confidence has been least changed (down five percentage points to 67%) and is now highest is the middle income household of $75,000 to $100,000. (In households making $25,000 or less, 33% still believe the dream is within their reach.)

There was little change over three years in how people defined the American Dream. In 2008, 38% defined it as material goods and 43% said it was spiritual happiness. Now, 40% choose the material and 37% spiritual. Above I suggested our loss of national confidence is about more than just economic well-being. The reason is our finding that those who define the American Dream as material are only slightly more likely to say it doesn’t exist than are those who define it as spiritual happiness. It seems we have both an economic and psychological recession.

In terms of political affilaition, Republican leaning groups show the largest declines in belief in the dream. Here are percentages from 2008 and now: Republicans 82% to 60%, those 65 and older 69% to 36% and conservatives 83% to 57%. Democratic base voters also showed a loss of faith in achieving the American Dream between the two polls, but not as great: Democrats 57% to 46%, liberals 52% to 40% and ages 18-29 69% to 55%. Among independent voters, their totals went from 63% in 2008 to 45% now.

Independent are the voters Obama is appealing to in the debt limit debate by trying to show he is the one willing to compromise and even go against his base to win an agreement and avert default.

That is a good political approach to governance in a time of such voter disaffection. Soon it will be time to go into full campaign mode. Obama came into the presidency at a low point and his ascendancy was in many was similar to that of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats hoped he would use government as FDR did to ignite the economy. Instead, his first term now more closely resembles that of Harry Truman - recession, foreign threats galore, and challenges to whether this President is up to the job. Truman's party split on the left and right, but he ultimately ran against a "do-nothing" Congress controlled by Republicans. Obama is expecting liberals to forgive his compromises and vote to throw out Republicans who have opposed him at nearly every turn. Rather than go on the defensive, Obama will have to take a page from Truman by giving hell to Republicans and trying again to give hope to an electorate that is fast losing it.

busybody said:

I know

Lets recall teh WHITE guy

OK?



Wisconsin Creates 13,000 Private-Sector Jobs


According to new jobs figures, Wisconsin created 12,900 new private-sector jobs in June, almost as many as the 18,000 new jobs created nationwide last month. This represents the largest one-month gain of private-sector jobs in Wisconsin since 2003, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.

Gov. Scott Walker’s statement on the jobs numbers:

The addition of 9,500 new jobs in Wisconsin, including nearly 13,000 private sector jobs, in the last month is encouraging news and a positive indication that our state is on the right track. In light of national job numbers that saw our country create a net of only 18,000 jobs last month, our efforts in Wisconsin stand out. Most importantly the new jobs mean that thousands of families all across our state will now be getting a paycheck, in some cases for the first time in over a year.

We have made difficult decisions in our state, but they are beginning to payoff. Despite the state’s good news, we still have a lot of work to do to promote more job growth and reach our goal of helping create 250,000 private sector jobs in four years. The national job figures remind us that we can not rest after one month of good news; while there will be ups and downs along the way, we must help lead the nation to recovery.

Of course, these good jobs numbers occur at the same time Walker is fighting a public-union-instigated effort to recall him from office due to the collective-bargaining changes Walker recently signed into law. No word on how the public unions feel about the private-sector union jobs that Walker’s policies will likely create.

Click to expand...

Private sector jobs are so overrated.