Recent comments

  • ....has he the stones for it?

    This is if for him, right now. He needs to tell 'Mitch' that nothing from his side will get past OBama's veto pen for the next eight years.

    Nothing.

    Reply to: Rethugs block auto rescue - now we descend to Hell's very gate   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • YES!

    Reply to: Failure is a sort of ruling class thing   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • ....I guess that's the end of 'Reagan Democrats'. Now let us get down to some serious class warfare.

    It's either that or move into a refrigerator box, eh? Sure hope Obama knows this means it's open season on him. If he's shrewd enough he can break the Republican Party for a generation over this.

    Reply to: Senate fails to pass auto deal   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Ohhhhhhhhh they are too busy doing the happy dance around the lower prices at the pumps and the reporters are too busy reporting the happy dance and blaming Freddie and Fannie to see anything in any chart. This past year the exorbitant cost of fuel nearly destroyed our economy and seriously damaged our society. That one single factor alone affected every single facet of our economy and society. Filling up at the pump broke most family budgets alone. Added to that was the financial burden of sharp increases in every consumer product because the increased cost of fuel was passed on through the production and shipping of such products. Utility companies sought and were granted record price hikes further straining the family budget. WE cut back, cut out frills, for some that was not going out to eat any longer, cutting off the home phone and only using the cell. Shutting the cable off, or maybe going longer to replace things that really need replaced like the family car, tires, clothing etc. Sadly some have had to go so far as to cut out necessary medications just to keep a roof over their heads. Day after day sad stories are on the news about animal shelters bursting at the seams as families either lost their homes or can no longer feed their pets. Cutting back further reduces consumer spending which results in even more jobs lost. While we are so busy doing the happy dance at the pumps at the lower gas prices OPEC is planning to cut production until the reach their desired 75-100. per barrel price. My electric bill went up 16% during the height of this, now they are talking about reducing it 4% since fuel is back down. What happened to the other 12%? Groceries have not come back down and most are in smaller packaging so we are paying more for less. Freddie and Fannie have taken most all the blame for our society's economy. Of all the homes I have seen lost in FL and I have seen many and many more in the process none have been due to an adjustable mortgage like the media likes to portray, they have been due to lack of employment. Those who do still have a job have seen tremendous cutbacks in hours available which cuts their check, some in half. WE need to use some of these stimulus/bailout dollars to make America Energy Dependent. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to charge and drive an electric car. The electricity to charge the car could conceivably be generated by solar or wind. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and suv’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota.What a win -win situation it would be for our nation to create clean, cheap electricity, create millions of badly needed new green collar jobs and at the same time we could reduce and eventually eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. I just read a fascinating and profound book by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now. The plan outlined in his book would save this country from financial ruin as well as get us out from under our dependence on foreign oil. I encourage all to read this book, especially our politicians. Also I encourage all of you to visit Better Place @ http://www.betterplace.com/ to see the work this new company is doing to make our country energy independent. There is a tab on the upper right hand side of the page to click to sign up for news letters and sign an online petition. Very worthwhile. We have to do our part as citizens to educate ourselves and be more proactive.

    Reply to: Missing a Great Depression?   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • McFadden was an interesting character. On one hand he held some truly despicable views. He was violently anti-Jew who actually endorsed Hitler's policy towards jews.
    On the other hand, he was a rare character who actually brought up charges against the Federal Reserve on the floor of the House. Here's his legendary speech.

    Reply to: The definition of insanity   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • For which, the average Main Street citizen living 1000-3000 miles away from Wall Street should treat New York the same way New York treated Islamic Terrorists- because that's all Wall Street has become.

    Reply to: The definition of insanity   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • with a new post;

    He reruns the same "monetary base" graphs, and adds a graph on banks' holdlngs of reserves. The banks held about $2 billion in reserves at the beginning of September and held ~$300 billion by the end of October (it's about double that now). During the same time, loans increased from $6,9T to $7.2T, a 4% increase.

    Is there anyone who thinks that because banks didn't suddenly double their loans in the last two months as the monetary base doubled, that qualifies as "refusing to lend"? If the banks had suddenly made double the loans as they ever had before in the last 70 days, would Mish have considered that a good thing?

    Reply to: "Banks aren't lending": Oh, REALLY???   15 years 11 months ago
  • Gov. Rod Blagojevich was an easy target. The arrogance with which he operated was bound to be his political demise. He only chose to step on the toes of BofA.
    Congressman Louis T. McFaddens took on the entire Federal Reserve and that led to his untimely death. Two attempts made against him and the resolution to "do it the old fashioned way"... by poisoning him.

    President Andrew Jackson stated in reference to the bankers at the state of his administration:
    "You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out."

    Reply to: The definition of insanity   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • From the viewpoint of Wall Street and its minions, the 4 examples you list are hardly "insanity."

    "Unbelievably orgasmic giddiness!" yes. "Insanity" no.

    Reply to: The definition of insanity   15 years 11 months ago
  • The "reflation" has begun.
    Of course that begs the question of why credit is so tight? Could it be simply because the entire nation is insolvent?

    Reply to: "Banks aren't lending": Oh, REALLY???   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Just stop with the taxpayer bailouts! If they want to run their businesses into the ground and screw the investors, so be it. Just let the people pay the price for incompetence instead of running to Mother Taxpayer every time.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Really? That's a good change if true. Tell 'em about EP, we're all econ, 24/7.

    Well, I think getting the nation back is a matter of stopping the influence buying the massive campaigns and their costs, the revolving door and most of all, stopping those corporate lobbyists with their wads of smelly cash.

    If you get that out of our government we might stand a chance for the system to work.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • is for the time that Naomi Klein identifies in Shock Doctrine - when the politically impossible becomes the politically probable. On fundamentally altering our economic and financial arrangements, I think we are at the beginning of such a time. There are many, many people who never much thought about these issues up until a year or so ago - now look how many econ-fin diaries are on DailyKos each day. Our problem is that we are hopelessly out-organized by the wrong-wing machine, which as billionaires and millionaires financing it. So there are a number of people who can make careers - and make quite decent salaries - dreaming up complete bullshit like the CRA, Freddie, and Fannie being to root cause of today's financial crash.

    I wish I could spend all day researching and writing. I simply cannot afford to.

    But what I think is going to happen is that at some point in the next year or two, progressives are going to realize that Obama and his team do NOT really have progressive economic beliefs. To be more accurate, they will come to realize that the economic and monetary policies chosen by Obama and his team are really not working to reverse the long term economic decline of the United States - and all the regional, local, and individual misery that decline entails. It is at that point that Americans choose between going the way we are pointing to - or going the way of Germany in the 1930s.

    Right now, I would not be taking bets on which way the U.S> will go. I think it could go either way. Which is why we need to keep hammering away.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • The US Constitution is very clear that Congress and ONLY the Congress can appropriate money out of the US Treasury. I won't pretend to be an expert on the Federal Reserve Act, but the US Congress, as representatives of the taxpayers, should be very jealous of not watering down their exclusive Constitutional power.

    It is not clear at all the the Federal Reserve has the power to issue these bonds, let along Hank Paulson unilaterally committing the Treasury to backstop favored corporations.

    Just another long-term serious problem being created by this Congress' refusal to engage in any meaningful oversight.

    Reply to: A once in a lifetime opportunity to fund the National Debt   15 years 11 months ago
  • The Treasury Department announced today that it is considering “novel approaches” to the future issuance of U.S. government debt

    I take this article as an amazing way to avoid saying the "I" word or the devalue phrase.

    Reply to: A once in a lifetime opportunity to fund the National Debt   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Well, well, what was that about ethics in Economists? They have lost billions, many are deemed to go bankrupt and to note that Obama has an agenda to make zero capital gains on "startups". Obviously every hedge fund and their brother will reinvent themselves as a "startup" to get that deal.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Is the chance of Al Franken getting a Senate seat. I'm hoping that will be enough common sense fair traders in the Senate to at least put some reign on this nonsense from the Executive Office.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • because I believe Obama will be at his wit's end in 18 months or so, trying to deal with the economic collapse.

    I think this should go on DailyKos, along with some facts about hedge funds, and how little they do for real economic activity. Has anyone done a study to see if hedge funds actually contribute to raising funds for capital expenditures? I would like to see capital expenditures as percent of GDP figures (I did that back in the 1990s, when I was getting paid for such things) and the downshift from the 1960s was very clear.

    Reply to: Obama's Chief Economic Advisor: Milton Friedman, deregulation good   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • And NOT just financials, but in fact the whole shebang, comparing available M1 to GDP there's a hell of a lot of credit out there.

    If we were to try to run an economy this size on cash-only basis, we'd need $13.5 trillion changing hands annually, in real money (as opposed to bits in a computer accessed by an ID card). That's a heck of a lot more cash than we currently have in circulation.

    Reply to: "Banks aren't lending": Oh, REALLY???   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:
  • Or else zogger's journal on slashdot just might come true- and eating will just become another unafordable hobby.

    Reply to: Year-over-year Deflation is here   15 years 11 months ago
    EPer:

Pages