and not a really serious comment, esp. on the eve of the election, I know the Obamanots are going to be jumping for joy so it's ok....just a general comment.

So, congratulations to you! (I'm sure this will be true tomorrow, might as well say it).

Myself, I can't wait for this absurdly long election to be over so votes, policy, agenda are finally actually examined.

Obama doesn't have policy positions for the renegotiation the China PNTR or even NAFTA for that matter. No VAT, no renegotiation of the treaties, no challenging of the WTO, which should be interesting since many of his own policies could be challenged as "illegal" by the WTO and probably the biggest, which is dealing with global labor arbitrage and putting US citizens, workers first just isn't present.
He has never endorsed a Congressional Trade Office or considered an automatic review with the trade deficit reaches 5% GDP (a ceiling) and what really needs to be done which is a line by line review of each trade agreement to renegotiate many of the clauses which often were stuck in there by corporate lobbyists How about something as simple as taking off of the "emerging economies" list China (which is to supercede the US as the world leading economy in 5 years) and India. Their PPP is next to the U.S.'s already so having completely biased trade status as a EE is pretty absurd. EE's can set their own tariff schedule.

Take a look at Chinas
(first image example) if you want to get really freaked out.

The same token "labor, environmental standards" were run by Bill Clinton, a talking point by the DLC, Robert Rubins even espoused those, all the while crafting the Commodities Futures Moderization Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and note that Citigroup was a "preferred" lender to China, such a coincidence. Jason Furman, Rubin's personal clone, is the lead Obama economic adviser and if you read Goolsbee's work, well, gee wiz, Internet taxes is obviously the background to craft international multilateral trade policy in the national interest.

It wasn't just good ole Phil Gramm and assuredly not just a Republican thang going on.

We know from the Jordanian trade agreement, are not really enforceable and as it is the U.S. losses almost all of it's cases in the WTO.

Don't take my word on that one, check out the trade reform groups and see their own comments.

Also, you might not be aware of this but in the conservative wing of the Republican party they too want major renegotiation of trade agreements. This is a huge deal with them and they often work with the Progressives in Congress on this.

NDD has a post on here about Calvinball economics. Maybe a tracking post on what they have spent. I know the CBO got into seemingly a little political stink for they implied the bail out might exasperate financial turmoil.

Not on EP can you assume Obama voters.

I just voted and not only did I not vote a straight Democratic ticket, most of my votes were 3rd party, including for President.

This is a nonpartisan site and the reason is so people can analyze actual policy positions objectively and to not alienate those folks with partisan bickering.

Just look at the poll, bottom right hand corner, you'll see voters all over the place.

It will be much more than that. Consider that the Treasury borrowed $880 billion between Sept 15 and Oct 27. That extrapolates to a brisk $8.8 trillion per year. Were those exigent circumstances? Yes, but what evidence is there that we should expect significant changes? The Treasury took a break last week, but there's precious little news to suggest that borrowing won't take off again. A huge recession is steaming down the pike so Federal receipts should be taking a dive, the official Bailout has yet to commence in major form, Federal guarantees of the money market have not been invoked, the Banks are only just beginning to deal with the underwater option-ARMs that will be bleeding off for the next 3 years, etc., etc. I certainly hope it won't reach the $9 trillion a straightline projection suggests, but it is very unlikely that the real deficit (not Enron.gov calculations) will be 2 trillion or less. Only the famous Wall Street firms that got us into this mess could project a deficit of $980 billion when the government has already borrowed $500 billion in the first month and is planning to borrow an additional $920 billion in the next 6 months! And the Wall Street Bond firms, being so much better with their math, are projecting $1.4 trillion, which is what the Treasury says it will borrow by the end of March. With math skills like that, it's no wonder we've had an epic fail on Wall Street. Is anyone watching the numbers?

"The U.S. tax code is the most political law in the world" - Jonathan Blattmachr - Tax attorney for the super rich.

People cannot balance their checkbooks so understanding how this all works is incredibly daunting.

On the other side of what you hear, I just heard how Obama is going to stop offshore outsourcing and I was like, uh, no....

A really good Congress representative on this issue is Rosa DeLauro. She introduced a slew of legislation in the 2002/2003 time frame and of course was buried, but she keeps fighting.

So is Sen. Byron Dorgan.

which is all the more reason to focus on real cause and effect, promote experts who really are speaking truth to power, policies that would actually do something and if we can even find any, candidates who are not bought and paid for and stay out of the partisan fray and especially away from wedge issues.

I've been warning on the advisers, the actual policies of Obama for so long, and if there was anything this election cycle has taught me is people are just friggin' oblivious to actual policy positions and what that really means...at least the political blogs to be frank.

But hey, I know there are many other there who want real policy change so hopefully our space will help give voice to those paying attention.

But with Obama nominating the architect of NAFTA to be his economics advisor, and McCain's support for trickle-down that never trickles, I have my doubts that either of the major parties want a strong middle class.

At least a house will often appreciate (once this recession eases off in whatever number of years it may take.)

Then there's a bank stock I'd like to talk to you about......it's only leveraged 300:1 loans to deposits.

But at least I'm smarter than the anonymous poster above- I know McCain is no conservative. Which is why I voted for Chuck Baldwin.