Comments on: Recession, Heck. It’s A Regression

By: yetanothermoderatevoice

yetanothermoderatevoice — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:59:10 +0000

Nicely put Michael, although many of the long term structural factors you mention have been around for a long time, and yet the U.S. continued to grow vibrantly, so I'm not sure if the chickens are now coming home to roost.

leff: The link you mention would be better if it compared how the economy has *actually* done under Democrat versus Republican administrations. The answer may surprise you (it surprised me).

http://angrybear.blogspot.com/2007/06/comparing...

superdestroyer: "Of course, on a so-called moderate blog, I see no mention of the effects of immigration, differing birthrates, the expansion of the nanny state as possible causes. "

I think they *are* worth mentioning, but IIRC the answers are murky. For example, Canada and Singapore routinely trounce the U.S. in education scores for high schoolers, but have (near) universal healthcare, so it is difficult to sort out the effect of education policies, immigration policies, nanny statism, etc.

By: ljeff18

ljeff18 — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:50:01 +0000

If you think the economy is bad, wait to make a final judgement in November.
McCain and Obama will make very different economic decisions that will affect the country long after their tenure ends.

The economy will take a hit if Obama is elected. In addition to changes to capital gains tax policy, Obama and the Democrats will slowly chip away at the economy, making huge economic changes with small seemingly innocent policy changes.

This article: http://www.greenfaucet.com/hanlons-pub/obama-it...

Really points out what could happen to the economy if Democrats take over the White House. California is still paying for what their Dem govenor did years ago..
I'd hate to see that happen to the entire country.. as we fall further behind the rest of the world.
Regression it is.

By: superdestroyer

superdestroyer — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:10:50 +0000

Of course, on a so-called moderate blog, I see no mention of the effects of immigration, differing birthrates, the expansion of the nanny state as possible causes.

I guess in the progressive world, every problem has to be define in such a way that only the government can solve the problem and the problem requires an expansion of the government.

By: Rambie

Rambie — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:48:08 +0000

Good point Nov, the war is what, a billion dollar expense per month of our budget., but there are more stones weighing down our economy than just the war and I think Michael has touched on them.

I think regression is a good term for our situation.

- "Tickle down" economics never seen to trickle down too far and spark the growth they should.
- Our financial & federal reserve institutions don't have the respect of foreign investment as they did in the past
- We continue to work harder for less.

There is going to be more pressure on our economy as oil prices continue to rise.

We should be investing more into research and infrastructure changes to move away from fossil fuels. This should have been done back in the 70's with the last "energy crisis" but for many reasons the ball was dropped.

By: mikkel

mikkel — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:35:55 +0000

I agree, in the best case scenario there is going to be about $3 trillion of credit contraction. If things get bad that could be closer to $1-$2 trillion in loses, which would be at least $10 trillion in credit contraction.

Our society runs completely on credit and as it goes away, we're going to have to live within our means, and I see no possible way to keep a global military presence. If we do, that'll lead to hyperinflation and a complete collapse.

By: RememberNovember

RememberNovember — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:25:42 +0000

It's very simple- we are replacing the old USSR. Look at the expense they put into Afghanistan in their 10-year crusade.