I thought Republicans were supposed to be good for business.
A surge in spending over the weekend may not have been enough to rescue Target, Sears Holdings and Macy’s from the slowest holiday spending season in five years.
A five year low! Now why would that be?
Gasoline at $3 a gallon and rising food prices have discouraged shoppers from spending during November and December, which account for 20 percent of retailers’ annual revenue, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington.
That’s weird. Wasn’t invading liberating Iraq supposed to bring oil prices down? Oh well, there’s just got to be some good news somewhere in there.
Luxury goods, excluding jewelry, rose 7.1 percent from the comparable period last year, and footwear sales increased 6 percent.
Bam! Really expensive shit and shoes are up. At least those Bush tax cuts were good for Manolo.
For more, Tbogg has an interesting related post about the Bushbots’ predictable reaction to this—they blame the liberal media (this whine is typical).
Related posts:
- World Economy Finding a Bottom Because the Keynesians are in China
- Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy
- The Song Remains The Same: Too Much Money At The Top of The Economy
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Bruce Bartlett, The New American Economy: The Failure of Reaganomics and a New Way Forward
- Earth to CBO, Senate Finance and WaPo: “It’s the Economy, Stupid”
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Note that the dollar has lost about 40% of its value against the Euro since Bush took office. That’s one of the reasons prices are going up.
I know I can’t be first.
I’ll tell you one thing: the unexpected increase in the cost of propane contributed significantly to our reduced holiday spending. The choice between heat and presents really wasn’t a choice at all.
foot ware up: do you think more people are walking more due to the cost of gasoline?
Makes you wonder.
This will be good for the Republicans!
The dramatic increase of medical bills has pared down my Christmas spending.
I did the gift card presents for my faraway relatives. Costco gift cards pays for gas and grocery gift cards pay for food. Isn’t it a sad day that Christmas gifts for necessities but you should of heard how glad they were when they opened up their gifts.
I hear you on that KM.
I think we as a society are going to be making big changes. Maybe the super wealthy won’t – but even they will eventually be forced to face that so many have much, much less.
For the rest of us, it will take a re-evaluation of what’s important. As katymine says, healthcare is. Transportation is. But perhaps many will decide to live closer to what they need. I’m within walking distance of a hospital for example. (or could be a motorized wheelchair if I ever need it). And I could walk to a bus stop if I have to forgo a car. We’ll have to “go out” less – and that could mean saying on fancy clothes. And so on. It may even become necessary to change what people wear to work, if they can’t afford expensive work clothes.
What’s important? That, I think is the question of our day. And we may no longer be a consumer society down the road. Perhaps a more chastened society will be much better for us in the long run.
I think this question, what’s important in life, is going to dog us now for a long, long time.
People forget, for example, that when oil goes through the roof that affects the cost of plastic and even fleece for winter. So many products are made from oil. That affects the cost of shoes, since so many have plastic parts, like soles.
I have been out of the loop for awhile but notice since the new FDL format no posts from TREX.Whatup?
Lump of coal … or cow patty?
Aha, anyone with children/grandchildren close to seeking a career, can aim for life as a cobler. Things get better and better.
TRex graduated and moved out to a new home
When the Whitehouse was illegally occupied a euro was about $0.82
Since, it has taken as much as $1.48 to buy a euro.
A difference of $0.66
Divide that difference by $0.82
And it takes 80.5% more than the $0.82 it once took to buy a euro.
Math is sometimes complex, but not that difficult.
There is a lot of factual difference between “dollar lost 40%” and what it actually lost, no?
I agree but the issue comes down to cities being planned with that concept. Portland Oregon is a city that you can go without a car with their very advanced public transportation. I don’t have that option here in Phoenix, if it isn’t distance, it is the heat that prevents me from walking.
As you may know, some college graduates are now seeking blue collar work. Retraining as electricians and so on. I’d recommend against becoming a cobbler, however. Tell you children and grandchildren they are exposed to many toxic fumes.
I don’t know what’s coming. But I always urge people to choose work that cannot be outsourced.
foot ware up: do you think more people are walking more due to the cost of gasoline?
“Walk Hard.”
Seriously, I moved to within a mile or two of my workplace a few years ago when I saw what was going on with chimp’s endless wars and his energy buddys’ endless greed. Not an option available to everybody, but even though the rent is more expensive than where I was, I’m actually saving a bit of money because I can also come home for lunch and of course expend less much gas.
It’s such bullshit, this morning so fucking expert noticed they don’t count billions in gift cards til they are cashed. If they are not redeemed they get to keep the dough and report “sluggish sales”. Kiss my ass.
You in Phoenix are in a real bind. Water is becoming more scarce too. Yes, the whole city was built with the view of never-ending resources. You have my sympathy. I’m fortunate to live in a small city where there are many stores and other kinds of buildings proving services sprinkled among neighborhoods with houses.
We are going to go through some very painful changes. And Phoenix… how long will it be there as it is?
Try Georgia, these idiots have let growth go nuts for 30 years, now Lake Lanier is dwindling!
Oh I forgot the big real estate closing here in Phoenix. A ReMax franchise closed all 14 of their locations laying off over 400 clerical staff on Dec 23. The Real Estate agents now are out trying to find work at other agencies (good luck)
ReMax 2000
50 to 70 billion dollars, estimated cost of the “Iraqi Oil Busisness Plot,” to be paid for by the procceds from oil revenues generated in Iraq!
How much has been spent to date?
@ 18, @19:
I think we are in for going backward in economic terms. We are in for having to face, as a society, the wrongs we have done internationally. And we will have to face the music of the cost of the war.
And who is going to buy us out of the economic problems? Other nations. Foreigners will swoop in to buy cheap houses. And foreign countries are already buying up portions of banks and financial corporations.
Pretty soon it won’t be American companies owning politics. It will be foreign governments. So we’d better get our house in order. I know I’m preaching to the choir. But, boy, we are headed for dark times.
$0.82 per Euro => 1.22 Euros per dollar
$1.48 per Euro => 0.68 Euros per dollar, which is 56% of 1.22.
So, per your data, the dollar has lost 44% of its value.
Cost of Euro means this to our family. My husband has to go to Spain to visit his family. But now he travels alone.
The Gray Lady also weighs in:
I’m a musician in the NYC Subway. On Christmas Eve I played the Wall Street Station. If I were to sum up the mood there, it would come down to 5 words:
“We’ve eaten the seed corn.”
I haven’t seen a holiday season this bad in 20 years. I’d always considered the last year of Reagan as the worst ever, but this year clearly takes the cake. In this type of downturn, the street feels it first.
My guess is that today many more folks than normal are returning their presents for cash refunds.
“Eaten the seed corn” — Perfect metaphor, AT.
Or cut down all the forests — Easter Island
Or turned the gardens into desert — Sahara
Are you better off now than you were before BushCo?
Resounding no!
Yeah, I’m old enough to have come from a time when each generation hoped to make a better future for their children. I was just making a light, “whistling in the graveyard,” comment on where we appear to be headed. Anyway, the subject reminded me of the old folksong, “Peg and Awl”, which laments a machine displacing a worker in 1805 by pegging 100 shoes to one. Here is a poor version of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..re=related .
If our SOL decreases to the point that transportation and fuel for heat is gard to come by, I’d say any maintenance/construction and food preparation (ie farming and butchering) expertise will be hugely beneficial. Owning a rental, I’ve learned to do just about everything a house needs, and I’ve got a bit of a green thumb, but compared to many out here living off the grid, my skills are apprentice like. It seems that a large swath of the population just grabs those nicely cut and wrapped pieces of raw meat in the grocery store without any idea of how they got there or the work and energy involved. Rough days ahead. I worry greatly about the world my young daughter will face.
There aren’t very many who are better off now than they were before, in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD
Live in rural NH, no buses, no trains, just cars and pickups! Need 4 wheel or all wheel to get up our hill, and down again safely in the winter (and we got winter in Dec. this year, as compared with the mild Dec. last year, we had all time record snowfalls for the month – climate change makes weather unpredictable, not necessarily warmer). Oil and wood for heat, you can bet we use the wood whenever possible.
And we are getting older, which makes everything a bit harder, due to achy joints and increased need for medical care. And good food gets more and more expensive.
We are so far off the track of caring about people, it is ridiculous, and scary, and nasty, and maddening.
there’s a rush limbuagh quote where he says “if AL gore is elected president don’t be surprised to see 2 dollar gasoline” or something like that
you should find that, will come in handy with posts like this
and now I want to share an analogy I came up with this morning regarding the escalation the administration tries to call a “surge”
if we have a fire blazing out of control with not nearly enough water to put it out, but we do have some water;
will taking that minuscule bit of water and pouring it over one spot in particular put out the entire fire?
of course not, it only quenches the fire where you put the water, the fire rages on everywhere else, in addition, as the fire rages, there is less to burn and the fire seems like it’s quenching because there is less to burn…this has nothing to do with your “water in a spot” strategy
and third
suppose that’s not water at all but gasoline…did you know if you pour enough gasoline on a fire fast enough it will actually smother it in that spot for the moment?
if the fire surrounding is not put out though that “smothered” fire is now an excellent not a fire retard though the people that tried the strategy are in fact retarded
man, that analogy is perfect, isn’t it?
I’m part of the problem, although involuntarily.
My tenant never paid her rent for December (she’s getting thrown out as a result), which blew a $400 hole in my shopping budget. Thus, only my 3 year old got presents since I shopped and shipped in November. Everyone else has to wait until this Friday, when I finally get my rent (maybe). All the stores are having 50% off sales this week, which I believe is below the already cut-prices. And you can be sure i’m hunting for the deepest bargains. With any luck, I’ll be able to get that $60.00 DVD player for less than $30.00.
All these CEOs are singing ”I’m gettin’ nothin’ for christmas/ Cus Bush’s economy is BAD.”
Things are grim. The problem, of course, is capitalism where you must work in order to eat. Think outside the envelop. Envision a world you find more simpatico and go for it! Here’s a hint. Stop looking for leaders to lead us out of the morass and think of ways we can do it ourselves.
Bet those gift cards don’t sit idle this year–guerrilla consumerism.
People give gift cards knowing there’ll be major discounting after Christmas.
Well, here’s the problem. Consider the amount of oil wasted in the invasion and the occupation. I would love to see an estimate of what’s occurred here. Fuel for airplanes. For ships. For tanks. For humvees. Etc. For air conditioning in the desert. For flying in supplies. It’s all been a colosal waste! And war, of course, drives up anxiety and that amounts to a certain percentage of the cost of oil
All we’ve done is to enrich oil-rich nations! And impoverish ourselves… not only in economic terms, but in moral terms.
I’m no economist, but the free trade concept has always left me wondering how we can continue to be consummers as jobs disappear to cheaper labor sources. The only explanation I’ve ever heard is that we’re supposed to keep inventing entire new industries so that we can profit from them until the actual production is exported. I hope there’s a better plan that I don’t understand.
we’re investing in a wood stove for next year to save on energy costs: a large percentage of Philly’s waste stream is scrap wood from the demolition of old blighted properties.
We already use the backyard for a victory garden and will be making improvements this year.
no cheap credit and loss of home equity means the weath effect is dribbling away
Yep. On The Street this morning:
I think we’ve all been suckered. And it’s like cutting taxes …. it’s going to lead into a wilderness of praying for manna from heaven… and that’s not gonna happen!
According to Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture if you included jewelry in the luxury goods number, it would be down almost 2%. Interesting stuff.
there’s no such thing as “free trade”, never has been, the very concept was manufactured by manufacturers
in order for there to be trade at all there has to be social regulation, the very concept of money requires regulation, the very practice of barter requires regulation
there is no such thing as free trade
that’s the first thing
the second, corporations aren’t entitled to “free” anything, they aren’t people and they are not endowed with rights they are awarded rights
You could tell its been coming, but the Street has been in denial for a while. Not sure if it has been all the money “B-52″ Ben has been flooding the market with.
The drop in value of the dollar is the main reason that oil is now so expensive. Yet, since that’s rarely mentioned as the cause, Bush gets yet another escape from responsibility.
I have read(no link, because I don’t remember where I read it) that forty percent of the price oil is because of a percieved risk premimun in the futures market.
Raises a good point about planning in America. Planning is seen as “socialistic” micro-managing. Walkable communities, mass transit investment, comprehensive land use planning, sustainable design and development are seen by the right as leftwing governmental interference that is nothing more than an infringement on property right. Far too many people believe in the myth of the market place solving urban/social problems. America progress has become so incremental that the problems are far outpacing the tepid watered down solutions
agrees
the purpose of the invasion was not to have america aquire petro assets, it was for corporations to aquire petro control of supply so they could raise profit margin
bing, done
Does anyone know the Supreme Court decision that gave companys the same rights as people? Wasn’t it in the 1920’s? Or was it the 30’s?
Maybe this will brighten your day
The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock
One of the most eminent scientists of our time says that global warming is irreversible — and that more than 6 billion people will perish by the end of the century
Decimation.
Holiday Spending Growth at 5 -Year Low
Have a friend who is a trucker between Long Beach CA & Phoenix. This is the transport line for goods into Arizona. Started this fall that he would go over and sit for days waiting for a load where in the past he would be loaded up and doing a return trip same day.
It just isn’t the cost of gas, goods are not being shipped which means ordered. Have you looked at the store shelves? It seems there isn’t much of a choice in products and they might be two deep on the shelf with the edges filled in to “look” like a full shelf but NOT.
I’ve read various things too. No need for a link as something like that is just a guesstimate. But it all plays a role. Any instability in the world leads to futures taking a hit. And we, as a nation, have powerfully contributed to world instability. The war. Trashing treaties. Refusing to act on global warming. And the mortgage melt-down is affecting markets and financial houses all over the world. We’ve made a mess of things! And we have much to change. Not just for ourselves. But for the good of the world.
this was told to me on this site but I don’t have referance links
it wasn’t there decision it was a clerks entry into the decision, they never got a supreme court notice at all
And it all says Made in China. And just whotheheck is Topco Associates, anyway? Everything seems to flow thru them in this part o’the country.
This economic squeeze on the middleclass is a wakeup call that will boomerang back to Bush and Congress’s unending wars, free give-aways to no bid contracts, and bridges to nowhere sprees. There’s nothing like an angry mob suffering Starbucks deprivation.
that… and to enrich companies that profit from war.
It should boomerang on the Republics, but they are working hard to make the next election about gay marriage or porn and not about their performance in office. Sadly, Republics hve been very successful at such misdirections.
You have hit on one of my pet peeves. It is a legal perversion to consider a corporation a person. Most of court cases involving the fourteenth admendment are filed by these corporate “persons”. And BTW, despite what the SC thinks, money does not equal speech.
I call them Repu’ublicists.
bush’s time in office will have contributed to so many types of blowback. Against the nation. Against republicans. And the generation about to retire, and that includes me, is going to have one heck of time surviving in this situation. How many elderly will freeze to death? Or starve? Etc.
The Supreme Court never granted corporate personhood; it’s politely called “a legal fiction.” Here’s a good link.
The Bush family trust funds have been growing nicely. Rejoice at the good fortune of our Royal Family.
the middle class squeeze and class wars began with reagan not bush and he does not get the boomerang at all
he lowered the progressive tax to be almost non existant, he weakened labor to the point of non existance and he changed the idiology so that there are people that actually believe corporations can governm themseleves and that the market can actually exist without regulation
without regulation there is anarchy, this cannot even be discussed much less denied
“But, I got Nooooo Money, Honey…”
Merry Day After everyone.
But, on the bright side, there’s all those gifts to warm my heart.
One sister gave me a Walmart gift card for $10 and a bottle of shampoo and the other sis gave me slippers made in China.
Woo Hoo.
true because that would mean the people with the most money have the most free speech, obviously incorrect
but even if the ruling stands, money does not give free speech to corporations because they don’t get constitutional rights, they are not people they are things
like a car, a car gets no rights
“How many elderly will freeze to death? “
White House Spokesmodel Dana Peroxide recently cited the pending reduction in freezing to death as a benefit of global warming.
via moon of alabama:
my bold.
And here’s another.
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/
Here’s another link re: corporate personhood from The Straight Dope:
Here’s what happened. Santa Clara County in California was trying to levy a property tax against the Southern Pacific Railroad. The railroad gave numerous reasons why it shouldn’t have to pay, one of which rested on the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause: the railroad was being held to a different standard than human taxpayers.
When the case reached the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Morrison Waite supposedly prefaced the proceedings by saying, “The Court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.” In its published opinion, however, the court ducked the personhood issue, deciding the case on other grounds.
Then the court reporter, J.C. Bancroft Davis, stepped in. Although the title makes him sound like a mere clerk, the court reporter is an important official who digests dense rulings and summarizes key findings in published “headnotes.” (Davis had already had a long career in public service, and at one point was president of the board of directors for the Newburgh & New York Railroad Company.) In a letter, Davis asked Waite whether he could include the latter’s courtroom comment–which would ordinarily never see print–in the headnotes. Waite gave an ambivalent response that Davis took as a yes. Eureka, instant landmark ruling.
When Greenspan and Bush were smacked down in the privatizing of social security, Greenspan found the next to last source of the middleclass wealth; home equity. The economic surge for the last 6 years did not consist of wage increases, rather Greenspan’s and Wall Street’s deliberate, premeditated scamming of the last refuge of American’s savings; their home. Having people believe their homes tripled in value and pulling out the ‘future profits’ has hit the brick wall. This is what happens when con men run our government. Papa Bush’s failed S&L wasn’t nearly as brillant as his son’s ponzi scheme of fleecing the homeowners.
Speaking on Dec 17 about the economy, Bush said “I just want to let you know we’ve got a strategy.”
Nixon had a secret plan to end the Viet Nam war.
At least Nixon resigned.
Before FDR and Social Security Insurance THE number one cause of death of the elderly was hypothermia. So History does repeat itself.
I am against torture… but sometimes I have to struggle really hard to keep to my principles!
waron, thanx for the passage
even if so, which I disagree, we need an amendment then which would be very nicely recieved by most people, obviously not by the power corps but we might prevail…should try none the less
White House Spokesmodel Dana Peroxide recently cited the pending reduction in freezing to death as a benefit of global warming.
She continues, “and not to put too fine a point on it, freezing meat help keeps it from spoiling! So if you do happen to lose an elderly impoverished relative to the cold, just remember, they wouldn’t have wanted their death to be in vain…”
Meanwhile, China, our biggest creditor, has plans of its own to turn its citizens into consumers:
I posted an off topic comment about this on a late night thread (or one just prior to late night)I think it was the night of the 23rd as I watched the agents in their jeans cleaning out their offices on the news. When interviewed, one of the agents said that she thought the news was a joke when she first heard it. Then reality sunk in when the phone started to ring off the hook.
I have mentioned before that I hold a real estate license, although I am on inactive status, which means I do not work with a brokerage actively selling real estate at this time. Still, it’s sad to see this happen, especially just before Christmas. The owner of the office said he had no choice but to shut down. He also said that he never thought the downturn would effect their business this much. The knowledge that this is not a first and will not be the last or even one of a few makes it even sadder.
I like Randi Rhodes qualification for “corporate personhood”, if they can’t have a colonscopy then they are NOT a person.
And this:
(Same link as my 75.)
Well, as Belushi would say in Animal House, hey, you eff-ed up, you trusted us.
That whole honor and dignity thing, that was just a joke, see. Heh, heh, heh.
Cave-e-ought emperor, doncha know.
Hopefully they will also start to demand a cleaner environment.
That assumes universal healthcare. So many people “can’t” have a colonoscopy, because they can’t pay for it!
How about, if you can’t catch a cold, you’re not a person!
I heard a segment on NPR’s “Marketplace” last week where they reported on the latest Fed money auction. They auctioned four times the money they’d anticipated, at rates higher than interbank loans.
Why?
Because none of the banks trust each other right now as riskworthy?
Why?
Because they all know what they’ve been doing the past half-dozen years, and what houses of cards they all now work out of.
Bad shit coming.
A bigger middle class will also challenge the government to provide greater social security and services and better education systems, Zheng said at a news conference.
Do you think this is one of the problems with our country? The poor are too busy trying to eat and the rich don’t give a care.
Keeping us down, man. But, which came first? Chicken or egg?
That about sums it up! That fits everything happening.
Bad shit coming.
And it ain’t a bug; it’s a feature.
A bigger middle class in Scandinavian countries and in Holland hasn’t prevented those countries from providing greater social security and services and better education systems for their citizens.
Standing Tall open for conversation
Actually that was Tim Matheson (Otter) who said that.
I’ve begun to wonder whether our country is just too large. In a smaller country there may be more of a sense of “we’re all in this together.” But in a larger country, where the rich and the corporations can buffer themselves from facing the trials and tribulations of ordinary Americans, is is really going to be possible to continue as a democratic nation, as a nation that cares about all it’s people?
I have concerns that it will be very difficult to turn this huge ship around… in time. Or if ever.
I hope I’m wrong.
Historically, as a denial of ‘Truth,’ the notion that’Money is Speech’is morally equivalent to holding that Dred Scott was property, not a ‘person’.
(An irony sadly lost on Clarence …)
Aside: Another name worthy of mention regarding corporate ‘personhood’; Abraham Lincoln represented the Railroad, he would have preferred to have represented the other ‘party’ but they didn’t have as much MONEY …
ooops. time to dig out the dvd.
I hope you’re wrong too. Right now we’re the richest country on earth. We need to invest in our infrastructure and in our future. We need universal health care, better social services, and much better higher education system for all our citizens.
Definitely, Reagan pushed the pendulum towards the radical right’s agenda. But it was Carter’s bailout of Chrysler that was the catalyst for socialized risk of private corporations. Bad corporate risks have been socialized and paid by american taxpayers. Good corporate risks are rewarded in profits and shared by the few.
“A giant corporation on the verge of bankruptcy was saved by explicit government intervention into the credit market. Although loan guarantees had been a timehonoured tradition for the federal legislature, never before had they been offered to a single company totally engaged in the for-profit, private sector. Although short of direct subsidisation, government backing for Chrysler debt proved the difference between corporate success and failure.”
http://www.allbusiness.com/acc…..331-1.html
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/PA00Aes.html
BENJAMIN BARBER: — It is. But part of the problem here is that the capitalist companies have figured out that the best way to do their job is to privatize profit, but socialize risk. That is to say–
BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?
BENJAMIN BARBER: –ask the taxpayer to pay for it–
BILL MOYERS: Yes.
BENJAMIN BARBER: –when things go down. The banks now that have just screwed up so big, not one of those banks is going t go under because they’ll be bailed out by the feds. ‘Cause the feds, the federal government will say we can’t afford this gigantic multi billion dollar bank to go under. Happened with Chrysler 20, 30 years ago.
BILL MOYERS: Got to keep the wheel going.
BENJAMIN BARBER: And, therefore, it’s impossible to fail if you’re a business. You never get punished. Now the whole point of profit is to reward risk. But what we’ve done today is socialize risk. You and I, and all of your listeners out there, pay when companies like sub-prime market mortgage companies and the banks go bad. We pay for it. They don’t.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour…..ript1.html
but wasn’t the bailout paid back in dividends?
I figure the jump in shoe sales were from all the DFHs who quit driving so much and started walking more often — more of a Birkenstock thing than Manolo.
But YMMV (so to speak).
Mr. Sunshine says it was Bluto talking to Flounder about the car….
but wasn’t the bailout paid back in dividends?
I’m not an expert on the bailout and agreements.
“Although short of direct subsidisation, government backing for Chrysler debt proved the difference between corporate success and failure.”
Here’s the kicker and the beginning of dismantling of the power of the middleclasses voice; the Unions: “Compensation package concessions made by the UAW figured prominently as a condition for the bailout. There was an undercurrent of feeling that Chrysler workers were overpaid by national standards and should not be allowed additional cost of living adjustments until their company’s time of crisis was ended.”
I have mixed feelings on bailouts;
there is nothing wrong with the government making investments
however those investments must return principle and dividend
I can see the scenario, chrysler out of bussiness produces less government revenue then chrysler in bussiness, but I don’t want “bailouts” I want “loans with interest” and that interest has to be higher then cost of living/inflation
Animal House quotes
Cactus at the excellent site Angry Bear, he’s Phd in Economics, did a whole series of posts on how the economy has performed under each President going back to Eisenhower. He found, and this drove the wingnuts who infest his site that:
If the GDP performed at the average of Democratic Presidents for that entire period that the median income of Americans would now be twice what it is today if every President had been a Democrat during that period.
Your GOP….’good for business…’. Nah, jes another ‘conservative’ lie folks.
that’s a GREAT stat
the fools in the gop however would claim that a president’s economic policy isn’t realized until the next president
this is patently untrue, reagans policy was intended to shrink the middle class, grow the upper class and lower class, that strategy worked in his term
clinton’s strategy was to grow the middle class, grow the upper class, shrink the lower class…this strategy also worked in his term
bush 2’s strategy is the same as reagans and it’s worked once again
I have a lump of coal on prominent display in my living room. Been there for years. Sort of a special lump, though. It was taken from the debris field left by the Titanic. About the size of a cat’s eye shooter and shiny, it’s really strange looking at it and thinking about what it represents.
I’ll take that little lump of coal over whatever the Rethuglicans leave behind after they break up and end up lower than whale shit.
Hate to say it, but coal isn’t the word one would or should use when decribing the economy. Interesting piece at TPM. “”Contractors in Afghanistan Didn’t Have to Prove Purchases Actually Occurred”.
I wonder which way US tax dollars spin when being flushed down a toilet in Afghanistan?
Oh come on. You know it’s just that you don’t want to give up your gas guzzling stretch Hummer limo. LOL
I wonder if a hybrid Hummer limo could even get 5 mpg.
I watched the evening news and they had a story about the Tesla luxury all-electric sports car. It’s probably over $100,000, so there’s no need for GM, Ford or Chrysler to get excited. But, just wait until they sell a bunch and move on to making cheaper cars!
When John Z. DeLorean tried to make inroads on MoTown they shut off his credit and even caught him in a dope deal. I wonder what they might do to set up today’s new car entrepreneurs. Nice folks in MoTown.
Maybe Bush is planning on selling a car that runs on a lump of coal.
Government bailouts are a sticky issue.
Carter’s admin loaned money and got it back with interest. The Fed will probably just keep handing out money like candy to banks with mortgage loan problems. It might work to some extent, but only for the Rich, not for the home owner who is thrown out.
A more people-oriented policy would be to help families who are actually living in the one house they ‘own’ and to try to help lenders without risking much federal money. Who knows which approach is cheaper, but I think we’d all feel better helping families first.
I wonder what the Clinton admin thought the effects of repealing Glass-Steagal were going to be. They must have had some idea.