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As Republicans like Rudy keep insisting everything's just dandy and wingnuts like Michelle Malkin tell the country to "suck it up," here's what GOP policies have done to our country.
Consumer prices rose in 2007 at the fastest pace in 17 years as motorists paid a lot more for gasoline and grocery shoppers paid higher food bills.
And,
Both energy and food prices jumped by the largest amount since 1990.
And,
Prices were also up sharply for health care, housing and education.
And,
Workers' wages failed to keep up with the higher inflation. Average weekly earnings, after adjusting for inflation, dropped by 0.9 percent in 2007, the fourth decline in the past five years.
And,
Unemployment jumped from 4.7 percent in November to 5 percent in December, the biggest one-month increase since the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
And,
The 4.1 percent increase in overall prices last year was the biggest since a 6.1 percent jump in prices in 1990.
And,
Overall energy costs rose by 17.4 percent this past year while food costs rose by 4.9 percent. Both were the biggest increases since 1990.
And,
Gasoline prices were up 29.6 percent, the biggest increase since they soared by 30.1 percent in 1999.
I'm sure we just need more tax cuts.
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Guns or butter?
The banking industry is really tanking -downward stats are awfulhttp://www.americablog.com/2008/01/q4-banking-numbers-point-towards.html
The dem candidates need to come out strong on the irresponsibiliy of those at the top who have benefitted from the mortgage crisis and others who made zillions (but have had virtually no fallout). That it is ME and Asian firms who are bailing us out makes it even worse.
Brian Lehrer, now streaming on wnyc.org, is doing a segment on Edwards, the Ds, the Rs & nuclear power plants.
Richmond, my man…
eCAHN:
Did you see my message about Morning Joe in the last thread?
hmmm… 1990, wasn’t that on Poppy’s watch? The kid is trying to out-do him on that too.
And then you have todays story that pig-pharma is influencing doctors more than advisers
http://www.americablog.com/200.....-more.html
(I hope you all saw the dispicable cholesterol drug business yesterday) says alot about why medical costs are way up too.
Yes, but passed it by as I was listening to something else. We do not have that in common. I hate Morning Joe.
And I really like that picture of Chimpy. He used the same finger when he was eating that buttered roll, you know, that time when he dissed his poodle, Tony Blair…
Ouch…*g*
Yeah, that $300 tax refund I got really helped out.
Get ready for it, “Trickle Down” is fixin’ to be ‘Tidal Wave”.
The cheerleaders for Bush are currently working overtime trying to come up with plausible denials, shiny things and another mealy mouthed buzz word or catch phrase to keep us peons occupied long enough for them to get in another order of quail wings before the price goes up.
From RS:
“The level of [housing] starts for all of 2007, in numbers not seasonally adjusted, was 1.354 million, 24.8% below 2006’s 1.801 million. The annual drop was the largest since a 26.0% fall in 1980.”
How goes it? I am hunched over checking sources on this mega tome I’m finishing for a deadline this term. Painful process, and amazing how many dumb mistakes one finds.
This is all deja vu. Everything comes back to the cost of energy. Yet we are told there is no nexus between escalating energy costs and the downturn in the economy, until Bush pleads for Saudis to produce more oil, while we sell them arms???? Brazil has taken pro active measures to address energy indepenence from OPEC and the “corporations” who get their cut, regardless of the price at the well. There is a pattern of behavior exhibited here. Oil is just like Tobbaco, protection of a “cash cow” at all costs……….
How do you spell Decline ?
We need to emphasize that even as the rest of us are falling back, the rich are getting richer thanks to Bush and his tax cuts that helped them and screwed us:
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ib239
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2854
Which is precisely why it’s time for them to give back some of what they took from us since 2000.
You mean the $300 loan against your tax refund?
Where would the U.S. be if Reagan hadn’t dismantled the solar panels on the White House as one of his first acts as President? The U.S. public has been played by a corrupt and venal cabal aka the Republican party, and now they are paying the price. To vote for any Republican is tantamount to putting a noose around one’s neck.
What are you writing about? What’s your field? Post- something or other?
Aw Shucks, who needs food, gas, health care, education and all that fancy stuff?
It’s not time for them to “give it back”, it’s time for us to take it back.
The Ruling Class doesn’t give a flying fig about the Working Class. We are all just income-generating livestock to the Wealthy.
On the possibly coming great inflation. The papers are banding about two figures — one puts the inflation rate including food and gasoline (but who in their right mind consumes those products?) at 5 to 6 percent over the last couple of months, which is clearly in the danger zone. The other takes them out and takes the rate back below 1 percent. The financial press for the moment is touting the latter, because they want the Fed to bail them out with cheap money. But the rest of us — especially those of you getting close to retirement — want the Fed to focus on the former. It is starting to look like 1979, when all sorts of arguments were being made why a raging inflation was temporary. We are in the danger zone. If it takes off, expect a similar prolonged collapse in equity values, higher unemployment, higher fiscal deficits because of the higher unemployment, and slow to negative growth.
Perfect storm, brought to you by your MBA President aided and abetted by his Ayn Rand acolyte Greenspan. Thanks alot, guys.
The more Bernanke talks the further the Dow plunges.
-G
Everyone in my family is feeling the squeeze… it was the first year that instead of actual physical gifts for Christmas, I gave gift cards so that they can buy gas and groceries. My daughter was delighted with her $40 Trader Joes gift card.
For years I kept wondering why in a consumer economy would they destroy the very class of consumers who keep big business going?
It is all about having CEO management who only look to the next quarter and never outside their own company by looking at the BIG Picture. You know, if you chop 20,000 jobs in town X ya might loose that box store.
…and the Dow has fallen almost 1200 points so far this year with no bottom in sight. The job losses in the Wall Street are continuing. If you stand outside the NYSE at times there seems to be more tourists than workers.
The Rector Street Station, near the AMEX has 2/3 less rush hour traffic (3-6pm)than it did two years ago.
Geez, what a bunch of Chicken Littles around here.
Everything’s fine.
Suck it up.
BT,
Those are features, not bugs. The ownership class is in a great position for our economic downturn. They will be able to pick up property for pennies on the dollar.
Then when the economy levels out, a significant portion of wealth will have been transferred from the middle class to owners, transferring the middle class to the working poor.
And when you’re the working poor, you do not have the time (working two jobs) or the money (you are now renting out the house you used to own, and at higher rates than your mortgage payment, plus the cost of gas) to be politically active.
Works for me!
“It is starting to look like 1979,”
The deleterious effects of two oil embargoes eviscerated from America’s historical record. 1973 1979. 30 plus years to change course for the benefit of Americans, not!!!
Natural Selection Corporate T(r)eason and “Executive oil”
Protectionism for Oil and the Auto industry who where more concerned with short term profit, than long term adaptation and sound policies has cost our nation dearly. Just like a drunk who screws his family in his or her dysfunction, energy corporations and auto manufacturers have resisted and continue to resist change. This is why Bush and Congress ignore the will of the American People and the corporate MSM attempt sell us swampland in Florida!!!!
Not mentioned in this diary is the increase in the cost of health insurance. That’s a biggie. How many of us have a decreased net income due to the rise in our payroll deduction?
It’s fallen 25 points between when you posted and I hit… “Submit”
I’ve wondered that same exact thing. Never have understood how “trickle down” could possibly be logically expected to work!
It’s the wealth that’s being sucked up. Soon the Chicken Littles will be McNuggets.
10% on 1-1-08 for me.
Because when the process is complete, they will have all of the assets, and will be able to impose the conditions of your life.
Think China.
Consumers are fundamentally insatiable. So you can rely on them to keep spending until things turn so dismally bad that they are forced to stop.
Then, monetary stimulous bails the economy out.
So there is no downside from corps taking consumers/workers for suckers.
Yet ….
Sorry, meant to say that the Dow has fallen 1200 points since Christmas.
we just aren’t shopping hard enough.
Isn’t that exactly what the French Aristocracy said just before the hungry mobs stormed the Bastille?
And, from Frank Barney and the Financial Times:
Food prices in Alaska went up more like 14% in 2007. I keep pretty close track.
As to our fuel prices, they fluctuate. When the big oil companies want some legislation passed their way, they seem to go down 10% or more, no matter what the wellhead price is at the time. If our governor or legslature do something big oil resents, the gas prices go up 15%, no matter what the wellhead price.
NPR dissing John Edwards on South Carolina economy right now, where the article seems to be praising the South Carolina economy.
Curious.
All the comparisons to when it was this bad go back to Shrub Sr.’s time in the White House…
Why is it that Shrublicans always screw up the economy?
Isn’t George proposing another tax cut as soon as he gets back from his vacation in the ME trying to salvage his “legacy” (which of course is way too little and way too late)?
I wonder when some smart, enterprising Democratic presidential candidate will start connecting the war in Iraq to the price of oil, the credit crisis and the fall of the dollar. You can’t borrow a trillion dollars without wrecking your economy. Seems simple to me: Iraq IS the economy, stupid. If that were hammered into the American public, McCain wouldn’t stand a chance of being elected.
Pickett to General Lee…………..
What army General??? I have no army!! Hey Bush, I have no more money to give to you and your oil whores, King Ali Babba and the tax exemopt not for profit health insurers…..
average earnings for the vast majority of workers have fallen in real terms. During this period, after-tax incomes of the top 1 per cent nearly doubled.
Perfect!! According to plan.
I think, when I was working, I did a comparison for the post WWI period, on the performance of the economy in D vs. R administrations, and the Ds win. I’ll see if I cn find it.
Some caveats, though. Influences of econmic policy lag, so that policies started in one administration may not play out until the following, possibly other party, administration. Secondly, there are exogenous influences on the economy that sometimes hit at random. Though some would argue that they are related to other policies, such as the 1973 OPEC embargo and 9/11.
Make that post WWII
The stimulus package they don’t want to implement: Significant wage increases for the working classes. And 95% taxation on income over $500,00.00. This is the only way to stop the greed at the top of the pyramid.
Voodoo Economics President Reagan instituted “greed is good” and told the working class “it sucks to be you.” Maybe the general public is having the realization that “the harder you work the wealthier you’ll be” is a lie.
Marat, we’re poor. And the poor stay poor.
I’m finding a backhanded sort of irony in all of this. It seems to me that there is a consensus that Greenspan is largely responsible for allowing the subprime market problems to take root and fester. Greenspan has been a figure who has dominated the Fed for a whole generation, from Bush I through Bush II. Yet, guess who, as President, will be held responsible for the mess that the economy has become. You know before the November election the mantra will once again become, “It’s the economy, Stupid!”
OT - Leahy endorses Obama
ECAHN:
What do you think of NYTimes columnist David Leonhardt? I thought his piece yesterday comparing now to 1992 was spot on.
But in America, it’s patriotic to work your ass off:
From Think Progress:
“At a press conference today unveiling the stimulus proposal, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) justified the conservative plan to give tax breaks to corporations — instead of working Americans — by arguing that people actually like working long hours:
“I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.”
“Workingest.” Is that even a word?
1. I can’t find my historic analysis.
2. I didn’t read the column, but will now (caveat: listening to Bernanke, & am not a good multitaser). I don’t do NYT as a general rule since Kristol was hired.
I guess I’d “misunderestimated” how much these poor slobs in Minnesota like having two jobs “on their head…”
On another message board, my tag line is “I eagerly await Bastille Day!”
I’ve made my wifr promise me, if I’m old, broken down and in a wheelchair when the peasants revolt, to put a torch and pitchfork in my hands, and push me down the hill to the castle gate.
Credit cards replaced wage increases. Credit cards created a class of lifetime indentured servitude to the banks. It has been a brillant scheme of minimum payments with high interest rates. The bankruptcy law was pushed by the banks, what’s next debtors prison?
Tom Daschle is supporting Obama as well, even an active official of his campaign…and Kerry’s and Bill Bradley’s endorsements. The Dem establishment isn’t solidly behind Hillary as expected. Wonder what Gore will do.
No, it’s not a word. I just fricking LOVE working two jobs. It means I no longer have to worry about doing all that silly embroidery that I used to do. Crap — the church sale I used to donate it to doesn’t need the money anyway… [many expletives deleted here]
How bad is the morgtage meltdown?? It is so bad that Satan bought skates and William F. Buckley called for federal regulation of the mortgage market:
What everyone is not going to get a 20 percent raise this year?!
What with corporate profits roaring for 5 years the workers are not going to get anything…get outta here.
consumers have pulled back on their spending. Xmas shopping was way down and the trend is continuing. People are not spending because the future is very uncertain AND they are being told to wipe out some of their CC debt.
No spending is mucho bad for the banks as well as the retailers and mfgs… Especially the banks who make a fortune on cc transaction fees.
Air travel is also off and will trend down as air fares rise because of fuel costs. Americans can afford to travel off shore because of the tiny dollar and the tavel industry is hurting. Euros are coming in to spend here because of cheap dollars.. but we have crap to sell so that party will not last.
Hi BT,
Great Post. Good to be back at the lake after being in Las Vegas for meetings the last 5 days. This recession that has hit must be tagged to the Republicans. They have claimed credit for the robust economy for the past 6 years. Well they own the recession as well. But the Uber Rich have more spending power. That is all that is important to the GOP.
You’re quite a strict one…*g* As a New Yorker I really can’t shake the Times. Grew up with it…I asked because David Leonhardt IMHO is quite good. He explains the economy clearly. I always understand what he’s saying and analyzing.
Indentured servitude.
You talking about me? *g*
The next lovely axe drop is cc walkaways.. people who ran up huge cc bills and walk away from paying them leaving the banks with more “bad loans”. Of course, being afraid of “bad credit” people will tend to pay their minimums, but the whole credit rating is another scam and only useful to those who NEED credit from a bank and for banks who invented it to make everyone “behave” and covet debt.
Welcome to the new fuedalism…
Capitalism is nothing but a new word for slavery.. a bit dressed up, but the same. EXPLOITATION by the haves of the have nots.
An old Tennessee Ernie Ford song… 16 Tons… he owes his soul to the company store… living in company housing… kids going to company schools
Sixteen Tons
I remember seeing one of those company towns in CA out at Samoa Mill. The past is our future….
“If, however, a government refrains from regulations and allows matters to take their course, essential commodities soon attain a level of price out of the reach of all but the rich, the worthlessness of the money becomes apparent, and the fraud upon the public can be concealed no longer.” John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 240
As eChan says consumers are fundamentally insatiable & I would add that corps are the neighborhood pushers
Two interesting (topical) posts regarding skewed data, medical “endorsements,” etc. appear today on the Healthcare Renewal blog site.
http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/
David Leonhardt column was pretty good.
Here’s how I would describe the lack of growth in real wages, actual & fundamental.
Fundamental:
As union power has declined gradually, as a consequence of bad union leadership, unions concentrated in old-economy industries, and deliberate government policies, corporations have come to realize that workers have no power. Thus more & more, corporations have been able to cut costs (i.e., increase profits) by pressuring workers. The wage bill (# employees times compensation [wages and benefits]) used to be 2/3 of total business costs, so you can see that cutting labor costs a little increases profits, a lot.
Cyclical:
The Clinton economic expansion was so strong, and unemployment dropped to such low levels, that there was a temporary rise in real wages, contrary to the fundamentals.
A repeat of the temporary blip in real wages in the 1990s is unlikely to recur.
Absolutely not an expert in financial matters, but I’m wondering if the only place where this plan went awry was that the shit wasn’t supposed to hit the fan till 2009.
In that case I need to check out David Leonhardt. Thanks.
I’m hooked on Krugman, who along with Glenzilla, is always a must-read for me. On matters economic, Ian Welsh is also extremely good, except that his postings sometimes exceed my very limited attention span. Brevity is one of Krugman’s many outstanding virtues.
Yes but we are safe from gay marriage. Thanks, Republics!
Yep, Ian for economics, scarecrow for politics. My brain hurts after I finish reading their material, because the convolutions of the Bush/Cheney administration begin to make sense.
Here’s Boortz on working harder:
http://boortz.com/nuze/200506/06012005.html
And academia:
http://www.homepages.indiana.e.....week.shtml
And the corporate PR department:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3072426/
“Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go! I owe my soul to the company store.”
Good Morning all.
Terrific post, and brutally honest. That’s what we need. Clear rendition of reasons why the nation is in such pain.
A small thing: is that real or photoshop? Not that it matters. Really captures the nekkid, would-be empratator. I see Bar in those eyes and attytood. She must be so proud. And probably hates that inconvenient whining noise from the poor & middle class. We’ll try to keep it down, Bar, as it were.
We far prefer Edwards in the primary, but ANY of the Democrats will do over all of that nightmarish repub line-up, come the general.
Jan. ‘09 can’t come soon enough.
Eat yer cake.
“consumers are fundamentally insatiable “
Do you mean we want to eat? Have a roof? Wear clothes? Get to work? That is basically all my family has been able to afford for 3 years now. It might be a little better if almost 20% of my net didn’t go to medical for my wife and son but…..
Unregulated capitalism eats itself alive. That is what we are watching.
Thousands of little Bushbots have their fingers in the BIG leaky damn of our economy trying to hold it all back until Jan 2009 and then….
taaadaa… ITS the Dems fault…. now back to the 1000 Repug rule
I called Bachman’s office this am & told the staffer that I was sure the senator will be even more proud of Minnesotans when they are working 3 jobs if they can find them.
katymine,
You beat me to it!
Great minds?
My oh my.
I heard a commercial on the radio this morning just trashing Gordon Smith (R) (ORE) over the wireless wire tapping. Just worked him over, tying him to Bush and asking for phone calls to his office.
I thought it was a real good political opponent commercial.
Wrong, it was the ACLU!
BOOM BABY!
The heat is on.
Added info on deregulation.
Deregulation started with Carter. Some of it was absolutely necessary. (For example, RRs were not allowed to backhaul.)
The problem with deregulation is that nobody minded the store while it was happening. The transition always sucks, so that planning for the transition (what a novel concept!) should have been done, but wasn’t. Many of the problems that did arise could have been anticipated. But it’s worse than that. After the problems were already apparent, nothing was done to nip them in the bud.
The only plan was to make Bush, Cheney, and their cronies much richer. It has worked well.
Thanks for that. Do you also think one of the differences between now and 1992 is that substantial portions of the economy have been globalized since then? And that in addition to bad union leadership, globalization has also contributed significantly to the decline of US labor power?
I don’t have a single semester hour credit in economics, but I just don’t understand how U.S. lower and middle class standard of living can do anything but decline in a world labor market. When there are no tax barriers to limit importation or exportation of goods, and owners are almost compelled to find the lowest labor costs, how can the U. S. hope to compete. The only anwer I’ve ever heard, by Friedman, et. al., is that we have to rely on constantly inventing new industries and services.
I will email you next time you post (do you have an email address up then?).
voluntary self regulation
that’s the ticket
Yep. Didn’t go into that aspect in my original comment, so as to keep the point focused, but that’s a major reason why consumer spending tends to hold up. People think of insatiable consumers as those who buy toys, forgetting about most households who stretch to buy clothes for their kids for the new school year, or the furnace that’s on its last legs, etc.
If the dollar keeps falling, it will be cheaper for foreign companies to do their manufacturing in the US. This must be the Republic full employment strategy.
Correction: “…When there are NO tax barriers…”
As I’ve posted many times here, thanks to Clinton and Rubin, the banks were given unfettered power by the 1999 repeal of the Glass Steagall Act of 1933. frontline: the wall street fix: mr. weill goes to washington:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/.....emise.html
And under Bush the banks got their 2nd wish; Bankruptcy Law. ” It always was apparent that the 2005 bankruptcy law would hurt the middle class, which Senator Clinton and former Senator Edwards profess to care about so much. Senator Clinton and former Senator Edwards hardly stood alone from their fellow Democrats. The 2005 bankruptcy law passed the Senate 74-25, with eighteen Democrats voting in favor (full roll call vote here). The story of the 2005 bankruptcy law is about industry campaign contributions overcoming the better instincts of our nation’s leaders. Senator Obama deserves some recognition for standing up to the consumer credit industry.”
http://www.creditslips.org/cre.....wards.html
Edwards and Clinton; bought by Wall Steet and the Banks.
Click my name on my 90.
New post up on Kos discussing FISA by Russ Feingold. Are we ready to do battle again?
Hillary just got spanked.
You bet. Thanks for heads-up!
The medical system is a mess, and many of the anti-psychotic drugs being pushed are causing HUGE weight gains, diabetes, kidney failure. There is almost no independent drug evaluation any more - the doctors need to start doing it on their own. As it is know, they are prescribing lots of stuff that is either bad medicine or ineffective. I still think there is a suit in the making for all those women who were encouraged by their MDs to take estrogen (for younger skin, menopause etc) which ended up never having been tested and which increased breast cancer in a sizable chunk of women (two of my friends).
For all of you economic experts:
What do you see as being the event that will be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back,in your estimation, what is the most likely shoe to drop?
FISA battle: I’m in
RRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!1111
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...../70/438259
sorry, forgot the link
um, linkie? or just in general?
Globalization is definitely part of the problem.
Globalization has always been with us (tribes in SW U.S. had materials that weren’t naturally occurring for hundreds of miles; silk route; Mohammed’s family were traders; etc.).
I think today’s difference is that it is happening so rapidly with benfits to corps the only goal, and little attention being paid to impact on workers. In periods of rapid past globalization, the fear that it would harm corps resulted in protectionist policies which spread out the adjustment period. A comment or so ago, I said that transitions suck. One way of mitigating the impact is to spread it out. That has not been done in the current experience.
Huh? It is your response to Ecahn (a good question by the way).
thanks!
oops! nebbermind. i get it now. gotta stay focussed here….. *g*
I’m still in the “postpone the inevitable” school. Federal Reserve is the main bet, some fiscal stimulus.
Wow - don’t know if it will help or hurt. I like both.