-
Website
http://www.americablog.com/ -
Original page
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/krugman-prospects-for-economy-look-much.html -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
All Comments
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Far away in forgotten lands,
Where empires have turned back to sand." - The Moody Blues, "Lovely to see you." from "On the Threshold of a Dream"
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/11/20/whats...
Bush pushed that much money from the demand side to the supply side. That, after 20 years of flat wages for workers while the GNP has more than doubled.
Until that $5 trillion gets put back there's no traction for the economy.
Concentration of wealth is like standing up in a canoe - it's prone to sudden epic collapses.
Witness the collapse of: Rome, Ancient Egypt's New Kingdome, Pre-Islamic Mecca, Byzantium in the 50 years before the Seljuk Turks at Manzikurt. medieval Japan, Hapsbourg Spain, Bourbon France, Romanov Russia, Coolidge/Hoover America, and now Subprime-Bush.
I'm not sure what the historical case for supply-side economics is, but the case against it is devastating and disturbing: a destroyer of worlds and civilizations, and mother of all dark ages.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/11/21/washi...
A: Any price instability is not good for the economy. The pattern of falling prices is hard to stop because it feeds on itself, similar to spiraling inflation. Look at the housing market: As prices decline, would-be buyers are putting off purchases in hopes of getting a better discount later, and that drop in demand can lower prices further. During deflationary periods, companies taking in less money react by slowing production and cutting jobs, which causes consumers to scale back spending even more.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Meltdown-...
Why people shorting stock make money....
everyone seemed to be saying 'big deal, housing prices are too expensive and they need to level off'... the whole economy is connected, the housing market crash rolled over into everything else.
if you don't think that's connected to the big 3 going under (yeah, I know they made a TON of stupid moves... but life would've gone on if the rest of the economy wasn't crashing around them) you're not looking at the big picture. I'm picturing this giant plughole in my mind... everything swirling into it.
if the big 3 go under, what'll happen to WHOLE CITIES that rely on them? the general consensus seems to be, as it was when the housing market crashed, 'move where the jobs/cheaper houses are'. you're talking about taking 80% of the population of Detroit and telling them to move elswhere? who buys their houses, retired people with a cold weather fetish? if nobody buys their property, who supports the small businesses in the area?
so you wind up with entire cities going under... what happens to the companies that make products they buy with that extra bit of cash they used to have?
Companies like HP, Xerox, Intel, Verizon, etc... their clients aren't ALL overseas or big businesses. If nobody has money (or even a job), who buys these products? fewer and fewer people OR companies.
which causes even the largest companies to downsize... more firings... even less money flowing into the economy.
I always thought shipping jobs overseas was a REALLY bad idea... now I see that it was really just large companies planning for their retirement, from being headquartered in the US.
Obama has ideas.... but I'm starting to think he's still four years too late.
We argued on the blogs back in 2001 that the Bush Crime Dynasty's plan was to (1) prophet from War, (2) drain the Treasury, (3) lower the value of the dollar (to reduce the value of debt, including ballooning the trade deficit) and (4) trash the economy (through theft, etc). Looks like they did just that.
Everything going according to plan. We should start a database on all those from the Bush era who leave the country, where they go and how much they take with them. With the Bush pardons and the spineless Dems in charge no worries that anyone will be held accountable.
The Video Record button didn't work when I tried it after the switch over to Disqus, but somehow Disqus / Seesmic worked out the bugs and voila! it now works. I'm quite honored I was the first to video blog on Americablog!
Way to go cowboyneok for taking the plunge!
In fact, my first video blogging was re: Prop 8 march. I was just playing around and clicked on the video link and it WORKED!
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/saturday-mor...
http://www.americablog.com/2008/11/saturday-mor...
I, however, don't have a video camera :-(
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-TEC...
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts...
The city manager of Detroit is claiming that if something isn't done about unemployment in MI and the Big 3, he expects riots, people preying on people, etc. Reported on MSNBC this am.
Don't think people in other areas haven't talked about the same thing, though. We are constantly having thefts from cars, houses, etc. around here. Desperate times, indeed. This won't be like the Great Depression when you just had the Bonnie & Clyde types, you know, the professional bank robbers. It's an entirely new era, where you wouldn't dare invite a strange rail hopper looking for work into your home for a meal. And everyone around here has guns...(we have a large stick and dogs...)
"Auntie Em Gale: Almira Gulch. Just because you own half the county doesn't mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now... well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it! "
revised:
"Auntie Em Gale: GEORGE W. BUSH. Just because you own half the COUNTRY doesn't mean that you have the power to run the rest of us. For twenty-three years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now... well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it! "
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
United Way is the clearing house of the agencies that a lot of these laid off people will need soon. This, layoffs, on top of massive flooding in September and this economy as it is, will be a death knell for this area.
you dressed so fine
threw the bums a dime
baby in your prime
now didn't you?
people called to say beware
you're bound to fall
you thought they all were
kidding you!
you used to laugh about
everybody that was hangin' out
but now you don't talk so loud
now you don't act so proud
to be scrounging around
for your last meal.
how does it feel?