DISQUS

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

Wallstreet will be asking for bailouts soon or else the financial system will collapse although they might be hoping to delay asking for a taxpayer funded bailout until after the election to avoid hurting McCain and discrediting GOP probusiness policies.

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

Imagine an America where people loosing their homes could get bailed out by tax payers. If only the banks had the same compassion that they expect from the tax payers.

nicho · 1 year ago

Well, since all of the government's numbers are phony, we can't make this kind of comparison. Both inflation and unemployment are drastically underreported.

Go to the grocery, go to the gas station, check your utility bills, check your pay stub (assuming you have one) and then tell me that inflation is 3.9 percent.

Gas has gone up locally 30 percent in the last month. Grocery prices are up 20 to 25 percent. My health insurance premium went up 7 percent. Water rate is up 25 percent.

How in hell can inflation be 3.9 percent. Anyone who believes that is a lunatic or a liar.

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

Good point how does the government get away with this shouldn't Congress or somebody question the funny numbers?

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

Could you show the basis for the numbers that economist skeptical of the government are using and explain why they are skeptical of the numbers. Some of us surf the blogs for an education as well as to pop off our ideas.

animosity · 1 year ago

ck here for the basis of a fraudulant CPI


http://www.shadowstats.com/article/56

Andrew · 1 year ago

We're way past anything on the Misery Index. Ever since the Fed stopped printing the M-3 figures and reved up the printing presses, the actual inflation number is well past 10%, and the real unemployment figure is closer to 8%. The government fails to acknowledge those individuals who are taken off the unemployment rolls or those who have just plain given up in trying to find a job. Most numbers coming out of either the Fed or D.C. are pretty much bogus and most politicians looking to ge re-elected are full of shit when it comes to stating facts anyway.

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

M-3 figures? Could you please explain.

Webster · 1 year ago

Misery? You bet. I've been out of work for three years. I've learned how to cut my own hair, pull my own teeth, and survive on one meal a day. If it weren't for friends, I wouldn't even had made it this far. And the sucky thing is, I know I'm not the only one--because most people are too embarrassed/ashamed to admit it. I would say 8% unemployment is probably too low.

Vote for McCain for more of the same!

JMOHR · 1 year ago

The government numbers have always been about pulling the wool over the public eyes. Reagan started to change the definition of who counted as unemployed to make his own administration look good. The Republicans have also consistently argued for a more narrow definition of CPI with the express purpose of underestimating cost to lower government indexed payments. Yes, we live in a fantasy world.

ThingsComeUndone · 1 year ago

We need to stop talking about Hilary and start talking about the economy. I want McCain to defend Bush's policies. Any issue that we link McCain to Bush this election cycle will be discredited. We should use this opportunity to change things.
A reverse Shock Doctrine wave changing things Left!

jr · 1 year ago

Bush has supply sider ringers in every part of the government swallowing the Arthur Laffer soma

blackwolf · 1 year ago

Yeah, the misery index might be at an all time high, or low, depending on how you look at it. But, misery don't mean a thing to the folks in West Virginia (the 50% who said they'd vote for McCain if Obama wins). Ya think four more years of suffering might give em a new outlook on things?

blackwolf · 1 year ago

Yeah buddy! My index is at zero. I'm hopin' I can get down to -20 by the end of the week.

ClayPotts · 1 year ago

The prices are going up every week, everywhere, on everything. Everyone needs to show every Republican some misery come November.

nuneutralobserver2008 · 1 year ago

"But using the estimates on CPI and unemployment from economists skeptical of the government numbers, the Misery Index is actually in the teens. Some worry it could even approach the post-World War II record of 20.6 in 1980"

Jimmy Carter.

bunnyjump · 1 year ago

The American dream and the middle class are no more until decent paying jobs are restored. Too many bailouts, excessive compensation for inept executives, too many tax cuts for the wealthy and too many corporate loopholes are the norm. How about some good old work stoppages? Or are we too busy stuffing our pie holes and keeping up with american idol?

paulbe · 1 year ago

The index would of course be much higher if the US Government used the actual inflation and unemployment numbers, rather than the fraudulent, made-up crap they use now.

Andrew · 1 year ago

Thingscomeundone....I saw your e-mail. M-3 was a monthly figure that the Federal Reserve used to post but it was discontinued in March of 2006. The figure advised the worlds investors just how much money the Federal Reserve was printing.
When Bernanke was asked why that figure was no longer available, he stated to Congress that it was too expensive for the F.R. to produce. This from the people who control the printing presses?!?! The government obviously didn't want the little guy knowing just how much money was being printed so as to hide the true measure of inflation. The reason there is a mental disconnect between the real world and the world inside the beltway is because those inside the beltway live in a fantasy land, the real people outside the beltway are the ones who continue to suffer because of the mismanagement, corruption and greed of both those elected as well as those that t control the banks.

Pangolin · 1 year ago

File under "Obvious statements." When you have more empty housing units than homeless people something is very, very wrong. American citizens are literally dieing in the streets while CEO's collect millions of dollars monthly to run corporations into bankruptcy. The US is a pathetic disaster and has lost all moral standing in the world. The fact that the current administration has been repeatedly caught making up evidence and statistics they use to justify their insane policies isn't helping.

Andrew · 1 year ago

File under the heading of Don't let the American citizen know what is really happening by manipulating the media......

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
We Can't Handle the Truth
Paul Volcker was providing testimony to Congress this morning, and it was being covered by Bloomberg television.
Volcker started to 'tell it like it is' and basically laid out the situation in plain and simple terms. We wish we had recorded it.
To paraphrase, the mathematicians took over with opaque and complex models. The regulators failed. We had a system fueled by high compensation. They did not care what they created as long as they could sell it to someone else.
It was really starting to get interesting, and then... Bloomberg television cut away so that Betty Liu could tell us how well the stock market was doing, and they never came back.
CNBC was not covering Volcker's testimony. Neither were the C-Spans. CNN? Forget about it.
A friend who was traveling in Europe the past two weeks emailed with the news that 'things are much worse over there and talk of the financial crisis is all over the front pages and people are talking about it." We are in much better shape because no one is talking about it here.
If we had a financial crash and everyone pretended not to notice would it still have happened? We think there are some central planners in the States that would give a resounding 'No.'
The Consumer Price Index number this morning was a complete fabrication, a farce. Its time to start noticing, time to stop going with the flow. The flow is heading into madness.
All I have found so far is this brief mention. We will look for a transcript, and a video excerpt. This is pathetic, astounding. The lack of coverage at this time of crisis for the testimony of an economist like Paul Volcker to Congress is .... ominous.

***

animosity · 1 year ago

the real skinny on the fraudulant CPI here.....http://www.shadowstats.com/article/56

SoLeftImRight · 1 year ago

Chris, you are a moron. Can you please spend five minutes crafting a post that has a slice of nuance? I pretend in my more charitabe moments that you actually have a good grasp of class politics and what is going on in the economy, but if you keep up this "Wall Street" this and that it becomes so shrill I can't even read it...thank god I don't have to hear it as I imagine you'd be at such a high pitch as to puncture my ear drums and wake the dogs next door. There are some people "on Wall Street" who are regular people, losing jobs and suffering in this economy just like everyone else. The shocking disregard for the "misery" growing around us is a CEO-level scandal.

P.S. No one works "on Wall Street" any more...the majority of offices on the actual street are being turned into luxury condos...