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We all can hear the "truth" about the economy from all sorts of sources but this professor has no ax to grind by just telling it like it is............
"The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It’s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere.
It’s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy.
How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery?"
We all can hear the "truth" about the economy from all sorts of sources but this professor has no ax to grind by just telling it like it is............
"The U.S. economy continues to stagnate. It’s growing at the rate of 1.8 percent, which is barely growing at all. Consumer spending is down. Home prices are down. Jobs and wages are going nowhere.
It’s vital that we understand the truth about the American economy.
How did we go from the Great Depression to 30 years of Great Prosperity? And from there, to 30 years of stagnant incomes and widening inequality, culminating in the Great Recession? And from the Great Recession into such an anemic recovery?"
Reich is a socialist who doesn't tell the whole story. I agree with many of his points, but he left out some important facts:
1. The out of wedlock birth rate today is around 40%. It was much, much lower than that between 1947-1977. Kids born out of wedlock are at risk for all kinds of emotinal, educational, and financial problems. The high out of wedlock birth rate has done a lot to increase household income inequality...and left winger's like Reich always ignore this inportant fact.
Fortunately, some left leaning folks are starting to see how un-viable the single parent family model really is (economically, emotionally, etc):
2. The high divorce rate also did a lot to widen inequality. Divorce rates have dropped somewhat, but that's in large part because those most prone to divorce are less likely to get married in the first place.
3. His talk of cutting education is a scam. The US spends as much on eduation as many other developed countries. The problem is we've got a bloated and outdated system that everyone is afraid to reform.
4. Same thing with health care. We spend by far more on health care than any other country, yet we have the least healthy population compared to all the other developed countries. Once again, we've got a bloated system that will not reform itself, and unfortunately, neither has the government. Of course, real health care reform has to do with FOOD REFORM. If Americans started eating real food again, they wouldn't get heart disease, diabetes, cancer, & high blood pressure in anywhere near the numbers they do now. More on that subject here:
The problems with the American economy are as much moral as they are financial.
When everyone is out for themselves, and have no moral compass, then you have a feedback loop of higher costs of business and lower productivity.
We find ourselves in a situation now where parents work long hours and have little time to teach values and morals to their children.
Those children in turn learn to look out after themselves and to put value in material goods above all else.
Everywhere they look they see people profiting from breaking the rules and exploiting their fellow man.
Third world countries are not a product of economic circumstances; they are a result of moral decay and corruption. Our financial situation is only following what has already happened to our culture.
reich is turning it on because the debt ceiling isn't being raised.
i am so disgusted with all of these "experts" who turn the economic picture up or down depending on what their agenda is.
if they get the debt ceiling raised, then it will be back to business as usual pumping up the economy so obama can get reelected. they must really think we are stupid, but we aren't.
jimhcom, i do think that the government did a grave injustice to our country with the bailouts. that set the moral bar really low, and now a lot of people feel that they are entitled-"if the banks got all this money for messing up, what about me?"
same thing with the illegal immigration issue.
these ignore the law rules encourage bad behavior everywhere.
right now the only thing even pretending to prop up the economy is all that government spending and all those houses that the government is delaying foreclosure, because it allows people to live rent free and they spend their housing money in the economy.
this administration does not want to have to deal with potential homeless people, even if the process screws over the responsible people.
here is another ugly truth about our economy. the crooks are right in your face anymore, and they don't even care what you think.
look at this quote:
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) won’t face criminal prosecution related to sales of mortgage-linked securities because such a move could threaten the U.S. financial system, according to Brad Hintz, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
That sounds like someone's saying that Goldman has effectively extorted the United States Government.
Isn't that the definition of terrorism? Do what I want or unbridled Hell (of some form) will be visited upon your nation. (denninger)
another thing:
you want to know how ridiculous times are now and how corrupt they are? moody's (an incompetent, controlled, or corrupt rating agency) just threatened to lower the US credit rating if the debt ceiling ISN'T raised!
I've never heard of a borrower getting their credit rating cut because they refuse to allow themselves to borrow more money.
Last edited by floridasandy; 06-02-2011 at 04:15 PM..
the fact that people are saying that there won't be a prosecution because it would "threaten the US financial system" is what i would consider terrorism.
crooks need to be prosecuted and lessons need to be learned, although it sure isn't happening now.
here are some interesting statistics:
The publicly marketable segment of the national debt includes Treasury bills, which (as defined by the Treasury) mature in terms of one-year or less; Treasury notes, which mature in terms of 2 to 10 years; Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), which mature in terms of 5, 10 and 30 years; and Treasury bonds, which mature in terms of 30 years.
At the end of August 2008, before the financial bailout and the stimulus, the publicly marketable segment of the U.S. national debt was 4.88 trillion. Of that, $2.56 trillion was in the intermediate-term Treasury notes, $1.22 trillion was in short-term Treasury bills, $582.8 billion was in long-term Treasury bonds, and $521.3 billion was in TIPS.
At the end of March 2011, by which time the Chinese had dropped their Treasury bill holdings 97% from their peak, the publicly marketable segment of the U.S. national debt had almost doubled from August 2008, hitting $9.11 trillion. Of that $9.11 trillion, $5.8 trillion was in intermediate-term Treasury notes, $1.7 trillion was in short-term Treasury bills; $931.5 billion was in long-term Treasury bonds, and $640.7 billion was in TIPS.
Before the end of March 2012, the Treasury must redeem all of the $1.7 trillion in Treasury bills that were extant as of March 2011 and find new or old buyers who will continue to invest in U.S. debt.
that should get interesting.
Last edited by floridasandy; 06-05-2011 at 05:58 PM..
The problems with the American economy are as much moral as they are financial.
When everyone is out for themselves, and have no moral compass, then you have a feedback loop of higher costs of business and lower productivity.
We find ourselves in a situation now where parents work long hours and have little time to teach values and morals to their children.
Those children in turn learn to look out after themselves and to put value in material goods above all else.
Everywhere they look they see people profiting from breaking the rules and exploiting their fellow man.
Third world countries are not a product of economic circumstances; they are a result of moral decay and corruption. Our financial situation is only following what has already happened to our culture.
LMAO! Oh brother.........this is the type of thinking that is really the most scary aspect of American thinking.
Third world countries are not a product of economic circumstance? LOL......yeah I guess countries in Africa and South America and all throughout the world would magically become industrialized if all they had to do was spend more time with their kids, teach them that sex before marriage is a sin, they need to spend more time reading to their children. LMAO! What kind of pie in the sky crap is that?
Look buddy third world countries are the way they are because of the plundering, pillaging, and monetary warfare bore down on them by first world nations like the US. Look at our own damn history..........milions of natives living in otherwise peace and harmony for thousdands of years before the almight, all intelligent, ever knowing, economic savior white man came and wiped them all out. LMAO! The past is the past but you talk such kindergarten nonsense I don't even know how you managed to feed, toilet, and otherwise take care of yourself with such a childish outlook on the world.
I agree there is a lot of moral decay going on throughout the world......but that is hardly a reason for all the poverty and economic destruction going on in the world.
but this professor has no ax to grind....Robert Reich
Clintons little stoogy has no ax to grind .....funniest post i have read here today....got damn
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.....funniest post i have read here today....got damn
