We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it.

[Craig234]

It's a shame that the Right doesn't have any worthwhile ideas either. Perhaps that's because both sides essentially advocate similar economic policies--allow foreign outsourcing, allow mass immigration, allow American displacement by H-1B and L-1 visas, allow exposure to global labor arbitrage.

This is a lot of bull for both sides, really.

The left has plenty of good ideas, the right plenty of bad ones.

5 of each:

Left:

- Single-payer universal healthcare (medicare for all)
- Allow the government to negotiate drug prices
- Reform taxes: end off-shore tax evasion allowing laws, increase enforcement, make people who earn money for nothing but owning things pay as much as workers
- Pass a constitutional amendment to say corporations are not persons, ending their right to dominate the elections
- Restore Wall Street regulation, make a strong consumer finance protection agency

Right:

- Shift wealth to the top with a 'flat tax'
- Shift wealth to the top by ending the Estate Tax
- Shift wealth to the top by spending less on Medicare (replacing it) and cutting taxes by the rich by the same amount
- Shift wealth to the top by cutting enforcement of tax laws for the rich, protecting business subsidies and 'tax havens' and so on
- Shift wealth to the top and big financial institutions by privatizing Social Security

 

[Craig234]

How nice of you to parrot the latest talking point of the right wing echo chamber.

America was awash with pent up demand because of strict rationing during the war. Workers had lots of cash savings they hadn't been able to spend.

And offshore demand for American goods was huge, given that we were the only industrial power to emerge intact from the war.

Take your false equivalency somewhere else.

LOL, that guy is like saying 'funny how Apple only made money on the iPad AFTER they stopped spending on building the factory for it, proving the factory was a waste'.

 

[Craig234]

The fact that people like Krugman are still on the Keynesian bandwagon just goes to show you that some people will never learn no matter how much reality slaps them in the face. At this point we have shot our wad and there are no more gimmicks to provide short term boosts in the economy.

Since the short and medium term outlook is shit anyway we might as well focus on policy changes that will help the economy in the long run and try to lay the ground work for a real recovery in a few years.

Actually, you're the one getting the wrong lesson. Keynesian measures work, the limits on our ability to do them are not the fault of Keynesian economics.

I am concerned that we have greatly damaged our options for stimulus with the terrible waste and accumulation of debt, public and private, including Wall Street parasites.

 

[Analog]

Stock market today anyone?

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Stock market today anyone?

looking good. i cashed out in march/april

 

[Regs]

Its weird that only AFTER there was a massive DECREASE in government spending when WWII ended that the economy started to pick up again. When money actually flowed back into the private sector, and hundreds of thousands of government workers were let go.

There wasn't a global market after WWII. Europe was devastated, and we were the only one in the world that had the means to produce at a level people needed. Right now, the wealthy are investing in overseas markets and production (money is not trickling down), are infrastructure is horrible, and we put too much value in our social statues (100k pieces of paper called diplomas, hair, materialistic means, and looks)

 

[dmcowen674]

There wasn't a global market after WWII. Europe was devastated, and we were the only one in the world that had the means to produce at a level people needed.

Right now, the wealthy are investing in overseas markets and production (money is not trickling down), our infrastructure is horrible, and we put too much value in our social statues (100k pieces of paper called diplomas, hair, materialistic means, and looks)

BREAKING NEWS: We need to send money to the following country: USA.

There are many without food, shelter, and clean drinking water. Residents are going without heat for the winter, no a/c for the summer. Thousands are without jobs. need health care for the sick. Stop sending money overseas. We have… people here that lack basic human needs.

AMERICA FIRST

 

[Nemesis 1]

Works for me. Too big to fail, too big to be prosecuted, too big to not get our bonuses.

Just the right size to stop a bullet

 

[TheSlamma]

BREAKING NEWS: We need to send money to the following country: USA.

There are many without food, shelter, and clean drinking water. Residents are going without heat for the winter, no a/c for the summer. Thousands are without jobs. need health care for the sick. Stop sending money overseas. We have… people here that lack basic human needs.

AMERICA FIRST

And how many charitable volunteer hours does Dave have during all this??

 

[soccerballtux]

It's a good thing the current Chairman of the Fed made his PhD on what the Fed did wrong during the great depression.

I forecast lots of heavy QE.
Would be a good time to buy a house, look at what happened with stagflation in the 70's, housing prices doubled.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

A broken clock is still right twice a day.

Depends on what kind of clock. Some are just fucking broken. Like our economy.

 

[lupi]

BREAKING NEWS: We need to send money to the following country: USA.

There are many without food, shelter, and clean drinking water. Residents are going without heat for the winter, no a/c for the summer. Thousands are without jobs. need health care for the sick. Stop sending money overseas. We have… people here that lack basic human needs.

AMERICA FIRST

if people stopped trying to use thier AC like the man said, we'd be over this problem.

 

[sarsipias1234]

I disagree entirely.

The majority of Americans have already suffered the majority of the damage from the great depression.

The great depression is over for the average American.

The only people left to suffer the great depression is our governement and the rich.

The federal government will go bankrupt at some point and the states will follow.

We all know our government is corrupt and 99% ineffective so this bankruptcy of government will have very little impact on the average American.

In reality this bankruptcy of our government will have and is already having a huge positive impact on the average american.

Prices of all items have dropped dramatically recently and will continue to drop.

This will mean less sales taxes for government which will hasten the government's demise.

Meanwhile the average american will enjoy the greatest purchasing power in decades!

 

[sonambulo]

This plus that ant war thing has me pretty worried

 

[Siddhartha]

I disagree entirely.

The majority of Americans have already suffered the majority of the damage from the great depression.

The great depression is over for the average American.

The only people left to suffer the great depression is our governement and the rich.

The federal government will go bankrupt at some point and the states will follow.

We all know our government is corrupt and 99% ineffective so this bankruptcy of government will have very little impact on the average American.

In reality this bankruptcy of our government will have and is already having a huge positive impact on the average american.

Prices of all items have dropped dramatically recently and will continue to drop.

This will mean less sales taxes for government which will hasten the government's demise.

Meanwhile the average american will enjoy the greatest purchasing power in decades!

You need to read up on the 1930's Great Depression.

 

[Doppel]

It's a good thing the current Chairman of the Fed made his PhD on what the Fed did wrong during the great depression.

I forecast lots of heavy QE.
Would be a good time to buy a house, look at what happened with stagflation in the 70's, housing prices doubled.

Oh yeah, Bernanke has been impressive. First, even after the recession had started he still publicly said we may not even have one, and now he's just doing the same thing over and over as the economy becomes systemically sicker. Great stuff.

sarsipias1234, I don't know if you're joking or not.

 

[bfdd]

Actually, you're the one getting the wrong lesson. Keynesian measures work, the limits on our ability to do them are not the fault of Keynesian economics.

I am concerned that we have greatly damaged our options for stimulus with the terrible waste and accumulation of debt, public and private, including Wall Street parasites.

This is a retarded statement because it pretty much goes for EVERYTHING. No one has fully been able to implement their full blown economic philosophy period. There's always someone else yelling it down and changing shit as soon as they can. This is America, that's how it rolls.

 

[piasabird]

A drop in the stock market is a money making opportuintiy, not a crisis!

Only the idiots speculating on what they call Margin (Borrowed Money) have a problem when the stock market drops. If they call your margin, then you have to pay up immediately and lose all the money you borrowed.

Investing 101.

 

[sarsipias1234]

You need to read up on the 1930's Great Depression.

The 1930's great depression never ended.

Democracy was subverted when we created the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Reserve note in 1913.

We have been indebted to the banks ever since.

And we all know that to be indebted to another person is to be enslaved to another person.

 

[matt0611]

The 1930's great depression never ended.

Democracy was subverted when we created the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Reserve note in 1939.

We have been indebted to the banks ever since.

And we all know that to be indebted to another person is to be enslaved to another person.

The Federal Reserve was established in 1913, first Fed notes were created in 1914. Not sure where you get your history from.

 

[sarsipias1234]

I would argue that the great depression actually started in 1913 then.

My argument is the same.

We have been indebted to the banks for the last 100 years.

 

[Darwin333]

I would argue that the great depression actually started in 1913 then.

My argument is the same.

We have been indebted to the banks for the last 100 years.

FRB is just fine and probably absolutely necessary in the modern world as long as there are proper rules/regs and they are enforced. Currently we don't have the proper regulations or enforcement of existing ones. Hell, they successfully lobbied to get accounting fraud legalized (just for them of course).

I assume that you are a gold bug, having a gold backed currency is one of the worst possible things we could do for a ton of reasons. The biggest being that most of the worlds gold is not mined in the US meaning that instead of the Fed controlling the value of our money other countries and entities entirely outside of our control would have the ability to manipulate our currency at will.

 

[JSt0rm]

what a bunch of pansy bitches. Get out there and make some fucking money or learn a fucking skill. Crying about depressions is for losers.

 

[BoberFett]

what a bunch of pansy bitches. Get out there and make some fucking money or learn a fucking skill. Crying about depressions is for losers.

Spidey?

 

[sarsipias1234]

If we all stopped incurring debt right now and paid off all debt, including the government, that would solve all our problems.

The solution to difficult problems is always obvious after the fact.

Our government has incurred more debt to solve the debt problem.

This is insanity.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.
Albert Einstein