The fact that he outspends Hillary 3-1 is the only reason he's made it this far.

That's a load of crap. Headed into Super Tuesday, the Clinton campaign had spent almost twice as much during this primary season as Obama's campaign had. He managed to win about as many delegates in spite of having been outspent 2:1, and went on to score in the subsequent contests while raking in millions in contributions.

Hillary, meanwhile, had to loan her campaign money just to stay afloat.

I think Obama would be foolish to try to compete with McCain using public financing. The 527s would bury him. The only way he'll be able to counter that sludge effectively is with the kind of broadbased public financing he's getting from his massive network of small donors.

To me, putting more money in the hands of the richest citizens may not necessarily spur the economy, but how does it actually slow it down?

1) It forces the government to reduce spending, throwing people out of work.

or it

2) Forces the government to borrow, which feeds inflation and higher interest rates.

or it

3) Forces the government to tax the middle class and poor to meet its obligations, which leaves them with less money to spend and invest.

Since consumer spending drives our economy, any of these scenarios can impact that spending and result in immediate, serious economic consequences.

Recessions happen. They happen for varying reasons but there is no such thing as an economy that never slows down. After WWII they occur every 5-7 years.

That's not really true, though. We had a recession in 1980 and another in 1981, for example, then went pretty much the whole of the 1990's - from '91 thru 2001 - without experiencing a recession.

Recessions can happen for a variety of reasons, but I think it's pretty obvious the current recession can trace its origins to the real estate bubble, the decline of the dollar and the related rising price of energy. And you can certainly lay the blame for all of those things at the feet of the Republicans, who have overseen a massive rollback of the regulations this country put in place after the great crash of '29 to prevent just the kind of financial sector idiocy we're currently witness to.

The only real question I have is, how long before this recession turns into a full-fledged depression? Massive amounts of debt have been the only thing keeping consumer spending afloat post 9/11, and that party is over. It's so over we could lose a big bank in the coming year, the way the UK just did with Northern Rock. Energy prices are skyrocketing, the Japanese and Chinese can't prop the dollar up successfully anymore, consumer spending is slowing (especially on manufactured goods), jobs continue to be lost in what's left of our manufacturing sector, real estate is imploding . . . it's a pretty grim picture.

Nero has been fiddling the past 8 years while Rome slowly burned. Whoever wins this November is gonna have a hell of a mess on their hands.

It should be noted that Mexico is our fourth-largest supplier of oil, and that Mexico exports to the US only 500,000 fewer barrels of crude per day than #1 Canada.

Mexico's big Cantarell field is in collapse.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/business/worldbusiness/08fobriefs-PEMEXOILFIEL_BRF.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.energybulletin.net/18505.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantarell_Field

The LA Times reported the decline was twice the company's published predictions. Within 5 years it's estimated production will fall to half of 2004's level. Cantrell *is* the Mexican oil business, so once it goes so do Mexico's imports. Within a decade Mexico could become a net oil importer, which is kind of a problem since Mexico is already perpetually broke even as a major oil exporter.

If you think the illegal alien problem is a mess now, just wait 'till Mexico's oil-lubed economy really tanks.

Maybe now that he's running as Nadir's VP he'll finally invest in a comb.

If press accounts are to believed, that purchase price places a $270 million or so dollar price tag on a bank that had a market capitalization of 30 billion at the close of trading on Friday.

But . . . but . . . but, that's not possible! The markets are perfect and know everything! They can't have been off by over $29 out of $30 billion dollars. Why, that's contrary to Libertarian thought.

You don't think there's something wrong with the dipstick philosophy we've used to ruin . . . er, I mean run our economy the past 30 years, do you?

Booming industries:

ALL export oriented industries, including tech, food (McDonalds), agriculture (Potash Corp, John Deere, Mosaic), energy, other staples (tobacco, beverage, sundries (like P&G))

O RLY? Beyond a lot of those being pure banana republic industries (tobacco?!?) which only benefit Big Agra, I wouldn't count on exports making up for cratering domestic demand in the world's largest market (that's us).

From Monday's news:

-----

Deepening slump envelops factory sector

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080317/bs_nm/usa_economy_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A spreading economic slowdown seeped into U.S. factory activity in February and March as waning demand more than offset the export benefits of a cheaper dollar, a series of reports on Monday showed.

A Federal Reserve report on industrial output showed that factories were running at their slowest rate in more than two years during February while a key gauge of factory business in the Northeastern U.S. slumped to a record low in March.