Letters to the Editor
aveutter
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 32
-
Bernanke REPUDIATES REAGONOMIX
[Read the article: The odds for a U.S. recession just went up]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Gee you wonder how long BB is going to last jousting at GOP icons like Ronald Reagan and 'trickle down economics'. The earth is shaking, what's next on his list,SUPPLY SIDE economics? One can hear Larry Kudlow gnashing his teeth. A fiscal package aimed at low income families will get into the system faster. My gawd man, you give a man a fish, and he eats the fish, and the fish is gone, teach him how to fish, and he has fish for a lifetime.
Everyone of those tried and true homilies, is being trampled upon, who is this SOCIALIST IMPOSTER, Ben Bernanke. doesn't he know he is a political apponitment? Laffer is not laughing. The ghost of Reagan past is turning in its grave. This is the end of an era, or the end of Bernanke.
-
This isn't your grandfathers recession
[Read the article: Did somebody say "recession"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After a consumer pays a credit card bill, he then initiates new spending. Consumer monkeys are predictable as lab rats, according to the economists.
But this ain't your grandfathers recession. McCain is right, those jobs aren't coming back, not in Michigan or anywhere, anytime soon. This represents the principle of Peak Personal Wealth. From here on there is less of everything. You're slowly going broke, and for the next however many years you will be progressively poorer, selling your assets to pay the bills, which is what the major money center banks are doing right now.
-
Taking us off message
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are no athiests in foxholes, I was always told. The homily about being scared straight has been turned around in Breaking Bad. The question is, if you have been straight all your life, should you try the other side. (You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me Lucille, just not sure if Walter is Lucille, or Lucille's husband, or both).
To clear up some details, Walter is only straight in the Confucian sense of the word. Late life confessions may be trite, but it is part of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as Catholicism, and Walter seems determined to plunge even lower in the chakras, (to be reincarnated as a car wash boy?) or any pagan thought he has in his mind. Going to church is not a viable option here, which may be a sign that the boomers have put their stamp on the endlife crisis, and the evangelical movement is played out, sort of.
The metaphor about the late afternoon drop off in office productivity is good, every one in my age group knows, you make decisions in the morning, and take care of clerical details in the afternoon, and you manage your blood sugar swings. Your doctor manages your chronic health problems, and you try to get as many good years out of life as you can. And that's really what Walter is trying to tell us, by taking us off message. One gets the feeling before this series is over, he will be back.
-
Is LT out?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What do you think King, Tomlinson said it wasn't his decision. This seems eerily reminiscent of the way they handled the Drew Brees situation, clouded by a rumored shoulder injury. He had a breakout year with the Saints the following season, no arm problems whatsoever. There is no mistaking the way LT has been made the oddman out in the Norv Turner offense. AJ Smith is not adverse to trading high profile players, or coaches. I say LT never carries the ball again, in a Chargers uniform. The team is probably looking for some draft picks, most likely linebackers. No idea who is interested, but the Giants come to mind.
-
A Few Economic Myths
[Read the article: The politics of an economic nightmare]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Rising home prices are a benefit to consumers. Rising home prices do not contribute to personal wealth, they are inflationary, like every other price increase, they constitute a tax on wealth.
Stimulating consumer demand, is the same as stimulating corporate spending, and will add jobs to the economy. The downsizing in American corporations has been going on for twenty years. The reason this recession won't end, is that there is not enough (demand) money coming into American households to meet the supply of products available.
There is still demand for credit. There is a bear market in credit, which is why interest rates keep falling. People who sell credit are being continually required to lower the price. The market solution would be to allow demand and supply to level off, but the Federal Reserve intervenes on the behalf of buyers, with the equivalvent of credit price controls. Price controls don't work.
The Federal Reserve can print money and reflate this economy. Bernanke has by now wished he had never said that. How do you get cash money into the economy? The process by which credit is first created, out of thin air, come about through selling bonds and extending credit to the banks. That new debt is then monetisized. To circumvent the first steps, and skip to the last step, means you simply hand money to people without recording a debit on the other side of the balance sheet? That requires FISCAL policy, and is in the control of the COngress. Monetary policy may be the Fed's particular authority, but it requires a number of steps, and handing money to banks, much less individuals, violates all of them. The Fed can't simply give money away, it can only facilitate credit, and when no one wants that credit any longer, they are foolish to continue.
This won't end soon. Even those who believe we can behave as badly as the authorities in Argentina, haven't taken account of the fact that there was a global economic system to back up Argentina. Who's got our back?