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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
A modern Depression wouldn't be your grandparents' Depression for the problem of resource depletion alone. I don't think you can overestimate how important cheap, available oil is to the economy. Natural Gas (which is in worse shape than oil) is another huge problem (as much for its use in agriculture as for people's dependence on it for heat).
I don't know how bad the economy will get. It could bounce back, conceivably, riding some new wave of consumer confidence. I think blind faith that it will always come around is misplaced, however.
The fact that there are so many totally ignorant posters on a liberal website who think that government regulation is responsible for our economic woes shows just how willfully blind we are as a nation.
I hope the koolaid tastes good: "I'm a social liberal but an economic conservative." There is no such thing, FYI, but you may figure that out the hard way.
Over 100 years of history clearly warns us of the cliff we're heading toward and still all these people who buy totally discredited propaganda about free markets and deregulation (the fact that they don't even know that you need regulation to have a free market tells you all you need to know about their logic capabilities).
I'm sorry I'm losing my temper, but if Salon.com splits 50/50 on this stuff then we're going careen right over the cliff. While I'll be able to say "I told you so" in a couple years, I don't relish it. At the least, I hope that those arrogant posters here see all of their assets dry up so they can stand in line for soup with their fellow Americans. They could use some human company.
For those who haven't read through my thread, my question to those who say we're safe from depression:
What will the US produce that the rest of the world will need and that only we can provide? And it has to be a lot for a workforce of 200,000,000 and a median income of $45K.
Once the dollar collapses and our debts are called, this is the only question. Don't say depression isn't likely unless you can answer this question.
I just read this article a second time and it's just amazing how totally clueless its writer is. He doesn't even understand the basic economic tenent that "Tightening the belt" is a cause of recession, not an effect. He's basically trying to scare us all into tightening our belts, therefore actually fulfilling the profecy of recession/depression.
Then, at one point in the articles, he even mentions that "we are not even technically in a recession." Um... so are we heading into another great depression? Or are we not even in a recession?" What's this guy smoking?
Folks, don't believe the journalistic hype. There's no depression looming. We're nowhere even close. The mere notion of it is retarded.
A borrower should aim for loans with ingrained responsibly, no less than lenders should lend responsibly. Should I suffer because, rather than take advantage of new and obviously creatively dubious lender schemes, leaving many lenders free of blame for forging loans based on selfish-ill-conceived and purposely devious loans? I think not. The banks and all lenders must pay the piper or continue to hold their place in history as the great defrauders and traitors of American naivety. Bale out the borrowers, jail the lenders and impeach the chief executive to the USA for shameful tactics regarding his mismanagement of our entire constitutional way of life - A traitor born such as he is has never seen the light of day until we the people ( and the corrupt and scandalously derange anti-American dupes we call the US Supreme court) pay for the deranged vision they share of a fourth Nazi republic - which has caused the USA to be reduced to a third world sack of schit. I will live my life dedicated the to task of uncovering the Great Bush White house and Supreme court Traitors for what they are, and will not cease until they are brought to the world court for a multitude of crimes against the state, the planet and the future of our species - what little chance there is that there will be one. Shame shame on idiots - shame on American idiots who knew of nothing but greed and have a lack any sense of history -that they should perish is a deservedly proper outcome - the future is over and America is dying. It shall never recover and this is the way it is -and so it is. - Forgive me if I say - American - GOD DAMN YOU! Quote: Rev Wright Obama - Racist Obama Soul Mate.
Scott Utley
La CA
Recessions aren't cured by a country's ability to produce something the rest of the world needs. They are cured by a PERCEPTION of value. Economies are like any commodity. Gold is a perfect example. Gold has no intrinsic value or benefit. But it has a PERCEIVED value. Humans have collectively agreed that gold is worth money. The more we believe it, the higher the price of gold. The less we believe it, the lower the price goes. If we all woke up tomorrow morning and collectively decided that there is no recession, there would no longer be a recession. But no one is willing to be the first to stick his neck out and spend money, hire an employee, buy a stock, etc. We're all hanging onto our pennies, waiting to see what everyone else will do. It's human nature. We all into self-preservation at the expense of the larger group.
It's the same reason concentration camp victims remained captive. In Auschwitz, the prisoners outnumbered the guards 500 to 1. Obviously, it they would have all rushed the guards together, they could have easily destroyed the camp. But that would mean that the first few pto rush the guards would probably be shot and killed, even though the rest of the group would win. So each prisoner, as an individual, didn't want to be the first to risk anything. So they all sat around, waiting, hoping, waiting to see what would happen – and taking measures to try and protect ourselves over others. In a sense, that's what we're all doing now, in this so-called "recession."
A recession isn't something that "happens" as much as it's something we "do."
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
