Comments on: A Perfect Storm Stalks American Prosperity

The Nation: Prospect Of An Economic Slowdown A Challenge To Both Parties

[ianlou]

The Republicans should remember that only when the middle class is comfortable or scared can they successfully sell their line of ***.
Since they have screwed the middle class out of anything close to comfortable my guess is they will be looking for something to scare us with before the 08 election.

The Republicans should remember that, only when the middle class is scared or relatively comfortable can they successfully sell their line of morality based, trickle down economics based ***.

Since they have screwed the middle class out of anything close to what passed as comfortable in the 1990s, my guess is they will be looking for something to scare us with before the 08 election.

It''s the only trick left in their hat.

[trillion1]

In the last 7 years this nation has allowed itself to be ruled by fear. They have willingly given up their rights under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They have allowed an egocentric sociopath to enlarge an already bloated unresponsive goverment and driven us into an historic debt. The number of Americans who put money aside for hard times is now basically zero and hard times are coming.

[rushlimpdrug]

Thanks to the good ol'' American conservative republicans.
But the good news is that gaays are not getting married, right?
Oh, and the "scare me" tactics to give up more liberties.
I have had it with ALL these traitor politicians.

[g-gfather]

Does a economies survial dependent on ever increasing consumption sound illogical and fatally flawed to you??? Does to me....LOVE TO ALL . Greatgrandfather

[gkc99]

"All Americans can always count on The Jewish Nation being the "mother of all doom and gloom" liberal magazines.
Not what "most" Americans want at all"--Posted by perception5


Oh don''t worry your pretty little head about it, just go back to jerking off to pix of Anne Coulter on the boob tube.

[logicanada]

davidlar2....first leap from the nest regarding socio-economics?
Unbending capitalism without social benefit is failing.
It''s about corporate greed, stupid!

[logicanada]

Well, you people let him get away with it...twice!
Each electorate deserves the government they elect.

[perception5]

All Americans can always count on The Jewish Nation being the "mother of all doom and gloom" liberal magazines.

Not what "most" Americans want at all.

[davidlar2]

Taxing wealth= taxing savings?

Great idea for a country that has increasing levels of debt to tax people who try to save for their own futures and redistribute the money to those with credit card and other debts. Also seems "fair" to me, since the people with savings obviously have too much money....

I will never embrace the ideas and worldview of the left. We need to stop the progressively bigger governments of left (and right- see Bush) and re-evaluate where we are going as a country before we end up as Norway, just without the oil money.

[davidlar2]

Has European economic growth come from increasing or decreasing government control over the economy? The wealthiest Eurozone countries like Luxembourg and Ireland score as freer economies than the US. There is a clear link between increasing economic freedom and economic growth.

The view implied by taxguydave that Europe has moved in a more socialist direction and that this has led to increased economic growth is simply wrong. Further the view that the more socialist large European economies like France have a higher wealth (per capita GDP) than the US is also simply wrong (even though the dollar has fallen dramtically).

The US does indeed need serious economic change, but in exactly the opposite direction than the article suggests. Socialist labor union economics have been shown time and again to be a failure, but that doesn''t stop leftists from repackaging the ideas continuously.

See http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8765 for a more convincing discussion.

[standlee5]

"That means when jobs disappear and wages slump further, the struggle to keep up with the mortgage or rent will intensify for a broad swath of the population."

If and when this happens will the govt. lay off workers, cut progrmas and lower taxes. Why don''t do it now and help ward off this perfect storm. Look up a list of federal govt. programs and the costs to taxpayers to keep them running.

[standlee5]

Good idea. Raise taxes and increase social and entitlement programs.

[taxguydave]

Yeah. "European socialism" is such a failure that all 15 core Eurozone countries (except Greece, which has the skimpiest social programs) have better economic growth than the US, and have for about 10 years now. The Euro has gone from $0.80 to about $1.50.

Yeah, they''re really struggling over there.

[standlee5]

Local governments could do something right NOW to help people and that would be to eliminate the gas tax and roll back property tax assessments to before the housing bubble. They''re making huge profits on our struggle.

[jerr11]

With 1.9 trillion down the ******** called Iraq... guess no one''s to blame for this mess.

[trillion1]

What prosperity? Wages have been stagnant for years.

[davidlar2]

That''s right. Use a downturn as the case that America needs to embrace European social democratic policies because all of the evidence in the world is that social democracy creates far more wealth than free markets without government interference. And labor unions opposing technology and flexibility will cement America''s place in the globalized world as a land of high salaried unskilled laborers with secure jobs.

Dream on....