Comments on: Taking Stock Of Our Economic Woes

Experts Say The Nation's Financial Straits Will Get Worse, And There Is No Consensus On What To Do About It

[babooph]

The propaganda sytem will be directed to give us all the information we should have . For myself,I will stumble along trying to figure things out without much good info-there has been things outside the States ,that have helped.

[daysrnumbrd]

The attitude of "nothing can go wrong" and that "everything is okay," and that things will definitely get better no matter what... is EXACTLY what corrupt power wants the masses to believe at all times. It makes the masses less threatening to the elites in charge.

There is a huge difference between complacency and vigilance. It is common for those who are complacent to accuse those who are vigilant as being "doom-sayers" (etc.).

[funkewb1]

What needs to happen is a wake up call to the "Elite" of this country. The next time you go to vote do some research on your own. DO NOT just listen to what you hear on the news. Start taking notice of your City and County elections. That is were the typical politician gets his start. Lets start getting rid of the bad seeds early. And why is it we keep electing these rich kids to office. Do you really think someone that has never worked a day in their life has the typical working persons best interests in mind. My only hope is that it is not too late for this country to turn things around. Everyone is going to be making sacrifices.

[funkewb1]

The people of this country need to wake up. If you think things are bad now just wait. There have been several very intelligent people screaming this was going to happen for some time now, but everybody wants to call them crazy or not give them the voice they deserve. The whole economic stimulus package was a big joke. Why are giving people $600.00 checks and telling them to go buy TV''s. That was Billions of dollars that could have been used to put people to work fixing the decaying infrastructure of this country. Let''s not forget we have bridges collapsing, roads falling apart, levees failing or in line to fail%u2026. And no I am not going to be one of those "Crazy Liberals" that wants to blame everything on Bush an Cheney. Sure they did nothing to stop what is happening, but this has been in the making for decades. Republican and Democrat alike have had there hands in this.

[rgmiron]

The Benefactor Project.com
Tom Canavan
The Benefactor Project

I hope you are on the up and up!! This should be a good start on a "tough row to hoe". Help will definately be need to many!!!
Good Luck Tom!

[flagship-usa]

Maybe a credit forgiveness program, backed by our government, for people caught in this up-side-down market, would help many people out of inevitable doom?

[funkewb1]

I am sick and tired. Sick and tired of paying 1/3 of my income in taxes only to see it go over seas as Aid for poorer countries, be used as funds to continue a war that has done nothing but tear this country apart and isolate us from the rest of the world, and be used by the Fed to bail out these banks and mutual funds that have been run by into the ground by the very same people who are really profiting from the bail outs.

[bladdy10]

That should read,
"$60 Billion Dollars worth of houses" to people willing to work their way out of poverty.
Tom Canavan

[bladdy10]

To the millions of people facing foreclosure or have an upside down mortgage, walk away now while you still have some family intact. Take what money you have and protect your family. When you hit the streets it''s almost impossible to get back off them. But not quite. I run potentially the largest open source philanthropy in America and am in the process of giving away over $60 Billion Dollars a year to people willing to work their way out of poverty and homelessness.
The bank isn''t your problem anymore. Your credit rating don''t mean diddly if you are in a homeless shelter and millions of you will be soon so take some good advice and do what hundreds of others are already doing now.
Go to YouTube and type the word ''anonbene'' into the search box and also visit my website, The Benefactor Project.com
Tom Canavan
The Benefactor Project

[Snerdguy]

I think that most people have at least a general idea of what has caused the economy to fail and we know that everybody responsible will always try to blame someone else. I think the most basic issue though is wear to start fixing it.

I believe it starts with every individual. Everybody at every income level needs to stop and examine their lifestyle and stop wasting. Our nation wastes way too much of everything from energy and dry goods to food. We waste more food and dry goods per person than people in some countries have to survive on and we just accept it as granted.

The solution starts with the individual, not with the government, not with corporations, not with the filthy rich. It requires personal awareness, self discipline and a willingness to make a little extra effort. Sometimes, you might have to speak out to alert others of waste or to let corporations know that you think they should waste less. We also need to let our elected officials know that we expect them to do something about the waste in our government. We must also dare to reach out and help our own neighbors in need. Change has to start somewhere and so we must change what we control, ourselves.

[u-r-right]

Fair trade above free trade.

[daysrnumbrd]

Unions...
Free Market(s)...
Government...
Corporations...

Absolute power corrupts absolutely!

[anarchristia]

"It''s a little bit of this and little bit of that, so without the measuring cups, we''re making it up as we go along." That''s all the wisdom NYSE veteran Art Cashin could muster up for Rita Braver. The dominant impression of her report is that we%u2019ll have to continue to muddle along because no one really understands economics. Too bad in addition to interviewing Peter Schiff, dubbed "Dr. Doom" by those who are convinced that consumption underpins production, Rita Braver didn''t also talk to "Dr. No." i.e., Congressman Ron Paul, who''s been explaining right-side-up economics in plain English for thirty years, even just this past week to Fed chief Bernancke. American prefer pragmatism to principle, however, and so they''re about to be rewarded with a dollop of what precisely does NOT "work."

[bucfish]

Look stoog, what do you think a corporation is? It is a group of individuals who come together to strengthen their power to dictate the rules, not ''''negotiate''''. You do not have a problem with shareholders coming together to empower each other, but heaven forbid the common laborer should be more than naked and scared in a massive pool of unemployed begging for work.

The Tycoon is nothing without his workforce and do not let Butfish tell you otherwise.

by curse914


Smearing nice tactic, curse. Unfortunately I have truth reason and logic on MY side. Corporations are individual until they get lobbying control of the GOVERNMENT. Those regulations that sound so good are not that good unless you are a lobbyist. So many elected officials do not even read their bills upon which they vote on, much less do they write them. Lobbyists do that for them. Capitalism and this lobbyists system could never coexist. If it does that is not capitalism but rather socialism. Rebut if you can!

[samthetvcat]

---"Our economy has been built on consumer credit, on borrowing and spending money," Schiff said. "The real foundation of an economy needs to be on savings, on under-consumption, and on production. We''ve got it backwards."---

This isn''t necessarily socialism he''s advocating, isn''t he just saying the idea that underpinned opening up trade with developing nations to access cheap labor is faulty? Like wasn''t the concept behind a US-China trade deal that we had ''evolved'' past production and were now a service-industry economy who could delegate physical jobs to other countries where labor is cheap? Which has therefore turned us into a consumption-driven economy.

Maybe the red flag was that all that easy access to credit wasn''t being invested in business ventures which create jobs and provide a steady stream of profit-making revenue as a result of an idea or a product - it was just used to buy stuff. Like if homes were being bought for investment purposes at levels such that they could turn a profit right away because rent revenue was sufficient to cover costs including the mortgage, that would have been one thing - but to buy it with it turning into a profit-maker being completely dependent on the bubble continuing, that''s not the sign of a healthy economy, is it?

It''ll be interesting to see what kind of ideas Romney brings to the dialogue if/when he''s announced VP!

[samthetvcat]

---"We are going to have a lot more inflation. Unemployment is going to keep getting worse. Interest rates are going to go a lot higher. That is gong to make things worse. We are going to see a lot more bankruptcies, a lot more foreclosures, a lot of the big retailers cutting back and going out of business."---

omg, everybody''s starting to talk like that now - and it''s not just happening here at home, the whole world''s being affected.

Okay, yeah probably oil/gas prices WILL come down because demand is going to come down - all the markets are tied to each other. $3/gal of gas may be the new $4/gal!

Maybe Wall Street will start shifting to bonds? money market? Putting their $ bills under their mattresses? :o

[bucfish]

Republicans has been turning open markets into free markets successfully for 15 years (mostly by refusing the fund the cops that enforce the laws), and the result is the disaster we see before us.

The danger of socialism is: who''''s watching the watchers (i.e. the cops)? They''''re supposed to regulate capitalism, and can become too entrenched, becoming a force in their own right.

For example, in California, three-strikes legislation has resulted in a massive boom in prison-building. Attempts have been made to relax the law to reduce the senseless incarceration of non-violent criminals, but there''''s been a politically effective and steadfast resistance to these changes by, guess who, the all-powerful prison guards union. and woe to any politician who crosses them!

Unions have no place in free markets as it is up to each and every Individual to negotiate their employment agreement. Unions are socialististic by nature as they promote Collectivism. Republicans are mainly Neocons. Neoconservativism is collectivism light. Ron Paul is a true Republican not what you and I have know as a Republican. The Neocons have overan the GOP. Google Leo Strauss, priofessor at Uni at Chicago or even Trotsky a marxist that had a divide upon Lenin and was then exiled by Lenin.

[ubrew12]

bucfish said: "You are mistaken if you think that we have a Capitalist Society or Free Markets. "
Since the Great Depression we''ve replaced free markets with open markets: that is, we regulate them to remain open to everyone, so secret or insider trading is, by law, illegal. Then we hire cops (SEC) to police the market and ensure the laws are being followed. We get into these kinds of predatory situations WHENEVER we forget the lessons of the past and turn an open market (like the mortgage lending market) into a free market (free to be ripped off by unscrupulous lenders).

Republicans has been turning open markets into free markets successfully for 15 years (mostly by refusing the fund the cops that enforce the laws), and the result is the disaster we see before us.

The danger of socialism is: who''s watching the watchers (i.e. the cops)? They''re supposed to regulate capitalism, and can become too entrenched, becoming a force in their own right.

For example, in California, three-strikes legislation has resulted in a massive boom in prison-building. Attempts have been made to relax the law to reduce the senseless incarceration of non-violent criminals, but there''s been a politically effective and steadfast resistance to these changes by, guess who, the all-powerful prison guards union. and woe to any politician who crosses them!

[bucfish]

Schiff: "...The real foundation of an economy needs to be on savings, on under-consumption, and on production. We''''ve got it backwards..."

Schiff''''s tortured logic: focus on MORE production and LESS consumption at the same time. Even if more production means more capital goods, as opposed to consumer goods, even that tack in the near term expands "output".

Capitalism is ready for the dumpster. What''''s wrong with a PLANNED (aka, "RATIONAL" economy) as opposed to this completely chaotic system we have that lurches from one crisis to the next while NEVER FAILING to benefit wealthy leeches who are numerically small but end up stealing the lion''''s share of output.

Socialism today, socialism tomorrow, socialism forever!!
by kgainer

You obviously do not follow history. Socialism has never worked, just look at France, 30% unemployment for those under 30 years old. Socialism is tyranny. It only benefits those on top. You are mistaken if you think that we have a Capitalist Society or Free Markets. We have the Fed dictating our interests rates thereby controlling our money supply. We have more regulations than China! We are no longer nor have we been Capitalists for over a Hundred Years! Stop buying into the brainwashing you probably received at one of our wonderful socialist propaganda machines that we call Universities.

[bucfish]

You may love Ron Paul but you need more than what you''''ve got to put him on a pedestal. Economy is not a hard science like physics and chemistry where a successful prediction is usually replicable. Did Von Mises produce any more valid predictions, did he come up with a theory that''''s still held in high regard? The latter point is important because the world has probably changed fundamentally since his time. Ron Paul''''s doctorate is nice, to be sure, but it''''s only a starting point to measure the man.
by jon2012


Unfortunately most people do not understand Free Market theory. They buy into these greedy Politicians and their friend on wall streets illusion that government must be involved. Guess what it doesn''t. Economics and markets are like a science. When you get man out of centro economic planning and politics out of it. Regulate by holding people to a standard, and usually that standard is a measure in Gold. Since historically only 2% of gold is added to the market place each year going back to the beginning of time. Man manipulates that is man''s inherit nature, ignoring this fact is completely abandoning reason and logic. And to do that is to do at mankind''s risk.