Latest 15 of 112 Total Comments Show All

• 

  Betzee at 10:40 AM JST - 19th July

  Sailwind,

  Bill Clinton presided over the dot.com bubble which, when it burst, has relatively containable effects. GWB, by contrast, presided over a housing bubble that, when it burst, sent ripple effects throughout the economy. Too many homeowners had foolishly borrowed against their paper equity to finance new purchases and now find themselves owing more than their homes are worth. The Onion, which is a print version of Jon Stewart's Daily Show, made fun of this:

  "Every American family deserves a false sense of security," said Chris Reppto, a risk analyst for Citigroup in New York. "Once we have a bubble to provide a fragile foundation, we can begin building pyramid scheme on top of pyramid scheme, and before we know it, the financial situation will return to normal."

  Despite the overwhelming support for a new bubble among investors, some in Washington are critical of the idea, calling continued reliance on bubble-based economics a mistake. Regardless of the outcome of this week's congressional hearings, however, one thing will remain certain: The calls for a new bubble are only going to get louder.

  "America needs another bubble," said Chicago investor Bob Taiken. "At this point, bubbles are the only thing keeping us afloat."

  Of course there is no new bubble on the horizon, and economic recovery will be slow. It will, however, enable us to re-open old debates about the role of government in the economy, etc. Ditto for the drop in the dollar. Is it now possible to envision a return of some manufacturing to our shores? Deindustrialization swept through many communities and left few opportunities for a decent economic livelihood in its wake.

  I myself am thinking of moving to Washington if Obama wins because it would be exciting to be "part of the process." It's also likely, however, that the Republicans will challenge his lack of progress to reverse the trend toward Democratic dominance of Congress. I don't think either party really has much sense of what comes next.

• 

  Blue_Tiger at 03:10 PM JST - 19th July

  Nancy Pelosi has no room to talk: her approval ratings are 20 points below the President's. So much for her talk of cleaning up congress: there's more corruption now than when the GOP was in control.

  House Speaker Pelosi labeling anyone a failure is worse than the pot callign the kettle black: its like a lump of coal calling cast iron "dirty"....

• 

  GW at 03:33 PM JST - 19th July

  I just went through this thread, whew a real douzy!!

  One thing I dont understand, WHY do many of you even think Nancy P insulted GWB, she called him a complete failure............

  Very clearly that is an EXTREMELY HIGH COMPLIMENT for the shrub!! Cant belive so many dont see it as such, carry on!

• 

  zurcronium at 08:10 PM JST - 19th July

  Nancy Pelosi's ratings in her district are triple Bush. She will win her election easily.

  The repubs never dispute the fact that bush is a total failure, because they cant. They divert the discussion to the support for the congress. Which is being prevented from moving forward by the bush vetos and the remaining retread repubs who will be out of office in a few months.

  Facts, deal with them.

• 

  Betzee at 10:39 PM JST - 19th July

  Who’s to blame for our economic woes? There is plenty to go around as the New York Times notes today. While many put the bulk of the blame on the Fed, the GWB administration touted the "roaring economy" as evidence its tax cuts worked. We have to move away from a speculation-driven economy.

  In the estimation of many economists, it starts with the Federal Reserve. The central bank lowered interest rates following the calamitous end of the technology bubble in 2000, lowered them more after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and then kept them low, even as speculators began to trade homes like dot-com stocks.

  Meanwhile, the Fed sat back and watched as Wall Street’s financial wizards engineered diabolically complicated investments linked to mortgages, generating huge amounts of speculative capital that turned real estate into a conflagration....

  Mortgage brokers netted commissions as they lent almost indiscriminately, offering exotically lenient terms — no money down, no income or job required. Wall Street banks earned billions selling risky mortgage-linked securities around the world, aided by ratings agencies that branded them solid.

  Through it all, a lot of ordinary Americans borrowed a lot more money then they could afford to pay back, running up enormous credit card bills and borrowing against the value of their homes. Now comes the day of reckoning.

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/economy/19econ.html?pagewanted=3&hp

• 

  undecidedbout08 at 06:36 PM JST - 20th July

  Bush lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling. The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires in about two months. SoH Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seem intent on reimposing a ban. Democrats are taking a very foolish gamble here. Gotta side with Republicans,and the majority (76%) of Americans on this issue - "Energy is Freedom".

• 

  GW at 10:14 PM JST - 20th July

  undecided,

  ok in a few years you might get a few more quarts of oil, freedom..........duh!

  You want freedom, america is going to have to do a major rethink on how it goes about things, either that or quit kissing the Saudis butts & just go over there & take`em over & their oil for yourselves, I see that happening quicker than gooing for a few quarts of offshore stuff.

  And do you think oil wud be where it is today if the shrub didnt screw up by going into Iraq, the whole world is reaping the #$%& bush has sown, and we dont thank you very much!

• 

  Betzee at 04:44 AM JST - 21st July

  I for one am glad conservatives, and conversatism is really more a philosophy than an ideology, are taking stock of where they've brought the country:

  “We’ve been extremely discouraged by the policy trajectory of the Bush administration, with big increases in unfunded entitlements, big increases in deficit spending, considerable growth in government regulation,” said Mr. DeMuth [outgoing president of the American Enterprise Institute]. Other conservatives point to the failure to deal with Hurricane Katrina and a foreign policy that includes the mismanaged war in Iraq. They are familiar criticisms. But what’s new is the acknowledgment that these were not simply one administration’s missteps, but evidence of deeper rot. As Mr. DeMuth put it, “Some rethinking has to be done on the deep philosophical questions.”

  “Now there’s the sense that the Republican Party is clearly on the defensive, and potentially heading for a disastrous election,” said Norman Ornstein, a longtime scholar at A.E.I. who specializes in legislative issues. “Even if John McCain wins, it’s not at all clear what that means in terms of ideas that conservatives have promoted. There is a division on what role we play in the world, what a smaller government means.”

• 

  Gyudon at 09:19 AM JST - 21st July

  You'd think that the Pelosi-controlled congress' 9% approval rating would inspire Pelosi to look at her own repeated miserable failures as a leader. Then again, when was the last time anyone in congress ever took responsibility for the idiodic decisions they make??

  I also got a great laugh from SushiSake3's post. Terrorism was quite rampant before Bush took office, progress in Iraq is so stunningly good that people are talking about an advanced withdrawl schedule, how does a tax cut siphon anything from an economy, the weakening of finanical institutions is almost exclusively due to congressional acts allowing people who have no ability to repay a loan getting one in the name of 'fairness', a weak currency is a boon for exporters, fuel prices are determined by supply and demand so when congress & the whacko environmentalists deter more supply at every turn people hedge their bets and the price rises, and while the inane remark about taxes is a whopper it takes second place to the total farce we call man-made global warming.

  Whew. There is always a lot to say when liberals start putting up demonstrably backwards ideas.

• 

  Betzee at 09:53 AM JST - 21st July

  Maybe Pelosi read this: (BTW, gyudon, you left how why large deficits are a benefit but I'm sure you can think of a reason).

  According to the July 1 survey of 1,000 likely voters, only 9 percent of respondents said Congress is doing a good or excellent job, while 52 percent surveyed said Congress was doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that category.

  Republicans, eager to portray Democratic leaders as running the Congress into the ground, pounced on the numbers. But the negative perceptions of Congress as a whole do not seem to be greatly affecting views of the majority party.

  Democrats still enjoy a 12 percentage point lead on Rasumssen’s generic congressional ballot, despite the negative views of Congress as a whole.

  In addition, Democrats can point to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken in mid-June, which found that by a 52 percent to 33 percent margin, people said they would rather see Democrats retain control of Congress in November.

  That 19-point spread favoring Democrats is the largest recorded for either party since the question was first asked in 1994.

  http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0708/Congressionalapprovalratingshitnew_lows.html

• 

  Blue_Tiger at 02:53 PM JST - 21st July

  zurcronium - and Bush's ratings in his home disctrict are triple Pelosi's? Who cares about that? The fact is Nancy Pelosi promised change, promised to clean up congress, promised to end the war and end funding, and promised to curtail the GOP, none of which she has delivered on. The fact that Bush has used his veto powers is irrelevent to the discussion: Pelosi has promised, promised, promised and renegged on all of them. And further, when push has come to shove about her promise to cut off funding for the War on Terror, she has backed off every time with her tail between her legs, and the rest of the DEMs in Congress foillowing suit. Tip O'Neill must be rolling over in his grave!!!

  The fact is, Pelosi is more of a colossal failure than Bush has ever had nightmares about, and the US Electorate could do us all a favour and vote the Democrats right out. What is hilariously hypocritical is that Pelosi won with the help of ultra-conservative DINOs, who've remade the Democrat Party Base into something Pelosi and Reid never dreamed it'd be. Go Blue Dogs...

• 

  Gyudon at 08:34 PM JST - 21st July

  I'm not sure why I'd ever say that large deficits are a benefit, but there are probably liberals out there who think that's the case. I'll have to think about it... I especially love it when they start talking higher taxes and limiting freedom as good things.

• 

  Badsey at 06:43 AM JST - 22nd July

  I agree with Pelosi, except that she didn't include herself and congress in the quote. This failure has been building for more than 8 years and it's finally reached critical mass. If these elected leaders can't correct things the future will be very dismal. Thankfully the states seem to be doing somewhat better besides Pelosi's California.

  If things get much worse there will be riots and revolts. No one wants to be President now and there certainly isn't any leadership in congress either. A big group needs to go on strike or something. Airlines, truckers, garbage collectors etc. I want some picketing too.

• 

  Gyudon at 05:54 PM JST - 22nd July

  I say get these elected leaders to quit meddling in things they shouldn't be in the first place. You just have to look at Michigan & California to see what a mess over-regulating liberal politicians can make.

• 

  def at 02:00 AM JST - 24th July

  Pelosi can be both wrong and right at the same time. Bush is a total failure. And in the future, it will be said, "he was a total failure." Doesn't mean she'll be given credit for a job well done. Of course, anyone working in American politics today are doing an uphill battle, against a system inclined not to work.

Register or login to add a comment!