Stimulus....

[Tim Liston]

I don't get it. We loaded up with debt and easy money in order to buy more and bigger everything, and now all that debt has pretty much choked our economy.

So what are we doing about it? More debt and easy money so we can maintain the status quo. Soon we'll be printing $825 billion dollars to spread around....

I read on other threads about making sure the city and schools get their “fair shareâ€

[ryan costa]

the higher up you go in the markets, the more irrational it gets. gold is a toy, and if you buy it, odds are you're buying a certificate that says you own it.

we need higher tariffs, lower payroll taxes, higher corporate income taxes, and higher capital gains taxes. we need smaller stores, smaller schools, more rail.

[Bill Call]

I don't get it. We loaded up with debt and easy money in order to buy more and bigger everything, and now all that debt has pretty much choked our economy.

So what are we doing about it? More debt and easy money so we can maintain the status quo. Soon we'll be printing $825 billion dollars to spread around......................

Obama's plan is to add $6 trillion to the national debt over the next four years. Most of the money will be newly printed or newly borrowed. The underlying theory is that huge increases in borrowing and spending lead to sustained economic recovery. Japan tried a similar plan in the 1990's. The result was a decade of economic stagnation.

This plan is really a slavery reparations plan disguised as an economic plan.

Your analysis is correct. Inflated asset values were used to increase debt so the owners of the assets could buy more stuff. Much of this stimulas plan is designed to inflate asset values so people can buy more stuff.

You are also correct to be dismayed about calls by every constituency to get a big piece of the action. It feeds the demand for the debasement of the currency and the hollowing out of our economy. However, in the Obamanation the first duty of a citizen is to get a bigger piece of the action.

To hell with the long term consequences. Do you want Lakewood to be the only City that doesn't get its fair share?

Ultimately the Obamanation will resemble Zimbabwe more than Canada.

Curiously enough that will suit Obama just fine. Economic chaos and despair feed the desire for a more powerful state which feeds the chaos which feeds the power of the State.

Obey

[ryan costa]

Japan suffered the consequences of its success. its success was at making most things better than us, then selling to a market much bigger than Japan. Its consequence was a great increase in stock prices and real estate prices. In his book, Pacific Rift, Michael Lewis wrote something like, "In Tokyo, everyone is a millionaire".

Just as the roaring 20s caused the Great Depression, Japans bull stock market caused its recession. Japans significance will decrease as the rest of Asia's "grows", assuming they will continue lending us money to buy their stuff. it is almost like a reverse Marshall Plan.

Japan's intense reliance on imported oil, combined with maniacal land conservation practices, have left them without the sprawl liabilities America has. There aren't many wal-marts in Japan.

America blew its post-WWII windfall on suburban sprawl and outsourcing. Rebuilding cities and old industrial towns along old rail lines is more important than enabling more sprawl with more outsourcing.

While the Reagan years and Bush years did the most to dig the hole we are in, there is no conventional wisdom for getting out of the hole. this hole is unprecedented.

Nothing in President Obama's press releases indicates a commitment to the idea of reparations for slavery. It is just a coincidence that most old industrial cities have many more blacks than they used to. The United States of America fought against the Confederate States to tentatively end slavery. The Confederate States of America fought against the United States of America to continue slavery indefinitely.

[Tim Liston]

I love the smell of fresh printed money in the morning....

That solvent smell in the ink....

It smells like....

VICTORY!

[Jim DeVito]

We should have let thing fail the last time around. Yeah it would have sucked but it would all have worked out in the end. Insted we seem intent on drawing our problems out for many years to come.

just had to throw that out there.

[Stephen Eisel]

the best clicky ever