"Nobody knew how bad the economy was going to be.."

[kentuck]

I heard a guest say that on TV this morning.

No doubt, in hindsight, it would have been better if Obama had not said the "stimulus" would keep unemployment from going above 8% per cent. Now, the Repubs are using it as a campaign issue.

But, did anyone think the economy was in such dire straits? Except, of course, for a few enlightened ones here on DU?

After the frightful speech by Bush and Paulson, and the collapse of the banks, and the crash of Wall Street, why would anyone think the economy would be worse than 8% unemployment? :sarcasm:

And now, the Repubs are prepared to take advantage of their fine deeds. Their hard work of crashing the US economy is finally going to pay off. The American people will put them back into power for the great job they did the last time.

Nobody knew the economy was going to be this bad... Yeah, right.

[HughBeaumont]

1. The monster-pile price to pay for pleasing one elite group will kill us for decades:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/HughBeaumont/123

[Warpy]

2. All they had to do was to read the Economy forum right here

because we've been saying for years that it was going to get this bad, why it was inevitable, and what needs to be done to repair the damage.

[babylonsister]

3. Christina Romer said that very thing recently...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36795781/Not-My-Father-s-Recession

Check out pg. 3-4.

[Brickbat]

4. Gosh, that sounds familiar.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. "We never knew they would fly planes into buildings"

Heard this song before.

[haele]

6. "Nobody" = every cool kid who snoozed through 20th cent. US History.

Robber Barons, Guilded Age-kewl, they got rich; Union busting-blah, blah; Harding/Cooledge - blah, blah; Black Monday-Blah, Blah; Great Depression..zzzzz, let's go get a coffee....
Most Conservitive Economic schools from the 80's on downplayed history and actual results for "innovative economic models" for class-based profit. 'Cause everyone knows that Historical actuality and results have a "Liberal Bias". Dam' Keynes and the Unions. "Everyone" knows that his "theories" don't really work, 'cause the "best people" don't end up with all the money at the end.



Haele

[xchrom]

7. Dems and repukes - they're all lying when they say that.

And they tell that lie to keep tax dollars flowing to corporate
Interests.

[WingDinger]

8. I had believed that by Bush's end, we would collapse. They called me paranoid.

I had watched us cast off our industrial capacity, for short term profits for years. Knew the end would be hard to navigate, without actual national productive capacity. Until all came true that I expected, I was a pariah. After, yawn, the collapse is old news, OR, barney and christopher and Clinton. The right uses lies in their service as tools.

[BeFree]

9. Nobody knew we are so f'd up

Except for those damn hippies.

[Bluerthanblue]

10. personally, I don't believe it had to get this bad-

I think some of what is happening is fueled by the constant negative news coverage of "how f*$ked up everything is, and will continue to be"...

Not to say, that all we need is a good pep-talk, or that the power of positive thinking will make all the difference, but the constant unending, dire predictions and emphasis on how bad things are doesn't act as much inspiration.

It's important to take stock of where you are and how you've gotten there, but if you get stuck in that place you may end up fulfilling your own dire prophesies.

"I told you so" hasn't brought me much comfort in the few times in life I've had the right to say it.

fwiw.

:hi:

[kentuck]

13. I don't think the "negative" news...

affects the businesses that are sitting on $1.8 trillion in capital very much.

[Bluerthanblue]

17. it affects the businesses that fail because people

cut back on spending because of the 24/7 prognostications about how bad things are and how bleak the future is though.

And that in turn affects other businesses and so on, and so on right down the line.


http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/02/the-depression-narrative-as-a-selffulfilling-prophecy.html

[kentuck]

18. You may be right?

But I'm not sure if the reality is really worse than the negative talk?

[notesdev]

19. The reality is MUCH worse than the 'negative talk'

People who have not sought out independent sources of information and done their own evaluation are going to be simply stunned at the way their standard of living is going to drop over the next few years.

I've already made what I believe to be the necessary lifestyle adjustments, but for those with a mortgage, credit cards, car payments, student loans, etc., they're in for one hell of a rude awakening.

What needs to be done is that we simply need to take our lumps, let failed institutions fail, throw the crooks in jail, and adjust our trade policies so as not to encourage either offshoring of jobs nor importation of labor.

Instead it appears that we're going "all in" on keeping up the illusion that major structural adjustments are not necessary, and as long as we do that this is going to drag on and on and on... presuming they don't blow up the government finances entirely, which would usher this situation to a quick (and ugly) immediate adjustment.

Personally, I say default the national debt, end fractional reserve banking, end the central bank and its grossly unconstitutional role, put all the bankers responsible for the various Ponzi schemes that masqueraded as "financial innovation" in jail (or simply hang them, most are too dangerous to risk exposing society to their depredations again). There's a reason why this country has, multiple times, abolished its central bank - because we have had leaders who understood that to surrender the monetary system to private banks means surrendering the whole country.

[Bluerthanblue]

20. what you say is likely true-

but I guess I'm for wanting more "rage against the dying of the light" and not quite ready for 'going gently into that good night'.

Our children deserve to look forward with something other than dread.

~peace
:hi:

[notesdev]

11. IF the GOP gets back into power

It will not be the Bush cabal and his cronies running the show. The Tea Partiers now claim more voting power than the GOP establishment, as evidenced by the unceremonious ejection of one Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Of course, if your concern is the economy, then it must pain you to know Obama's economic team is full of the same folks who were all too happy to assist Hank & Friends in looting, pillaging, and crashing the economy. Bernanke, Geithner and Summers in particular were all instrumental in bringing us into ruin, and yet here they are, appointees of a Democratic President and continuing their slash-and-burn economic policies undiminished - as if no change of administration had occurred at all.

[kentuck]

12. Thanks. That should make everyone feel better.

:-(

[notesdev]

15. Not meant to make people feel better

I mean to keep peoples' eye on the ball. The game being played has the top echelon of both parties acting as agents of the oligarchy, and the more clearly we all understand that, the more effectively we can fight it.

[kentuck]

16. I'm not saying I disagree with you...

It's that sometimes the truth is hard to accept.

[BeFree]

14. No Change?

That's right. As for this "gets back into power"... They never let go.

Oh, there are fewer of them in elected office, but elected officials are a minute minority in DC. And elected Dems are half of that.