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| Economy |
| Why Obama's big economic gamble is failing |
| 2009-06-21 |
| ...Obama wagered that the deluge of money coming from the Federal Reserve would do the heavy lifting as far as stabilizing the financial sector and keeping the already apparent recession from turning into a real disaster. Voters would, thus, continue to support his policies to assert more government control over healthcare, heavily regulate energy through a costly cap-and-trade program and further intervene into the financial industry. The gamble appears to have failed miserably, both economically and politically. The terrible tale of the tape: a) the current downturn is arguably the worse since the Great Depression; b) household wealth has fallen by $14 trillion during the past two years, including the first quarter of 2009; c) while the economy may not shrink as much this quarter as it did in the previous three months (-5.7 percent) or the final quarter of 2008 (-6.3 percent), unemployment is soaring; d) Obama himself said the jobless rate will hit 10 percent this year; d) even worse, the Federal Reserve sees it approaching 11 percent next year. (Recall, that the original White House economic analysis of the Obama economic plan never saw unemployment exceeding 8 percent if Obamanomics was passed by Congress.) |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #17 I keep 12-15 gallons of water stored at all times against power outages in winter and tornado outages in summer. But I get distilled water -- not as healthy as the regular stuff, I know -- and use it for ironing. Thus my stored water is rotated through, and never is stored long enough to go bad. Barbara, how about using your gasoline stash to fill the lawn mower and top off the car, that way you could rotate it every few weeks. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-06-21 23:57 |
| #16 I have kept gas with Sta-bil preserving it for 2 years, both in the gas tank & in a 5-gal can, it was able to start both my tiller & brush shredder right off. You need to add it as soon as you buy the gasoline. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-06-21 23:39 |
| #15 RJ - do you know how long gasoline will last (with the addition of an additive to lengthen its usefulness, of course)? I store gas for the generator, but even with test-running the generator, I can go years without using up the gas unless we get a bad storm. That's the main reason I have only a one-gallon can of gas stored. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-06-21 21:32 |
| #14 Along the same theme as well as a well stocked pantry, we always keep some cash on hand, (Real green stuff, not checks) sometimes the Banks simply are NOT available. Power out, severe storms, Truck not running, Tornado, roof missing, computers down, etc. By the samee token, have some gasoline stored, if power's out, so are gas station's pumps. WalMart registers, Traffic lights, and so forth. 5 gallons is plenty. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-21 20:49 |
| #13 We southerners have always believed in a well stocked Pantry. You never know. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-21 20:38 |
| #12 Next thing you know Bambi will be seizing 'white Stockholder owned' companies and transferring ownership to his buddies from Chicago... Ummmm, General Motors? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-21 20:36 |
| #11 I have always stockpiled kippers. Mmmmmmmmmmm... |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2009-06-21 20:35 |
| #10 The problem is that people like Presidents Clinton, Bush, the Big O, Dodd, Frank, et al, created this crisis as a byproduct of very bad legislation. Wall Street and the banks ran with it. Govt regulators were in bed with the Congress, President, Wall Street, and the Banks. It is an ince$tous relationship, and what else do you expect from this unholy alliance? It will get worse until the cast of characters causing this crisis is removed from office. Otherwise we just go zimbob. Stockpile rice, wheat, canned goods, etc etc. It is responsible in many ways. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul back home 2009-06-21 19:20 |
| #9 Dale: You don't have to be 80. Obama is picking the best of some bad options. He can ignore the $14 Trillion in wealth disapearing, or work the money pump. If he ignores the problem, we get deflation and massive unemployment like the great depression. If he floods with money, he has the problem problem of sopping up the excess when the economy recovers (Massive inflation, starving pensioners) The best he can hope for is a carter like stagflation, which makes him a one term president. |
| Posted by: flash91 2009-06-21 19:01 |
| #8 Well that's a real shock to me! Throwing good money after bad, and then making bad currency will surely change things... /sarcasm. When will they learn that money REPRESENTS the economy? What their doing is like trying to steer a ship by holding a magnet near the compass... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-06-21 18:08 |
| #7 After all it worked so well for ZimBOB right? Next thing you know Bambi will be seizing ' |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-06-21 17:18 |
| #6 The obvious answer to this is more regulation, government healthcare, nationalized industries, and on and on. /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2009-06-21 16:55 |
| #5 And to this we must recall Rahm's admonition "Never waste a good crisis." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-21 15:16 |
| #4 Much of the crisis was already in motion when O was inaugurated. No matter what could have been done (by anyone), it would have gotten worse before it improved, and it would take quite a while to improve. I wouldn't say O gambled, but that he is trying the impossible, using the same methods that created the crisis to solve it, such as trying to keep ridiculously high housing prices inflated. O is relying on the same executive talent that created the problem and proved incapable of understanding what they were wreaking until it was far too late. Cap-&-trade can only impede economic growth. You can't get enough of what you don't need/want. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-06-21 15:08 |
| #3 If the government has more control over more economic activity than it had before, it isn't a failure in the statist's scorebook, is it? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2009-06-21 14:37 |
| #2 Plenty of rice and kippers, Bybel en Mauser. ~<(:-) |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-21 12:03 |
| #1 I have noticed that among those 80 and older that they have begun to stockpile canned goods. The reason being that just before the great depression things were as they are now. Next they say cash will become difficult to secure then you know what follows. Most young people I talk to can't put back now. |
| Posted by: Dale 2009-06-21 10:28 |