Lauer to Cramer: Why don't you just lie about the economy?
By John Amato Wednesday Jan 16, 2008 6:45pm
Wall Street was not a happy camper today.
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On the TODAY show this morning, Matt Lauer had the nerve to ask Jim Cramer why he doesn't just lie about the economy to his viewers.
Lauer: ...they say why don't you guys stop talking about recession because simply by talking about it, you're going to freak out consumers and definitely push us into one. Is there any logic to that thinking?
Cramer: The answer is that we can, we have to point out the positives with the negatives.
Lauer: But if consumer confidence in spending is a large part of what goes into possibly creating a recession, by talking about it, is there an emotional side to it?
Cramer: There is, but also we have to report the news. And there is an astounding decline in business in the country. If we say that there isn't, we cannot be possible doing our jobs.
In other words, STFU! Yea Matt, forget about the truth. Hell, it worked so well in the run up to the war in Iraq, didn't it? Logic in Lying---stick your head in the sand. I hate to break it to Matt, but these NAFTA lovers lie on teevee day in and day out about the economy. (I'm not saying that this is Matt's opinion on the subject because of the way he framed the question)
I've been watching the Stock shows on FOX and CNBC for a long time now and outside of a very small percentage of "experts" that try to tell the truth about the state of our nation's economy---most are Milton Friedman, free market capitalist pigs that will say anything to sell their ideals and I mean anything. If the economy is great---it's time for more tax cuts and---if the economy is bad---we need more tax cuts. They bow at the alter of Tax cuts. In other words, evidence and pragmatism be damned, just give those wealthy corporations tax cuts for evah!
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I'm gonna give Laur the benefit of the doubt and ASSUME he's just playing devil's advocate.
I work on the wholesale side as a distributor, and I could have told you this was coming over six months ago.
Anyone who listens to, and follows the advice of, any of these guys should get what they deserve. The market is all a big scam anyway. My favorite use to be the Capitalist Pig on FauxNews who looks just like Alfred E. Newman. He was a hoot.
Cramer does lie about the economy. All the time.
Who would ever notice that every fourth person on thier street has been laid off and that absolutely nothing is affordable anymore?
They are proposing stimulus plans.
It is in trouble.
Gold is doing well.
I think it's not only recession, but the upside at best is stagflation. Due to endless borrowing, the currency is being devalued. The answer is fiscal responsibilities, best left to people who believe in the scientific method. I think not only are the politicians and pundits lying, but the self-indulgent "me" generation have been lying to themselves, what with the massive credit-card debt and massive mortgages. Doesn't help that our politicians are owned by multi-national corporations with multi-national owners. The government in turns controls the mass media through regulation, which controls the message voters see and hear.
Absent fundamental change, (meaning fiscal responsibility), we'll be pushing a shopping cart filled with dollars to buy a loaf of bread one of these days. I think that fundamental change can only occur by public financing of political campaigns.
Sven @ 1:
sad to say.......I think you're wrong.......but I admire to optimist in you.But reality says......he's a ......................................douche bag.He's proven himself to be one far to many times.
20 dollars doesn't go very far anymore.
The stock and commodities market is one economy and they don't liste to Cramer or Lauer or even (gasp) Billo. They are way to busy making money out of air.
What goes on in the business world, the production, buying and selling of merchandise is quite another. The real middle class, the real lower class, are far too busy surviving to pay a lot of attention to Cramer. They're trying to figure out how, on relatively static incomes, to pay for fuel, groceries, and ever increasing share of the cost of healthcare and an education for their kids.
The well to do, not the super rich, but the families making $250K to $1M annually are the ones rattled by Mr. Cramer. They may hold off on that new Beemer or the camp on the lake. They have to decide between mild cheddar and brie, domestic wines or imports, Crown Royal or CC. They are also the Republican middle class. LOL
THe ridiculous part is that the Cramers and the Lauers seem totally unaware of the real blue and white collar workers. They worry about folks like themselves, Fiji or Bermuda??? The horror of that choice
EACH TIME ANYONE SAYS 'TAX AND SPEND LIBERALS' REBUKE THEM WITH
"Borrow and spend Conservatives"
You can back it up by pointing to the last seven years in government.
repeat it over and over and over again to them. Get it in the vernacular...just like 'liberal media', 'liberal fascists'.
matt was a good employee for g.e. during the build up to the iraq scam. he's probably thinking that it worked then, why not now, just ignore the evidence to the contrary.
Cramer? Cramer? Are you f'in' kiddig? This is the nitwit that said citywide was a buy right up until it started grabbing air outside of a hundred story window. Lying or talking out their ass is all any of these wall street 'wizards' do. All any slightly observant person had to do was look at one figure, the rise in the national debt over shithead's presidency. He started w/ 5.6 trillion and decreasing and he will leave with near 10 trillion and increasing. The dollar's value has fallen over 30% and oil has risen from $25/bbl to $100/bbl. None of this happen in a flick of an eye. The slide started with dotcom bubble burst, took a steep drop with 9/11 but was made permanent with the tax cuts. Guys like Kucinich and, yes, even that neanderthal Ron Paul, have been warning about this for years. But they are the kooks, right?
Sven @ 1:
There's one in every crowd!!!
:lol:
;)
We must save Tink!!!!
*I DO believe in fairies, I DO believe in fairies, I DO believe in fairies, I DO believe in fairies*
Do you believe? Clap, if you believe! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!!!!!
"..free market capitalist pigs that will say anything to sell their ideals and I mean anything.."
Oh shit..I can just see the trolls crawling out of the wood work behind that remark John.
BTW-I couldn't agree more.
MARK MY WORD!! The fascists are going to come up with a "new term" for "recession". Something catchy, like "good fer ya'll", or maybe "a bit tightening up time"....or some other such nonsense.
Hey, we've been taking our English language and losing it on "interrogation techniques" instead of dastardy and ugly things like "torture"; "surge" instead of something that sounds more involved like "escallation"; "war" instead of "occupation"; and the list goes on and on.
We are idiots! We will simply gobble up this bullshit lying by our government...in this case, the fascist neocons, and mislabel everything so it doesn't sound "evil".
We really are idiots to let them pull this bullshit, and more of an idiot are the media who perpetuate this lying and bullshit to the public. They deserve the first class car to hell along with bush and his cronnies.
Well they DID all lie when the dot-com boom went bust.
Big brokerage houses -- Merrill Lynch, for one notorious example -- reassured all their small investors "The market is stable; stocks are historically the best investment; blah blah blah."
While at the same time telling their big investors to get out of the market ASAP.
And the BIG FISH got even BIGGER by eating the little fish.
Of course the big brokerage houses took no responsibilty for their tainted advice. Just read the fine print: ".. at your own risk .. if you believe what we say."
Time was the broker was responsible for his investment advice. Prescott Bush lost everything in the Crash of 29, cuz all his Gold Bond customers lost everything. That's when his business partner Averell Harriman bailed Prescott out with a large cash advance and put him in charge of the Hitler Accounts at his Wall Steet Firm.
And that's where Prescott made his $$$ to invest in oil and enter politics.
"Reporting the news" is an idea popular in the reality-based community, but modern news organizations realize that ever since 9/11 we now live in a different world. It's no longer enough to find out what the news is, you also have to decide what it should be and report that as well.
Anyone who says otherwise hates freedom.
Score one for Cramer. He's not one to believe in the New Deal reforms that made this country what it was from the 30s-70s, but at least he's telling the truth. At least he has some semblance of "hey, if I lie, my head's gonna be on the chopping block."
Guys, I'm sorry, but my wife was an economics major in college, and Matt is raising a legitimate point that even economists discuss. This segment looks terribly scripted, and it is a rather safe point to say that the greater proliferation of the term recession, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hold Lauer or Cramer in high esteem; Lauer throws too many softballs and Cramer is going to give himself cardiac arrest. Nor do I think that the term recession is being misapplied; the fundamentals I see in bonddad's posts show that we're heading for quite a spell of trouble. However, this is making a mountain out of a molehill.
Oh and also, instead of saying "Borrow and Spend" republicans, the term "Borrow and Squander" is much more accurate and emotionally effective.
grooming his resumé for fox news.
eh, matt?
The MSM won't quit until there is no truth left on the air. It is their biggest commitment.
WORK WITH ME HERE ...
If republicans think that all tax cuts will raise Federal revenues, then following their "logic", simply eliminating ALL taxes would give the government an INFINITE amount of money in revenues.
Rightttt
it's time for all those "let's cut taxes for the rich corporations" congressman/women and lobyists to have their family jewels ripped off.........that will stop some of this tax cut
for any reason bunch of reichwing bastards.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/breaking_news_all_online_data
Know the difference between a used car salesman and Cramer?
The used car salesman knows when he's lying.
Why not give financial updates dressed like Henry the frickin' eighth, surrounded by unwashed servants who shovel hundred dollar bills into a furnace while a bourgeoisie entourage looks on and laughs? Why not, Cramer? Why?
I remember during the runup to the war, Matt Liar and Couric were in Qatar, acting like it was spring break, and the most important thing they talked about was how to pronounce the country's name.
Now here we are. The GOP controlled Congress since 1992 and the whole sheebang for the last seven years. All their BS policies are now coming home to roost. We're screwed.
Dear John,
Please repeat after me: We do not have a free market.
As long as the Federal Reserve continues to exist, America can not have a free market. Anyone who talks about tax cuts without mentioning the Federal Reserve can not be a "Free Marketeer". What they are advocating is something else, call it Corporatism or Fascism (the Italian kind) or whatever, but it is not free trade.
The looming recession was caused by the artificially low interest rates created by the Federal Reserve. Now here comes the Federal Reserve riding in on a white horse to save us (from the problems it created) by printing more money. Hurray!
NAFTA is not free trade.
People, read the sign behind Lauer! It says, "How do we fix the economy?"
That's "How do we FIX the economy?" You know, as in "The fix is in." :)
HulksHeroes @ 17:
I laughed at first at your 'new terms'.Then I remembered Pres. Ford actually came on TV and hawked big buttons that said 'STAMP OUT INFLATION'.I swear I am not making this up.
mudshark @ 9:
$20 bill..........isn't that the new $1 bill under the bush/cheney administration?
Jay Severin Has a Small Pen1s @ 11:
:) Yep.
Or, as Bill Maher put it: Yes, Democrats tax and spend. That's what a government does. It taxes and it spends. It's a lot better than the Republican mode: Dine and Dash.
dmhlt @ 24:
Carefull,there bub. Say it too loud and 29% of the country will say 'brillient!'.
When it come to Douchebaggery...Lauer is your man.
Reporters have to report the news?!?!?!?!? What kind of crazy idea is this???? Let's face it, Cramer never learned that kind of nonsense in journalism school!!!
Matt however graduated from the "if you don't talk about it, it isn't real" school. You know, the George Bush school of journalism. Make your own reality and ignore the "real" world.
I Hate the Corporate Media Whores !
NBC ='S GE.... The GE mafia can't have the (sheep) consumers loosing confidence in the (debt slavery) economy.
sedrik39 @ 21:
I see your point, but I would argue that it's wishful thinking to avoid the use of the term "recession" in the hope that it won't become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's obvious that the handwriting on the wall is getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and no amount of avoidance of uttering scary words is going to negate the message being writ. I think they should have been shouting it louder and more often, much earlier, because for many Americans that's what it takes to get them to sit up and really take notice and prepare themselves.
The Powers That Be will refer to it as a "fiscal adjustment" and continue to play their fiddles while our budgets burn.
David Hawes @ 32:
I pretty certain the buttons were "WIN!" for Whip Inflation Now! And yes, very laughable.
Lauer is implying a common fallacy among "Keynesian" economists. They believe that a recession is caused by a drop in consumer spending. But they have cause and effect reversed. A recession causes people to spend less and save more. It seems pretty obvious to me. If possible bad times are staring you in the face, you don't go get a plasma on credit, you save. Or at least you try to save, with all the inflation that's going to happen when the Federal Reserve trys to bail out the economy...
"free market capitalist pigs..."
Wtf dude?
What makes you think the American economy resembles anything even remotely like a free market?
You think the WTO is pushing free markets?
You think NAFTA is a free market thing?
Jeezus are you THAT ignorant?
We have no free market...our economy is so crazily tilted to favor corporations right now that I can't believe ANYONE can refer to it a as free market without choking on the lie. It starts with the Federal Reserve, it's impossible to have a free market when the foundation of the currency is fucking debt! That alone puts the consumer at a HUGE disadvantage. Maybe that's why so many here don't understand Dr Paul. It's because they have folks like you who are clueless on how the economy in the USA is actually designed.
A free market economy MUST start with a currency that doesn't put you in debt merely by acquiring it!
A free market economy is one where the corporations don't write the laws or police themselves.
A free market economy is where contracts are honored AND enforced.
Nafta is NOT free market. Nafta is FREE Corporations.
WTO is NOT free market, WTO is BIG Business OWNING government.
If you REALLY understood free market, you'd embrace it in a heartbeat.
A free market is one in which the CONSUMER is empowered. You Don't WANT that?
I really don't think you prefer to NOT be empowered, I really just think you don't know what a free market really is.
And Milton Friedman it AINT.
America has been in a steady decline for 20 years now.
The U.S. Federal debt was $1.142 trillion in 1982.
On September 30, 2007 the U.S. government owed $8.993 trillion. America is spending 7% more then what it earns or produces each year.
The only reason America "appeared" to be recovering since the 1982 recession is because the Americans borrowed 10 trillion dollars.
I would think that America is now about 40 or 50 trillion in the hole and credit card debt is another trillion dollars.
The only reason that there was a Dot-Com Boom was because the American's allowed every corporation to buy all types of technology equipment/programs and write the complete cost off. The excuse America used was the "Y2K Bug". The American government created the Dot-Com Boom as a means to stimulate the faltering economy.
The same thing goes for the Sub-Prime crisis. This was a deliberate and intentional policy of the American government in an effort to stimulate retail sales. Before instituting this lending scheme, the American governnment brought in new personal bankruptcy laws in 2005. Then the American bankers encouraged the lending of money to unsuspecting home buyers and who can't very easily declare personal bankruptcy. The American government used this loan scheme to pour billions into the economy. 60% of American employment is tied to the construction industry and it is American home owners who feed the retail sector.
This "Recession" is going to be worse then 1982. All the American politicians are talking about stimulating the economy but America is bankrupt. They can't even raise enough cash to bail out the banks. Just this week, the largest bank in the U.S. had to go to Singapore and China to grab some cash to stave off bankruptcy. There is no way that they will find any cash to save the decline of America. Even the insurance companies which insured these sub-prime loans are now bankrupt.
The auto sector is bankrupt. The major auto manufacturers are selling off all their assets before they declare bankruptcy. If they did not sell their assets to India and China, then the workers are entitled to seize assets in lieu of lost pension funds. With the selling of the assets now, the shareholders are raping the pension fund and running off with the dividends now.
American's think that they are immune from the same financial disaster which the U.S.S.R. suffered through in the 80's or as every other past empire had happen all throughout history. In the next five years, 75 million Americans who were born after WWII, are gonna be standing in line to collect social security at 23 thousand dollars per year. In addition; Public Sector (civil servants) Retirement Benefits will cost $2.73 trillion. There is no way in hell that the Capitalist System can ever hope to keep the promises made to the Working Class over the past 50 years.
The Federal government can't even face up to their responsibilities to those disabled folks who qualify right now for social security payments. For sure the government will not be able to meet the payments for the 75 million expected retirees during the next 5 years.
Disabled And Waiting
CBS News Investigation: Backlog In Disability Benefits System Leaves Thousands Of Vulnerable Americans Stranded
A two-month CBS News investigation has found that over the last two years, at least 16,000 people fighting for disability benefits died while awaiting a decision.
Overall, the backlog of cases now stands at 750,000 - up 150 percent since 2000.
It could take 2.5 years to get your hearing.
Examiners warned by their superiors that approving claims today could cost the government millions tomorrow.
"So are you saying, in essence, there was a quota system?" Keteyian asked.
"Every state had different numbers," she said. "They know that a certain percentage of people, once denied, will never file an appeal."
January 14, 2008
Part I of II
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/14/cbsnews_investigates/main37126...
Part II of II
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/15/cbsnews_investigates/main37181...
If executives at Enron, Tyco or Worldcom resort to such financial mismanagement, cheating shareholders out of their future retirement, they end up in jail.
When politicians do it, they get re-elected.
And don’t forget the spiraling costs of health care of an aging population.
This is why all the "Domestic" terrorism laws have been introduced. Martial Law will be imposed. I think that the establishment would prefer that Obama become president because the Lower Class are more likely to listen to "One Of Their Own" as the economy crumbles.
China is the new kid on the block.
As America declares "bankruptcy", a new currency will need to be in place and it will be called the "Amero" and it will be the currency for all of North America. (Mexico, U.S.A. and Canada.)
Quiz: What kind of Anarchist are you?
By BiffoTheBear
http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=37281
Thing Fish @ 41:
You are correct sir! Thanx for the memory. Ugh.
David Hawes @ 32:
Actually it was a WIN button that stood for Whip Inflation Now. Just reporting the facts, please understand that I'm not trying to beat on anyone Mr. DHS@35.
we did what we were told, we bought and sold. roger waters.
David Hawes @ 32:
No, they said Whip Inflation Now, and were referred to as WIN buttons. My classmate Dina R. received one with a personal letter from Ford. The perks of living in the President's home town, I guess.
I'll stop by the Ford Presidential Museum if you'd like me to get one for ya. It's about 5 minutes from my apartment.
Andy K @ 48:
See above.Ummmm No,but thanx.i lived through it once,already.
You want the truth?
- Lauer is a Drone
- Cramer is a liar
- The economy is proper fucked
And I'm just some nitwit with a keyboard.
Thank you for noticing this interview on the Today Show. I thought Lauer's line of questioning was insane.
OMG , Keith Olbermann's line on "Worst Person in da World" tonite ; "...Mike Huckabee's sideways drive-by of Mitt Romney's (don't wanna ruin the punch-line) ..." , , ,
Almost made me spew my aperitif all over the keyboard .........choke,cough..........
Good JOB (as Always) , Keith-O !!!
I prefer it when Cramer's melting down.
I have been saying we are as bad as North Korea sometimes; Lauer proves it.
Good post John.
Once upon a time the financial reporting was more honest than the political but now they have sunk to equal levels; Everything is propaganda.
Check this amazing clip out re fictional financial reportage
Big John @ 55:
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imauniter @ 2:
Big fuck. I'm a tattoo artist & could've told you this was coming after Bush stole the first election in 2000.
Well, Why NOT lie to the American public about the recession? They have lied about everything else. It's so bad now that nobody believes anything coming out of the bush administration anyway. The rest of the world knows.
Meanwhile Canada has put the US on the watch-out list because we are known as a country that TORTURES ... That's right folk, we are now on the same par with places like Darfur, Iran, Libya, Pakistan, etc.
And now we have a Theist running for President who wants to change the Constitution to line up with the Bible, yep the same one that tells people to stone, kill, own slaves etc.
Got your hand-basket, Their lining up for the hell express. (sometimes I wish their were a hell, so these idiots would get it in the end).
Poor old Helecopter Ben Bernanke is going to go down in history as the sacrificial lamb when everything economic went pooooof! I've said it here for a long time and now the pain after the gain begins to take hold. All numbers coming out of government are manipulated as is every segement of the financial markets by the PPT ( Working Group On Financial Markets ), but now the game has to come to an end. At best, both Bernanke as well as the Federal Reserve will be disembowled as the albatross it is. A hold out of the old guard whose only concept of power was to surpress free trade while holding the price of real money " gold" down all these years. The only problem with their way of thinking was that the rest of the world always knew that gold and silver were real money. Not the monopoly money printed by the Fed with nothing but hot air to back it.
The great minds in Washington gave the chinese as well as anyone else who wanted to buy our debt, the ability to one day turn the financial tables on us, and that is exactly what is happening before your very eyes. The dollar is toast and the more we print, the higher the cost of everything goes due to the effects of inflation.
There is plenty of blame to go around, but the yellow brick road heads straight to D.C. where corruption in both politics and banking have prevailed for decades. The rest of the world has had enough and now a new paradigm will be put into effect. Actually, it isn't new, but quite old. It's what the founders of our country called honest money. Constitutional coin in gold and silver and the rest of the world will do the same.
Many may continue to listen to the man behind the curtain, but in reality, the current emperor has no clothes. The moron in chief will probably address the nation soon, but the sad fact is that we will all be paying for living beyond our means for a very, very long time.
Andrew @ 59:
Your so right ... especially about the man behind the curtain.
I figure it has to go something like this. The market has been way OVERSOLD to the little guys, you and me in our pensions, 401k's etc. We been paying top dollar. More and more jobs continue to leave the country leaving fewer and fewer people to fund the bubble, plus the baby boom is about to start getting out of the market. The rich guys have been selling to us for a long time, and have most of our money. If they bust the bubble, the stock market drops like a rock and they can buy their stock back for pennies on the dollar. That way, they own the companies and have all of our money! Mean while, as we retire, we need cash for medical care, etc. etc. etc. and have to take whatever we can get for the stock we hold. They flip the market from a sellers dream, to a buyers dream, and since they got all the cash, they win again!!
Cramer is a clown. Even a monkey with a keyboard can spell a word once in a while.
If any of those reading this blog that do not have a backround in basic finance or economics, I suggest that you go to www.jsmineset.com and start getting educated. The time is very short and things are only going to go downhill very quickly from here.
Posted On: Thursday, January 17, 2008, 5:45:00 PM EST
The Panic Starts
Author: Jim Sinclair
Dear CIGAs,
There is no doubt the Fed and the PPT are meeting right now. A drop of over 300 points on the Dow after the Chairman of the Federal Reserve speaks publicly presages a $1000 break in gold coming quite quickly, if not tomorrow.
Unless the equity markets can be calmed, a panic is about to happen, making the statement "This is it" a horrible reality.
If the equity markets cannot be calmed then:
* Recognize this is the Formula happening like everything else much sooner and much bigger in its implications than anticipated.
* Gold will rise to $1650 as an almost immediate effect of what will be done to attempt to fend off a total panic starting to take place in general equities, therein threatening to be followed by all credit markets of all kinds.
* The funds and hotshot short term traders in gold shares will be killed by the upward explosion of the gold price about to occur.
* The PPT and the Fed will step out of gold’s way because gold is one of the tools used in 1930 by Roosevelt and in 2000 by Bush. It will be used again now on the upside.
* Gold is the only insurance there is against what all this means because a panic in equities will blow the financial system, already coming apart, to smithereens.
* All country funds would shut down on any further investments in "at the wall" financial institutions.
* The rollover in credit and default derivatives would exceed the entire foreign debt of the USA.
* The rest of the $450 trillion dollar mountain of derivatives would start a disintegration like nothing you have every seen in your lifetime.
* Consumer demand would slam shut.
* The auto industry might as well go into liquidation this coming Monday, avoiding the June 2008 rush.
* The US dollar would burn a hole in the floor going directly to .5200 or lower.
* As the dollar disintegrates gold would rocket to and through $1650 in days.
* The markets for general equities would all have to institute total trading halts every 100 points on the downside for 30 minutes each.
* All commercial call loans would be called.
* All debtors one day late on any payment, lacking grace period, would be liquidated. All debtors over one day of the grace period would be liquidated.
* It is clearly visible to anyone with eyes or a mind to think that the PPT has lost all semblance of control in the equity markets and will soon in all remaining markets.
* The commercial paper credit market which is almost dead will die totally.
* Should no emergency action take place soon, you will see an old fashioned panic of the 1929 variety.
* Just as emotional fools sell gold and gold shares, be assured that more emotional general equity fools will unload and bring the averages down more than ever in history in one day.
* Recognize this is the Formula happening like everything else much sooner and much bigger in its implications than anticipated.
* Emergency action will be all splash and theatrics but truthfully the cat is out of the bag. It buys some time but corrects nothing. It makes the Formula 100% correct.
* There now must be EMERGENCY ACTION because the Chairman of the Fed has BOMBED OUT PUBLICLY and a PANIC is about to occur. Expect EMERGECNY ACTION in days, not weeks.
If you have not protected yourself, you may only have days to do so now.
"I’ve been watching the Stock shows on FOX and CNBC for a long time now and outside of a very small percentage of “experts” that try to tell the truth about the state of our nation’s economy—most are Milton Friedman, free market capitalist pigs that will say anything to sell their ideals and I mean anything."
Pigs?.......PIGS?!?!?!
I see the true colors are showing. I hate to break it to anyone, but the recession that exists right now is NOT, I repeat NOT, due to capitalism. It is due to Alan Greenspan's inflation of the money supply in the early 2000's and the more recent shrinkage in the money supply, that is now causing all the businesses that propped up on the back of this easy money, to suffer.
The reason this latest recession is so bad is that Greenspan's injection of money out of thin air (instead of gold which actually has value) was HUGE....and I mean HUGE....it had to be huge because that is the only way Bush's war could be funded...by counterfeiting. Well, inflation of the money supply has disastrous consequences for the economy later on. Sure, things may seem really good, but it cannot last if the prosperity is brought about by artificially decreasing interest rates.
I see that C&L has a poison pill...that is why all the hatred towards economic freedom in all the posts.
"If the economy is great—it’s time for more tax cuts and—if the economy is bad—we need more tax cuts."
And your problem is?? How can tax cuts be bad? If you think the government should have more money, by all means, donate yourself. But please don't presume to make the decision to spend OTHER people's money. You have no right and you know it. Look in the mirror and convince yourself of this real truth that you don't seem to want to accept:
100% of all income taxes in this country go to paying off the interest on government debt. It doesn't go to roads, schools, hospitals, or anything else. It goes to interest payments of the debt that government has borrowed. You see, the government does not have to financially solvent, because people think they are "above" that. Private businesses...those capitalist "pigs" you speak of, would be in JAIL if they engaged in the accounting that the government engages in. Why are you not calling the government "pigs"? It is they who live beyond their means and can get away with it, living a life off of you and me, spending like a drunken sailor, and getting fat off it. They do not have to work for the money they make, but thanks to people like you who tell the world that business is to blame and capitalist pigs are trying to convince the world that there is no recession, well, you haven't read the many private firms who have said MULTIPLE times that we are in a recession.
See, what you are doing is assuming that if the government and major government influenced news media tell you that we are not in a recession, which is what THEY want you to believe, you then take that to mean that the whole country is trying to "screw" with you by convincing you of that which is not true. You are the type of person who wants to have an "official" announcement made by Herr Presidente or policy-makers that there is a recession, who you think are more moral than business because they are supposedly more trustworthy. If there is no announcement, then you turn around and blame business and not the causes for all this BS in the first place.
Tax cuts, given to anyone, anywhere, at any time, ALL serve to benefit the wage earner. You do not want to accept that taxes given to anyone actually end up hurting the wage earner no matter who is taxed. You assume that if corporations are taxed, then the wage earner is not affected.
This is false because if corporations are taxed, then they are forced to pay less in wages than it otherwise would have been. These taxes could have been spent on wages and capital goods, both of which increase the standard of living of the average wage earner. Real wages are never raised if money wage rates are increased. This is the most fundamental error that anti-capitalist pigs think. If money wage rates are increased, then prices rise, because costs go up. Thus the wage earner is no better off than before. The only basis for rising standards of living for the wage earner is if the PRODUCTIVITY OF LABOR increases, which means if more is produced with the same labor. Thus the best way to benefit the wage earner is if business taxes are reduced as much as that can be. That way, the maximum amount possible will be spent on machinery and wages RELATIVE to consumer goods spending. The higher this ratio, the better off you and I will be. You cannot force it, you must give incentives. Incentives arise when business profits go up. This helps you.
I am more of an advocate on behalf of worker standards of living, more of a defender of prosperity and making this country better. Those who fight capitalism, are serving to impoverish this country and make us suffer, for suffering is the true goal of anti-capitalists, not well-being.
Will any neo-lib remember when the minimum wage was increased over a year ago and how free market capitalist "pigs" said this would harm everyone? Of course not, because these people only think but two feet in front of them. Well, unemployment is going up radically, and people are truly having a hard time. If the minimum wage was market driven, then these people WOULD BE WORKING RIGHT NOW. But no, the idiot policy makers who have no idea how economics works think that it is not a problem. They ignore it JUST LIKE THIS LAUER GUY IS.
The people who blame Lauer for saying we should just ignore things are the same people who ignore the effects of central banking, minimum wages, taxes, government spending which diverts much needed funds from productive activity to wasteful government activity, government intervention in the form of rules that quickly out date themselves, and the real causes for wealth creation.
Capitalism is what brings prosperity. PERIOD.
Recession, recession, & recession is all but true.
Check the experts:Tuesday, January 15, 2008
HONEY, PASS THE BUCK, PLEASE ...
Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz is concerned about the economy. But he also lays the problems we're seeing squarely at the feet of Alan Greenspan and George Bush. Specifically, he tells us that "Alan Greenspan really made a mess of all this." Specifically, Greenspan:
1) Supported Bush's tax cuts in 2001, which added debt.
2) Encouraged banks to extend large low interest loans when markets needed to cool off (i.e. "He pushed out too much liquidity at the wrong time.")
3) Encouraged people to take out variable-rate mortgages they wouldn't be able to afford if rates went up.
More on the subject: OVERBLOWN, OR OMEN?
Another investment/financial guide arrived today with some interesting observations. After noting that IBM's profits were artificially boosted by "currency moves in their global sales" (topic for another day) Angora Financial tells us that Citigroup "announced a cornucopia of bad news":
- $18 billion write-down
check the website of financial experts:
http://www.markmartinezshow.blogspot.com/
Oh Matty, too many weekends at Walker's Point . . .
Andrew @ 64 -
I don't think all those things are going to happen, but sadly a panic is looking more likely. Normally the stock market reacts negatively to the fed when they signal something about interest rates. Today it was different. Today was a vote of no confidence on helicopter Ben. I think inside money is running from the markets and something really bad lurks in the banking system, you can just sense it.
you know what we should do, more taxes, because hey, taking money out of people pockets will fix the economy, help em spend more you know, those damn Karl Marx lunatics and there command economy planning!!
EZ @ 65:
Even if Stiglitz has a Nobel, you should not be taking anything he has to say seriously. It is his ideas that contributed to the mess. He has a Nobel because socialists win Nobels these days. That much is clear.
Stiglitz really has no idea how free markets work, he is more concerned with how to "harness" the market, like it is some rat in a cage that needs a good poking every now and then to jump around like a cheap 5-year old birthday clown.
He blames tax cuts for problems, yet he doesn't even consider SPENDING??? If taxes go down, and spending goes down, how can debt increase? It can't, but you won't hear Stiglitz say anything about reducing government spending because he is a whore. He, like many anti-capitalist pigs, have no problems talking about and writing up Nobel Prize winning papers on the best way to spend other people's money. That's him in a nutshell...
Time is going to look back at our times and ask why did an idiot like Stiglitz get an award? How stupid was the human race in 2007???
dadams @ 33:
I was thinking 5$bill....but I just went out and spent over 8 bucks on a six pack of beer ,throw in a few small items and all i got back was 5 bucks..............yeah......1$.
JohnnyThief @ 57:
yeah...no shit....1st war with Iraq...2nd...economic collapse.