The Public Is Way Ahead of the Pundits in Knowing How to Solve the Economic Crises, And Obama Knows it

Nice try to make us all believe in fairy tale economy getting better, but it already has slipped into a New Depression. Pres. Obama would rather paint it as just a bad recession. I hoped by voting for him that he would become a new FDR, but he is following in the footsteps of Pres. Hoover. Who will step forward to be another FDR in 2012? Or do we get a GOP Hitler instead?

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"Based on?"

"Change coming to, not from Washington, just as Barack Obama said during the campaign."

"Anything else?"

"Yes we can."

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Dean's economic analysis is very optimistic but plausible ... I see much tougher times ahead. What Baker doesn't see is the politics. Obama is letting the Republicans define history, once again. Obama says he doesn't want to look back, but that's exactly where our catastrophe was birthed.

Obama needs to blame Bush and Republican economics to contrast his agenda, even as progressively weak as it is. The public needs to be reminded and the Republicans economics must branded as to the devastation that has been wrought. Obama's fond remembrance of Reagan ran chills down the spine of every progressive I know.

Unless Obama goes on the offensive the tide will turn toward the shrill, simplistic and disastrous Republican bumper sticker economic mantras of the past 25 years; tax cuts, free trade and the godliness of the free market. Dean can not fight this battle for Obama.

Obama must initiate the fight over a more progressive agenda and tar and feather the Republicans for their historic failures, not only in the economy but for civil and human rights, the crony capitalism, the militarism, the environmental destruction and their outright incompetence.

Obama had better take it to the Republicans fast and hard. Americans will need to direct their anger somewhere and it will be increasingly Obama himself unless he defines and distills the history of how we got here. No one can do it for him.

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The rich have no stake whatever in President Obama's program. The Economy doesn't figure in their list of concerns. What they want is a return to the long, Bush-era transfer of wealth to their class from our class. They want a vast army of humbled, forelock-tugging peasants to do their bidding and warm their bedding. As long as the richest and most powerful 2% to 6% of our population are self-serving sociopaths I don't see how anybody's economic agenda except theirs stands a chance. We need to get out of the house and into the streets.

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...and indeed we are already mostly in one.

With this New American Depression expect to see more economic/social/political unrest, more tension between America's various ethnic and racial groups, the rise of increasingly radical or fanatical political groups on both the left and the right, and likely the eventual rise of secessionist movements coupled with the balkanization of America.

The ethnic/racial situation in America is especially likely to get pretty dicey and explosive considering how 'multicultural' America has become - under duress and during times of severe stress people naturally gravitate toward their deepest instincts (which are tribal, meaning ethnic/racial). The areas which are still mostly majority White like the Midwest or the Pacific Northwest will be OK in this regard, but LA, NYC, Florida, Chicago, and other major meccas of multiculturalism will become tinderboxes of ethnic/racial distrust and perhaps even violence.

You are especially likely to see the rise of pro-White political groups (so called "White nationalism") across America as White Americans notice how they are becoming the more economically, politically, and socially dispossessed in this country - how radical or fanatical these pro-White groups will be I do not know, they could be far leftist or far rightist or a combination of both...not sure, but it's very likely going to happen.

The U.S. government lies about the unemployment numbers - we are already at least at 15% unemployment nationally, likely approaching 20% (which has already arrived in some cities, rural areas, and even states). Underemployment is also a huge issue. All of these employment problems happening now when people need to work more than ever to pay off all the debt they've accrued just to survive over the past 10-20 years.

Another phenomenon is the growing number of Americans stranded at their home far away from possible jobs because of transportation issues, i.e. can't afford a car or the car is broken and can't afford to fix it. Thus an increasing number are stranded at home (sans transportation) without access to any source of income, and thus no source of income to gain transportation.

America is in for AT LEAST a very bad DECADE of unrest and stagnation folks, and quite possibly a slow-motion collapse or dissolution if we continue on the present course. Prepare yourselves.

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Money supply has zoomed in the past three years. Reckless lending led to bush, fueled by the Mad Fed. Bernake/Obama solution? Print more worthless "notes". Trillions of them.

Vacuum the junk money out of the system. It's like a virus killing the vital organs. There will be short-term pain, but the organism will survive. However with a crazy Congress led by ignorant people like Pelosi and Reid, the spending will only get worse. When the Obama stimulus I fails, the multimillionaires in Congress will prescribe stimulus II. Can't help but to steer those contracts to friendly contractors, mayors and governors. Pile up more money as prices rise and more banks fail.

Losers: American people and Barack Obama.

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""Obama recognizes that the public is way ahead of the pundits in seeing that the federal govt. is the only thing capable of generating a recovery""

- pretty interesting comment.. I've yet to hear one person or MSM respond with this sentiment. Most I hear recognize how full of pork and politics any government actions are and how wasteful. I suspect that most want the free market to work, let the weak fail and we will get stronger and better run companies, not those that take public money and continue their failing ways. The government is the last place to look for solutions.

Obviously the market (meaning the investors) does not like it. Obama has presided over the largest market decline of any President since FDR.. way to go Barack! Maybe you are the new FDR after all!

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I'm afraid that we're just gonna have to accept the next one. Besides, the upcoming petro-collapse what with more petro-guzzling coming back thanks to artificially "cheap" oil prices will ensure its stay unless we took the idea of hemp and oil from algae coupled with decentralization seriously.

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As I recall President Obama won the White House because most Americans (even if they don't want to openly admit it) realize that we, this nation needs to shift direction and stop coddling BIG BUSINESS! Based on those objectives, we the people that are directly affected by the fiasco that the Republicans and their Democratic allies have unleashed on this nation, this Congress must act NOW for the people of this nation - not the business interests!

It has been extremely clear, for some time now that the "punditry and talking heads" not only do not have the best interests of this nation at heart, but I have to wonder if they give a damn about anyone other than themselves! Well paying jobs have hemorrhaged overseas - where people are making what .50 cents a day, the attempts by the previous Mis-administration to obfuscate and change the rules so that "working in McDonald's" is compared to "working at a steel mill" is not just dishonest, but a calculated position to bankrupt the people of this nation! The American people are (hopefully) waking up to that realization, and I can only hope that they do not allow themselves to become anesthetized again by the lies!

It is time for the American people to rise up - those Americans unemployed - write/fax/email/phone your Congressperson daily and let them know that we are watching and they need to get with the program - because the fruits of their policies are why this mess is happening! If they choose not to support the policies - then maybe you too need to choose to support another candidate - and let them know that! And if you are still blessed enough to have your job, then you still need to write/fax/email you Congressperson - so that they know WE THE PEOPLE ARE WATCHING AND AWARE!!!

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The only thing that would stave off a great depression - which will be worse than the last one - is accepting that the world is interdependent. That a materialistically simpler life and a more abundant spiritual (not necessarily religious) life focused on growth of consciousness and awareness, culture and beauty creates a better world. That all, not a few, deserve to be freed from drudgery and monotonous jobs and lives. That seeing somebody else have a better life because of your own sacrifice is good whether on a personal, national or global level.

We debate which color to paint the old, worn out car when it simply cannot take us forward into a far different time. We need a space ship that takes us past selfishness and separation into a state of action and being where the finest qualities that define the concept of humanity are not thought of as wishful, utopian thinking but instead are everyday fact. The times demand the best of us. The shifting paradigm that is seen through the lens of economic turmoil will compel us towards restructuring into a more humanitarian world. Our action toward a better world smooths the way; resistance will only cause for ourselves additional suffering.

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A government with money to burn is a fire waiting to happen. We will learn that lesson the hard way. I've been stating for many years that this country will have to go bankrupt before it gets fixed and we will have to go through a depression when that happens.

We need to rebuild the industrial base of this country, it really is that simple. Two obvious places to start 1) Bring hemp on line as an industrial raw material. The other, change our renewable energy subsidies so they only support systems where the panels and inverters are manufactured domestically.

On this second issue, bringing the manufacturing base for solar power to America is actually a no brainer. At this time, maybe 10% for the manufacturing base for this industry has been built. In the grand scheme of things, we would be better off eliminating the tax credits and rebates altogether if we do not manufacture those components domestically.

Like I said, a government with money to burn is a fire waiting to happen.

What the author conveniently refused to mention in this article is that the projected federal deficit for this next fiscal year is at least 1.35 trillion dollars. I wonder who will be stupid enough to loan this government that money. That deficit is almost as large as both stimulus packages and almost all of that money will be used to perpetuate the mess we are in. We will have to go bankrupt before it gets fixed.

If the author was the one loaning the money to pay for this deficit, he would be singing a different tune.

jay Lindberg
jaylindberg@hotmail.com

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You don't know what you're talking about.

Nanny-statism is a program of the left -- dems, not republicans.

Read and understand history.

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That's going to be the new magic word. Our public and individual debts are far more than we can hope to pay, and they're only increasing. I don't quite understand why a man as smart as Obama thinks he can get us out of a debt crisis by borrowing yet more or by "freeing up credit" - which means getting us to borrow more.

In Argentina, they had to overthrow 4 Presidents in rapid succession before the 5th one defaulted on their IMF debt and whipped the bankers into line. (The IMF never recovered.) I'm not sure why the military stayed in their barracks through all that. Maybe someone should find out. But our "leaders" aren't stupid; this is the real reason for the new Northcom command.

There are two ways a government defaults: openly, by announcing they won't pay; or secretly, by inflating the currency so their payments are worth less. The latter actually has some advantages; for one thing, driving down the dollar would improve our economic prospects. But when it's rapid, as it would be, it plays havoc with daily life and prevents people from saving.

I don't like the default idea, personally; we saw this coming, so we're lenders, not borrowers. But I don't see any real way around it,and I wish liberal economists like Baker, one of the few who got it right, were figuring out the best way to manage it.

Doing this with the least destruction probably means a whole new world financial system. I don't see the slightest discussion of that, but it's bearing down on us like a freight train in the tunnel.

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Is Obama doomed - as the author suggests - if unemployment is at 12% in 2012? Don't bet on it!

Whatever the economic situation is then, there will certainly be a very sharp struggle between the people and our rulers over whose interests the government will salvage, and Obama's position as our leader will depend on our level of organization and understanding and on the many choices he will have made over the coming years. So far, although he is trying to straddle the interests of both camps, he has given some strong signals that as the crisis unfolds he will make choices that move him toward the people's side of the divide as it widens.

The country is going to polarize increasingly into those who are trying to salvage the ability of the people to house, feed, clothe, transport, educate and heal ourselves and each other, and those who are trying to save the power and wealth of the ruling class.

At this point Obama is trying to straddle the fence. To do otherwise would probably be to move out too far ahead of the people. Will he - like Lincoln and FDR before him - move to take stronger positions as the situation evolves and the people become organized to support it? Or will he reach a limit beyond which his perspectives and entanglements won't let him go? Time - and our struggles - will tell.

The economic crisis we are in is profound, not just another bad recession, and the Paulson/Bernacke/Obama prescription is much too small to head it off. The federal government is on a path toward socializing much of the property of the capitalist class and taking on the burden of paying them their due, to be collected as taxes and paid out as interest and bailouts; but as more and more money is poured into the failing financial institutions we will come up against the awful fact that the magnitude of the financial claims against the real economy is much larger than that economy itself. Inevitably a point will come when servicing the Federal debt will itself become the obstacle to renewed expansion.

At that point, inflating the currency becomes the only option. Hyperinflation - and the liquidation of all interest-bearing paper claims, most of the wealth of the ruling class - must inevitably follow.

In the aftermath the government will have to create a new currency and use it to construct a new economy. If the people still control the government we will have a choice of how to rebuild - whether to recreate the capitalist system (and repeat this awful experience in another 50 or 75 years if an ecological calamity doesn't intervene) or to try something new. The choices we make then will already have been set in motion by the ideas, initiatives and institutions that we form now and struggle to keep alive as the crisis unfolds. The foundations of the new economy will precede the final collapse.

The Republican strategy - let the depression rip and the strong survive - is really the only hope for the survival of capitalism as we know it. The level of misery and despair that this would represent for the people of the US and the world is huge; but for the Masters of the Boardrooms this is only a political problem, to be solved by distractions and diversions (including wars and the threat of wars), sowing divisions among the people, repression and prison camps.

They cannot be allowed another turn at power if our species is to survive.

If Obama continues to be our Organizer-in-Chief and moves toward the peoples' side as the struggle and our level of understanding unfolds, then we can and must reelect him, even if the economy is still terrible. If not, then the Democratic primary struggle of 2011-2012 will be the battle of a lifetime.

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Same solution, different name. World War 3.

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We are in a depression now. Throwing money at this problem only postpones the inevitable. We must go through the pain of all the business failures before we can start the recovery. Stop throwing the money down a rat hole !

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James A. Swanson, Los Altos, CA
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire $25.95 book]

Commentators, including myself, have warned for several years that America was on the road to the GOP Great Depression II and that a major course change was needed.

From Reagan’s presidency through that of Bush II, the GOP used government power to create the Second Gilded Age in America, at the expense of common men and women.

Give trillions of dollars to the Super Rich and Big Business, with minimal stimulation and no accounting. Run up multiple enormous unsustainable deficits and debts.

Bankrupt America both morally and financially. Plant the seeds for the GOP Great Depression II.

Deregulate, deregulate, deregulate.

Screw generations of the unborn by making them pay for everything. Take the money and run.

This and much more is contained in "The Bush League of Nations: The Coalition of the Unwilling, the Bullied and the Bribed – the GOP’s War on Iraq and America," by James A. Swanson (2008, CreateSpace Publishing, 448 pages).

You can now download for FREE the entire $25.95 book at www.bushleagueofnations.com.

I ask for nothing in return, except that you consider using it as a resource to help restore and build America. Perhaps, if you are so inclined, you will also pass along the good word. I'd appreciate that.

Jim Swanson, Los Altos, CA
“The Bush League of Nations”
www.bushleagueofnations.com [for FREE download of entire $25.95 book]

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The problem now, as Keynes so well recognized during the last Great Depression, is that when there is a downward spiral of prices, or a massive asset and consumer price deflation, money becomes increasingly valuable because as goods and asset prices decline, the same amount of money can buy increasingly more. Thus, people hold on to money as the most valuable asset in the entire economy. The logic is precisely the reverse of that of inflation where money becomes less and less valuable due to price increases. In a Liquidity Trap investors hold on to money and it can take a long time before they decide that things have bottomed out and that it is time to invest again. By this time the economy is utterly destroyed and unemployment is at 25% or more!!

Under such circumstances where economic conditions don't generate the necessary confidence for investment and where a stubborn liquidity trap has the economy in its grip, only the federal government can stimulate the economy by massive spending on various public investment projects to create full employment.

Obama has allowed Bush's tax cuts to expire rather than ending them now which has deprived him of another roughly $1.5 trillion for such purposes. The rich will also offset the 2010 tax increases with more interest earned on their bond portfolios from US federal deficits. Still, the choice is clear. Only a massive stimulus package can pull the US economy out of this mess before it worsens. The spending will add to deficits but so will doing nothing. In addition, people need jobs and the decline in house and stock prices is causing further bankruptcies making recovery more difficult. If nothing is done than by the time a recovery occurs our entire society may have disintegrated. By then the top 1% of the national income strata, having bought up just about all depreciating assets at bargain basement prices, will have increased its portion of total national marketable wealth from about half of it to all of it. This is not a desirable situation at all.

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we don't want more federal power. the constitution of 1787 is finished. it's centalized govt. It's bill of rights. it's supreme (ha) court. time for the various interest groups in america to divvy up the territory and the spoils. hopefully it can be done peacefully. if not, we know how to fight civil wars. nice and bloody rare.

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Every since the Great Depression our economy has been based on militarism and wasteful consumerism. We need to go back to where we went wrong and build an economy based on something sustainable.

The role of the government should not be to stimulate consumerism since this will only lead to the further political empowerment of militarists. The role of government should be to provide a safety net to minimize the suffering of people who lose jobs during the radical economic restructuring that needs to happen.

Very few people starved during the Great Depression and there was no safety net then. Now, if a strong safety net is implemented we could get through this fairly easily. Its entirely a matter of psychology -- staying calm and doing the right thing. Keep in mind that in a depressed economy we will have all of the resources available to us as before. More even, since fewer resources will be wasted producing unnecessary consumer goods.

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We can't afford to not get the backlog of neglected domestic needs done, while millions sit idle on unemployment. A new era of effective regulation and social safety nets is dawning, funded by the upper 10-15% whom have all the loot.

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Let's start by....building shit, like new locks and dams, make them all 1200 ft to accomodate an 15 barge tow, rebuild the railways so trains can stay on the tracks, redo these raggedy-ass road system....and let's not forget the bridges, which most are close to collaspe at any given moment, abliet rust holding them together plastered over with layers and layers of primer and paint schemes!...Oh, and let's go for space, too, there's lots' of shit out there to do!!!

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