Even if we get rid of Bushco, is our still economy sunk?

[NickB79]

I'm one of those "underemployed" workers; working a crappy McJob not even close to my field of study just to pay rent and buy groceries. I've been underemployed for 6 months now, with very little signs of hope on the horizon. With Bush's insane statement that we'll see 2.6 million new jobs in 2004, I'm betting we're actually going to lose jobs. Last year he forcast 1.7 million new jobs; we had a total net LOSS of jobs instead. The more I've been paying attention to the economy, the more I'm getting very, very worried. I don't know how much longer I can put up with the job I'm in; Nov. seems like an awfully long ways away. Even then, if the Dem. candidate does win, how long will it take to turn this economy around? Am I looking at 6 more months after the election before the job market turns around? God, thats almost 1 1/2 yrs more!!! Or, is our economy permanently scarred by that SOB currently in the White House? If we win, we'll still be left with that quagmire in Iraq, the unbelievable deficit, massive unemployment, and the continued outsourcing of jobs. Can even the best candidates we have save this Titanic of an economic disaster in 4 yrs, much less in less than 2 yrs before I have a nervous breakdown at work? Sorry for being so gloomy, I'm just really, really sick of all this and its hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.

[lastknowngood]

1. Bet you A** he has fuc*ed up the country so bad it will take 20

years or more to break even.

[indepat]

11. Twenty years sounds about right if we get lucky and never let someone

of his ilk in power again.

[BillZBubb]

2. We should see moderate job growth this year

Chimpy and the Repukes are spending about 5% of GDP in borrowed money. Greenspan is doing everything he can to help out his party. So, interest rates will stay incredibly low. The Bush* clowns have tanked the dollar which will help with US exports short term.

That means, at worst, the economy should grow at 3%.

Longer term, those idiots are mortgaging our country to the hilt. We will have a day of reckoning, but it won't be for another decade. If Bush wins this time, the disaster will be inevitable.

Anyway, don't give up. Short term there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

[Sparky McGruff]

4. Rumor about Greenspan...

He's in a difficult position-- the stock and bond markets can take a dive when he sneezes, and he could singlehandedly cause global economic chaos by saying the wrong thing. But, the Paul O'Neill (Suskind) book suggests that Greenspan isn't too happy with Bush-o-nomics.

There's some interesting words from the bastion of liberalism, Fortune Magazine (full text for subscribers only; others get the summary)

Article: Anyone Heard From Greenspan Lately?

Quote:

...But Greenspan is finally ready to take a stand. Fed insiders say he's gearing up to deliver a tough message on the deficit; they suggest the chairman actually prepared a speech some weeks ago and is looking for the right opportunity to deliver it. He may get his chance early next month when he gives his semiannual testimony on monetary policy to Congress. Intimates say when Greenspan talks privately about the deficit he uses terms like "awful" and "quite frankly dangerous."

[brokensymmetry]

3. You probably won't like this...

I believe that our economy is in very deep trouble - and for quite a long time. For something like 20 years, from the early 1980's to roughly 2000, we had a "virtuous cycle" - low inflation, high growth, exceptional investment returns.

Part of this was due to the Boomers. Money was saved on their behalf by pension funds, and by the Boomers themselves. But now things are changing, and money will start being obtained for the Boomers by selling investments and buying stuff. This means low growth, commodity price inflation, and poor investment returns. Other factors may be involved as well...

We probably have at least 10 years, and maybe 20 or more years of this sort of discomfort. This isn't just my opinion - the Union Bank of Switzerland is saying it.

And we'd better work for a win in '04, because the jobs being exported are gutting the middle class in America - after the pResident finishes, recovery may be completely impossible. The burgeoning deficit will saddle the future with a heavy burden that may preclude new Government initiatives.

By the way...did you hear that there is more talk of a switch by OPEC to using the Euro for pricing oil instead of the Dollar? That won't help.

If I may suggest, don't pin your hopes, or your happiness, on your job. Look for ways to maximize your happiness outside the arena of your career.

[Cleita]

5. I think we are going to have to get Clinton's Secretary of

the Treasury, Robert E. Rubin and his economic team back in business if we get Bushie out of the WH. They might be able to turn things around. After all they did turn a deficit that everyone said would take decades to pay off and made it into a surplus. I hope this can happen.

Of course I would like to see Bush and Cheney dragged through court for invading Iraq illigitimately and rather than jail time, I want the judge to sentence them to pay for the war out of their personal fortunes. I think they also should pay the families of the dead soldiers for an illegal war. Those soldiers' alive would have had thirty or more years of earning power on the job that their families' have been cheated out of, so I think Bush and Cheney needs to pay the families for this.

[dfong63]

6. we need to get the military budget monkey off our backs

[JackRiddler]

7. well, duh! ...

It's more pertinent to ask if our civilization is sunk.

- peak oil, but the entire machinery depends almost irrecoverably on this resource (starting with our consumption of 10-100 calories of fuel for 1 calorie of food). And the whole system is geared to fight a Battle to Go Down with the Titanic.

- the dollar is air. They produce, we create air-dollars. The resulting bubbles haven't popped yet. If I need to explain this, I'm sorry for you.

- Who's the joker above with talk of a virtuous cycle in the 80s and 90s? You mean the process of acquiring the debt that has the U.S. in de facto bankruptcy? You mean the "negative savings" of spending more than we nominally earned? You mean the plundering of the Treasury? Or perhaps the cooked growth statistics, from Reagan to Clinton? (More accurately in this regard, from Volcker to Greenspan). For a laugh at how badly you have all been lied to, look up "hedonic deflator."

- the U.S. industrial base has left these shores and will never return, no matter how low the wages here get.

- the environmental limits of growth have been reached. World arable land ran out in 1960, though yields shot up by a factor of 4 since, thanks to oil-based fertilizer/pesticides. World population has doubled.

- Did I mention the dollar is air? Well, at least the debt is denominated in dollars. Too bad that within 5-20 years all commodities will be cease to be priced in dollars.

- See these trends converging? What does it spell?

- Well, at least we seized an important real asset (Iraq, oil) to back the air-dollar last year. Too bad there is no way we can hold on to it and valorize it, no not even if we kill ten or twenty million Arabs, which is more likely than you think.

But what the hell, I'm good looking and young and lucky. ;-)

The good news is, the ongoing collapse of capitalism as we have known it may result in a better life for the majority in as little as three or four generations from now.

The good news is, maybe people will begin to get it together, turn off the box, meet their neighbors, feed their children better food and books, organize and have a fucking real revolution in this country.

Unfortunately, the likelier scenario is Mad Max and a big die-off. The latter is exactly what the elite will choose and began planning long ago as a contingency. Those plans are now quite advanced.

[Karenina]

10. Whoomp! Dey it is...

.

[radfringe]

8. but but but but but

bush is 'predicting' major job growth - 2.6 million new jobs... that over a twelve month period that's abut 21,000 new jobs

:sigh: first he compares himself to JFK, then it's FDR.... now he thinks he's Nostra-dubya

[Elwood P Dowd]

9. The economy is booming

Just start your own small business. Ask Limbaugh if you need advice. Here are a few examples of businesses you can start.

1 - "How To Eat On $10.00 A Week". You can sell tapes on eBay and make tons of money.

2 - "Living On The Street Made Easy". You can sell books and tapes on how to survive being homeless.

3 - "Is Bush God?". There are millions to be made with this. It only has to be 20 pages in paperback, and Pat Robertson, Shaun Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and who knows else will have you on their show helping sell your book.

4 - Start your own website. Call it BillClinton'sblowjobcaused9-11.com.
You will make a fortune. 20,000 freepers will visit your site the first day.

You see, there is nothing to it. Just find a business catering to the rich freepers at the top or the rest of us at the bottom. With the new Bushit economy, there will only be two markets.

[sendero]

12. LOL...

.... after reading all that depressing (but essentially true I'm afraid) stuff, a good laugh helped.

Oh wait, this is sad too :(