How many of you believe that the "Economy is in Recovery?" Is this the

[KoKo]

Democrats "Big Challenge," to oppose the Repugs or vise versa? Chimp Economy shows improvement over Clinton where he left his Presidency with an "imploding dot com bubble," and the the Chimp tax cuts have counteracted the "WAR?"

Can the Chimp be re-elected on a "Recovering Economy?" Isn't the "Economy" itself more important than the "War on Terrorism?"

After all it was Carvil/Begala's Mantra: "It's the Economy Stupid."

:shrug:

[MikeG]

1. Hey, let it go through the twelve-step program.

It's in recovery, DAMMIT!!!

on edit - Just Kidding.

Doing a Stuart Smalley thing.

[KoKo]

5. ROFL! You make a great point....cynical in the extreme, but to the point!

Some of us are in "dark mode' these days. :hi:

[alcuno]

2. Milk and gas.

There was a bit of a rumble the other day at the gas station. I always buy the milk there because it's 1.99 compared to the grocery store cost of 3.29. Anyways I was third in a line of five and the woman at the counter announced that the milk would be going up significantly on Monday.

You would have thought that someone had pulled the pin from a grenade. There erupted a conversation about the price of gas, the price of milk, and the failed * presidency.

[zbdent]

4. DumbFuc_ from WKDD in Akron was lamenting that Milk was now

more expensive than Gas.

HELLO???? I believe that milk has historically almost constantly been more expensive per gallon than gas. The price of milk was kept in the $2/gallon price for a long time, gas has only been in the $2 range (in this area) in, oh, 2000 and 2004. (Barring the momentary spike on a west side gas station on 9/11/2001 where it went to $4 per gallon on what Rush called "free enterprise")

[OneTwentyoNine]

8. Yep,and gas went up another .10 cents here today....

It will drop a little over the next few days in time for the next .10 cent increase then another,then another.

Two Oil men running the country and one still getting a check from Halliburton,I'm SHOCKED over these increases,SHOCKED I tell ya.....

David

[okieinpain]

3. I'm not too sure about the economy, I hear that greenpants,

is going to keep the interest rate at 1%. if the economy was going anywhere I would think that he would have let it creep up a little bit. but with him holding it at the current level there must be some doubt there.

[BillZBubb]

12. You give Greenspin too much credit

He won't raise rates with a Repug incumbent too soon before an election. Rate hikes usually take about six months to impact the economy, so he won't raise rates much if at all before July.

Now, if a Democrat was in office, Greeny would have already increased rates 5 times. That's his modus operandi.

[Yupster]

18. Greenspan doesn't want to be accused of

messing with the election.

As soon as the election is over, rates will go up significantly, regardless of who is elected.

[seabeyond]

6. simple econimics for me without all the pros

we have lost so many jobs, the wage has lowered as a whole, bush is spending sooooooo much money and has given all the money in the bank away

doesnt make econimic since to me that the economy is getting better. i am not seeing a lot of company spending money in husband business. a little pick up last month

[KoKo]

9. What I hear you say is that there's a "little" difference but not enough

"downside" for the ECONOMY to be THE ISSUE for the Democrats this year.

Is it worse or better than when Clinton was Pres for you, though. Or, is there little change.

If there's little change then the issue isn't as important as the War, it seems? :shrug:

[seabeyond]

10. for us, ed starting a business two years ago

very hard, got in on the beginning of companies not putting money out locally. so has been real challenging to keep the business going.

what i am feeling tho, bushco plays with all their numbers and again media doesnt catch it. something i feel is going to disastrously happen to the economy soon, though it appears to be getting healthier. the economy is the next issue i am going to start reading to better understnad, so i can see where bush is lieing. for example, the employeement numbers that went up last month, the previous two months the numbers were adjusted lower. i am waiting to see if they lower again and if it is reported.
they say economy is getting bettr but i dont feel the people feel it is, so yes you run on it. i dont trust what bush has created.

further, in 91 before clinton elected the ecomony was on the rebound, but didnt come soon enough for bush so he didnt get the bounce on it and people voted them out by the feel not the numbers

[KoKo]

11. Check out the DU Economics Forum...and LBN Marketeers. when you

do start to check it all out. There are some good links there. But gotta tell you that having been "downsized" so many times and had to deal with it all and now we are "consultants," that America isn't the place it used to be...It's "Walmart or go at it for yourself."

There's NO SECURITY here. For anyone! Doesn't matter your education...there's NO security unless you are one of Bush's big donors who are feasting off his tax breaks.

Learning why this is happening is important to me. I wonder, if most Americans are so tired and stressed that they want to believe the Bush Economic numbers because of hope.

Just like the "War on Terror," I think Bush Economy is a pile of s**t with fake numbers and hyped false information just waiting to implode.

I wondered though how many folks here thought he would get at least "one thing" right. :-(

[Tansy_Gold]

14. I'm not an economist, not by a long shot, so maybe my take

is totally wrong.

I *think* (always a dangerous thing) the economy has been bad enough long enough that it is experiencing a slight upswing on its own. Some production is up (where there are still production facilities and jobs) and that ticks up the numbers. So NPR and Lou Dobbs and the rest can chortle "The gov't reports industrial production rose one tenth of one percent last month, exceeding expectations." Spin, spin, spin.

So a few more people get jobs, and the inherent trickle down ensues, and it looks a little better. More of the long-term unemployed drop off the radar screen or become self-employed or whatever, and the numbers make everything look like an improvement.

But the fundamental flaws in the system won't sustain continued growth. As soon as the wealth have pulled their tax-free incomes from the system (stock dividends, etc., etc., etc.) and there is no further market for consumer goods, the cycle will go into down mode again, and each time the cycle repeats, the downs will be longer and deeper, the ups will be shorter and lower.

The reason for this -- and again, my understanding could be totally inaccurate -- is that as the tax cuts for the wealthy allow for increased concentration of wealth, there will be no middle class consumers to buy anything, hence no demand for goods. We will all be lower class, reduced both to working at and shopping at WalMart.

In the meantime, the untaxed wealthy -- especially those who inherit large fortunes without paying any tax to keep the money in the cycle -- will be able to buy only the very best: the hand-crafted, the limited editions, the expensive. I don't care whether it's jewelry, houses, paintings, cars, furniture, clothing: all the consumer goods that the few wealthy will buy will not be enough to provide production jobs for the vast majority of the population. The U.S. will be reduced to third world feudalism.

Unless, of course, there's a revolution.

Therefore, I see this little upswing in the numbers as actually indicative of a much deeper problem, and the appearance of a healthy economy may actually allow us/them to ignore that fundamental flaw and not fix anything.

But what do I know?

I'm only

Tansy Gold, the downsized and unemployed (once again)

[sandnsea]

7. skirt lengths falling

no recovery. Old wives tale, but I think it works.

[BillZBubb]

13. It's a "Potemkin" recovery

It's as phony as any Bush* policy statement. The reason we have an apparent recovery is deficit spending is at all time highs. Bush* is spending 5% of GDP in borrowed money this year. GDP growth is about 4%, so you do the math. All that red ink creates economic stimulus, but it can't last. Sooner or later the lenders will cut off the spigot.

[Norbert]

15. Gasoline is at record highs.

Cost of coffee is up.
Cost of eggs is up.
Cost of milk is up.
Cost of beef is up.
Cost of cheese is up.


But hey. Inflation is near non-existent.

What's wrong with this picture? :shrug:

[paulk]

16. the economy is recovering

at least the numbers are better - but numbers don't tell the real story. All the "improvements" in our economy are going to the same people who have benefited from Bush's program to start with. Until our economy can generate all the jobs we've lost in the last three years and continue to generate more, Bush's "improving" numbers don't mean shit.

Hopefully people will pay more attention to the real impact of Bush's economy on their lives and disregard the "numbers" spin.

[Beaker]

17. Sunday Chicago Tribune job ads holding steady at 20-22 pages...

in one section. during the 90's it was 3-4 sections of 20-25 pages of ads. there's been no increase in volume of help-wanted ads thru-out the tenure of the lil'dictator...

so No- I don't believe that there are jobs in this recovery, but Yes, I believe that there is one going on- the rich are getting richer- someone's buying all those luxury cars I'm seeing on the roads, and the behemouth houses being built, etc.
I have a friend who has his own business selling plastic resins- the kind of stuff used in injection molding- a pretty basic "raw material", and his business is going great...he just purchased a hummer, an audi convertible, and a bigger house with a built-in pool(still a not-so-common "luxury" item for the chicago suburbs).
but most of his work is done thru phone calls & faxes, and there's no reason for him to hire anybody, so he isn't.