Thom Hartmann: "We're looking at another Republican Great Depression"....

[marmar]

..... he just said it during the opening segment of his show, and Thom isn't exactly one given to hyperbole, like Mike Malloy is.
He said that unlike in past deep recessions, or even the Great Depression, when we made things in this country, our economy is based on financial services, which is an "illusion," quoting from Kevin Phillips book "Bad Money."

Sigh..... :cry:

[succubus.blues]

1. man

I'm with you. :cry:

[Democrats_win]

2. Naomi Klein's shock doctrine coming to a country near you?

The whole idea is to use shocks like depressions to prod politicians into action. Now, following 9/11, what could the shock doctors on the right wish to accomplish? End Social Security? End Medicare/Medicaid?

Now that our country is so devalued, they'll have to steal people's homes in order to make those 20% profits they've been so accustomed to.

[MadHound]

3. Oh, it just isn't a Republican Depressiom

It's another bipartisan effort that stretches back over the past twenty years. Both Clinton and Democratic Congressmen had their share in promoting this deregulated, financial sector mess. Call it what it is, a Corporate Depression, brought to you by the two party, same corporate master system of government we currently live under.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Time for some economic definitions

if we have a depression we are looking at 20-50% unemployment and 10% or more GNP contraction... in my view if this is the case... we are looking at ten years and the country will be changed in ways that will make it unrecognizable. It will also lead to quite possibly 20 million dead, 50 or more million economic refugees, etcetera. We may even see social crisis the way we have not since oh the 1930s.

A deep recession (which is what I am hoping for at this time), will take most of the Obama first term, if not all of it. It will lead to upwards of 20% unemployment, with a GNP contraction UNDER 10%... it still will be very painful and in order for that not to become a great depression we need a series of legislative measures.

There is more

The Great Depression took 1T and ten years (and some historians argue a world war) to get out off.

Now if I take into account that pesky thing called inflation we are looking at least at 12T... read that number again... 12 T.

So the "bailout" is just the beginning of what it will cost to get out of it.

Now if John McHoover gets elected you ARE looking at a great depression... if Obama gets elected with a Dem congress, as blue dogs, they will fight the necessary changes legislatively, including the social net and re-regulation of the markets. That said... the Dems tend to be MORE flexible than the Rs... so we will have to keep the pressure

That said... for all who believe that the package passed it would immediately affect this... that is not the way things work... it took us at LEAST two years to get here... it is not instant... and it will take anywhere from 3-5 weeks to see the INITIAL effect... and we will need MORE BILLS to be passed to deal with different aspects of this mess

Many of us (rather a few of us) have tried to 'splain that this is but the first of many legislative passages to deal with multiple things and I am betting that like the early depression (this bill has aspects of that), folks round these parts will keep fighting it... because most folks believe the New Deal was one thing... wrong, it was six major legislative packages... the bailout is not even to that level... and many targeted packages

Anyhow... if anybody believes that the New Deal also emerged Athena like from FDR's head... that is magical thinking. It came from the times, as a way to short circuit the commies... but I am sure you knew that.. and I will repeat this... took YEARS to talk form.

[tavalon]

10. Luckily a few things are different from when we elected our last Dem President

One, we felt like we could stand down, that our side had the reigns and it would be "all right"tm. Second, we didn't have the internet to unite and inform us at lightning speed. This time around, no one is standing down and every one of our representatives had better just install more phones and bigger servers because we will be riding their collective asses from day one and we are watching, closely. The DLC will be hearing plenty and will hopefully begin to understand that their antics won't be tolerated any more.

[dhpgetsit]

5. It requires a bottom-up solution.

"Trickle-down" economics got us here.

We need to pry our government out of the hands of the corporate elite and make them pay for renewed investments in people and infrastructure.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. That IS coming

I am sure of it... but NOT until the next congress.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Who didn't see this coming? I mean, really. They must have foreseen

something.

[OakCliffDem]

8. Kick

[Kartius]

9. First and foremost, we have to stablize the credit market

If the banking system fails, then we face checkmate. This is not 1929. This is worst. We are a debtor nation and facing massive outstanding payments to foreign countries. We will be bankrupt. That means we will not be able to import any foreign goods. So what? That means no oil. No oil means no fertilizers, plastics, gasoline. No fertilizers mean low crop yield. Low crop yield means starvation for many. That would be the end game. Please drop your ideologies and bitterness.

[marmar]

11. "Please drop your ideologies and bitterness."

Umm, okay. :wtf:

[Kartius]

12. Wasn't directed at the original poster or anyone in particular

Just frustrated with government: democrats and republicans alike. Just frustrated with the general public response with the name calling and finger pointing. There was a reason I gave up on politics. Obama had me excited again during the primaries and now I feel utterly disappointed. Hope you did not take offense