Something has got to give ... and soon .....

[Blackhatjack]

My home state of NC has extended the budget deadline twice, and still does not have a budget in place to cover a $5.4bil 'shortfall.' The cost was reported today as $5mil per day until a budget is passed. So what does the State Legislature do? The House and Senate are not even talking to one another.

This at a time with 'official' unemployment of 11.1% (and 'underemployed' figures of approx 16%).

Foreclosures are not dropping, and the 'bailed out banks' are taking the consumers through the wringer raising interest rates, reducing credit lines, creating new fees, and increasing minimum payments. Bankruptcy is also not dropping.

The majority of home sales are 'distressed' and there is at least a 2yr supply of inventory on the real estate market.

We have a whole host of school teachers who do not know if they will have a job in the fall. And given the number of major colleges and universities in the state, we have a huge number of graduates who will be hitting the job market to compete with laid off experienced workers for a very few positions.

Govt agencies are expecting a 10% across the board cut in funding. Which means more jobs will be eliminated. We already have had a freeze on hiring to fill vacate positions for a long time.

Republicans are trying to 'use this crisis' to make major cuts in social programs that so many poor and uninsured depend upon. Their refusal to agree to any kind of tax increase to raise revenue is a major reason we do not yet have a budget.

We are not California, and we are supposed to be one of the places least affected by the financial crisis.

This is not the run of the mill 'financial recession' which will end later this year.

Something has gotta give... and soon .....

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yep. It's not good anywhere right now. :^(

[MichiganVote]

2. Welcome to Michigan. We're a little ahead of the curve, not good, not good at all.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Sounds just like here in Al. The 2 parties refuse to talk to each other.

The 'state" refused any of the 100 million stimulus money, unemployment in our county is also
"officially" at 16.5%, much higher in other counties, one town had to close its entire school district,
I can walk in and out of the major grocery store in 15 minutes, no lines.
the extreme division between parties is being actively fed by media and behind the scenes manipulation,
to justify doing nothing. It is quite chilling.

[Blackhatjack]

4. So let's think about this for a minute ... who stands to benefit from this disaster?

The bailed out banks and those with cash can pick up assets for pennies on the dollar.

The rest of us are just fodder for the chipper...

[bertman]

18. Blackhatjack, you have put your finger directly on "IT". While you and I and our neighbors

may not be able to pay our mortgage, or at a minimum, maintain our homes, cars, etc., the wealthy have what few of us have: disposable income.

The old maxim "buy low, sell high" was never more appropriate.

Every time I hear somebody talking about how this Not-So-Great-Depression isn't helping ANYBODY, I have to laugh.

By the way, great post. And greetings from a fellow Tarheel who just got his updated emailing from Governor Perdue urging me to persuade my state rep and senators to vote for raising taxes. A friend who comes from "the country" tells me that Guv Beverly is in deep doodoo with the rural conservatives because she hired somebody to a new job for a salary of $200,000. Was that the person who's supposed to coordinate all the agencies for cost-cutting? Sorry, I'm state-politics ignorant, federal-politics addicted.

Recommend.

:hi:

[Lorien]

29. That's it exactly

people like me make the banks salivate. I'm unemployed and can't afford to pay my mortgage for much longer. I owe 97k, the house is worth 335k, and they won't return my equity line to me because I can't prove income. They've got me; they can take the house and turn a 268k profit. Now think of the millions of other Americans in the same boat. The "bailout" continues, and they reap trillions while we end up under bridges. :grr:

[cornermouse]

38. Exactly.

When the prices are cheap enough to suit them, they'll buy. The rest of us will still be out in the cold.

[fascisthunter]

51. .

[abumbyanyothername]

5. This is a major restructuring of our economy

On a bigger order than 1920-1945/6, or even 1945/6-1972.

The whole concepts of rampant consumerism, keeping up with the Jones', New and improved, faster, more powerful, even sexier and younger are wearing, or worn out. There is nothing left to sell. We have enough. In fact we are sick with too much. What we need is more of a connection to who we are. This means a closer connection to our food.

Our society is currently structured so that finance and government account for over 30%, perhaps up to 50%, of the workforce. That combined number ought to be closer to 25% (total for both). The working classes are feeling it, because they are in debt. The privileged classes are feeling it because the debts are defaulting at higher than expected rates.

I am not sure what is next but historically, societies have run with a much higher percentage of the population devoted to agriculture (typically over 10%, ours is 0.6%). Not to mention that one would hope that we could afford to devote less of our output to war and killing. If we begin to "advertise" life on the farm in our social media as idyllic (a la Rousseau's Noble Savage), we may be able to move much of the excess labor out of the cities, and back onto the land. I can't imagine any other solution to the wildly excessive capacity that we have built up during this "expansion" beginning in the mid 1980s.

A lot of people are going to be forcibly displaced, but the good thing about America is that we continue to be a food exporter and could actually easily convert our food system to one that provided healthy food for Americans (at least). Of course, that transition will not be easy for the corporate food interest who are dedicated and determined to maximize their profits at the expense of any thing, living or otherwise, that gets in their way.

May we live in interesting times. Indeed a curse. But also a blessing, as in "Don't waste a crisis."

[Blackhatjack]

6. Middle class wage earners have been saddled with low wages and high debt ...

... and therefore have become unreliable consumers that could be expected to buy the products produced and sold to them.

When the corporate profits exploded, they went straight in the pockets of the top brass and wealthy shareholders, and when wages should have risen they remained flat. This created financial zombies saddled with more and more debt as they attempted to maintain an impossible standard of living.

I don't see a significant recovery for millions of people. Rather we are in the process of creating a whole new generation of citizens who will be financially indebted to the wealthy elites and corporations, if we do not get $$ out of politics and begin right now to rein in the financial titans.

[Boddingham]

7. the dollar

My dollars don't go as far as they used to and it seems they have lost value.

[Blackhatjack]

8. Yep, my dollars don't buy as much either .... and coupon shoppers are coming out of woodwork

Canned vegetables, produce, meats, have all gone up by a huge margin.

Add gasoline, utility bills, and insurance premiums to that list.

Any way you look at it, the dollars we are making are not going as far....

[Wednesdays]

57. There's rampant inflation with "things you need"

such as food & energy.

But there's rampant DEflation among "things you don't need" (aka rich people's toys). I'm amazed at how much the prices have come down on giant flat screen TV's the last couple of years, for example.

Interesting how they don't count the former in official inflation figures.

[tinkerbell41]

62. Since 1998

My hourly pay has risen 11 dollars. Now before you comment, know this I lived better in 98 than I have for at least 6 yrs. My car is 10 yrs old, I have no jewelry, flat screens, etc.. My home is a modest 3 br ranch built in 1950's in a blue collar neighborhood. My money does NOT go as far today, I have been saying this to anyone who would listen, and it seems "they don't get it".

[lildreamer316]

9. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Boddingham]

67. Thank you, lildreamer.

I've been lurking for a while. Finally got the courage. Thank you!

[abumbyanyothername]

11. The corporate titans overshot the mark though

It's like the fixed card (gambling) game. If the suckers win often enough, they keep playing. But if a game is stacked to heavily in favor of the shark, it dries up as suckers quickly sense they have no chance.

With babyboomers reaching the end of their productive lives, with whatever they have to show for it, they are realizing that they aren't going to be Michael Jordan or Warren Buffett . . . EVER. So they are beginning to investigate the drop out track. Liquidate your assets, pay off your debts, or if you are upside down declare bankruptcy, find a lifestyle that does not require debt. Once you have experienced a down-sized lifestyle you realize its advantages. Now your eyes begin to open to the lies that have infected your consciousness. And you realize how much you gave up to chase the false idol of American Consumerism.

The point I am making is that more and more of us are giving up on "getting ahead" and when that trend reaches a tipping point, the whole structure of our society collapses.

The rich have no power over us if we don't want what they have.

[Blackhatjack]

12. Many are working just to cover the necessaries ... like health insurance, food, etc.

I just don't see the unbridled spending by the middle class as having brought this economy to its knees.

In so many ways, the middle class has been the victim of financial vampires that have sucked too much blood from them. They are on the verge of dying, and now they are trying to survive.

[abumbyanyothername]

15. I am talking about "luxuries" like . . .

1) multiple cars per family or even 1 car for each family; 2) separate bedrooms for each child or even for children of differing genders; 3) make up; 4) beer; 5) television; 6) computers; 7) new school clothes every year; 8) Christmas presents; 9) meat every meal; 10) store bought food for every meal; 11) living in a city versus a nearly abandoned rural community; etc.

Health insurance is way off the charts extravagant for the kind of rescaling that is coming. The good news is that as people are forced out of the corporate food system, they will actually get healthier and have less need for health care.

Simply compare the US standard of living to that of the rest of the world (not in dollars, but in terms of goods and services consumed). They want to catch up, but there is not enough. We are going to have to move back toward them. At least a little.

And it will hurt.

I don't see anyway to patch up the system with some kind of "tweak." I wish I did.

[704wipes]

13. I recommend this person's post - succinct and extremely

incisive

[InkAddict]

44. Duzy, everyone? Missing my True Blood fix this past Sunday.

[bertman]

20. I'm reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" between blogging episodes.

If you haven't read it or Michael Pollan's books--which I'm guessing you have--well, you should put them on your list. Kingsolver and Pollan offer an inspiring blueprint for living close to the land and providing exceptionally good food while helping the environment.

All good points you have raised here, albumbyanyothername.

[abumbyanyothername]

21. A couple of others for your list

Eliot Coleman: "The New Organic Grower"
Gene Logsdon: "Living At Nature's Pace"

The best one, but I can't find it on my Kindle now, is a volume from the mid 1800s titled "Ten Acres Enough" (I think) written by a Philadelphia businessman who liquidates and sets up a ten acre farm in New Jersey, growing strawberries, peaches and blackberries (at a time when black berries were considered a wild crop, not needed to be cultivated). I have no idea why it isn't still on my Kindle though.

[bertman]

24. thanks. I'll try to find them.

[marions ghost]

42. I doubt

you can convince too many people that they should go out and start a farm these days. Most could not possibly raise enough food. Growing food is an art for one thing, very time-consuming and requires reasonable fitness. It's a romantic dream to think that people can just go forth from suburbia to the farms. And from my experience farms can be anything but "idyllic." It can be nerve-wracking dealing with the elements and the blights and bugs. Farming is for the hardy. Not for everybody.

I'm in agreement that buying more locally raised food is a good direction.

[Odin2005]

43. I agree with you abount consumerism, disagree with the "back-to-the-land" thing.

IMO the way out of this debt crisis is taking advantage of the new industrial revolution that is starting based on green technology and nano-technology as well as to develop a new, healthier relationship to work, leisure, and consumption. People with a high-paying job still work long hours in order to afford useless shit that doesn't make life any more enjoyable and they don't have time to use because of work.

[marions ghost]

48. yes, so true

I see the perils of over-consumption everywhere. People have to get over the idea that BUYING stuff is the way to spend their lives. I mean this to include the less affluent who search endlessly for sale items beyond their reasonable needs --to the more affluent who buy everything they want (and then do nothing for the rest of their lives but maintain it).

Americans are drowning in things that will never bring them any kind of happiness.

We need purpose and recreation beyond the mall.

Edit to say--that I am NOT one of those who blames the average consumer for the crisis we are in. Not at all. That is a smokescreen to cover the gigantic theft of public resources and exploitation of the middle class by the rich and powerful. I am merely saying that the marketing of useless junk and over consumption is a problem that cuts across different income levels at this point.

OK so with less to spend we will suddenly lose buying power, but how do we also address the loss of purpose, loss of recreation and "fun" (no matter how limited that actually was), that came from amassing possessions. It's just as disturbing to some people not to buy cheap fashion shoes all the time as it is to others not to buy big ticket toys like boats and computers and cameras. With both, it fills a need, fills a gap, in a society where everyone is pretty much out for themselves.

[marions ghost]

49. delete dupe

[PVnRT]

56. People out of work generally can't afford to buy farmland

So, you either open up federally-owned land to homesteading or start seizing land from large landholders who don't seem to be using it. The first option guts our national parks, forest and wildlife preserves, and the second, though tempting, will almost surely result in open revolt.

Start rebuilding critical building infrastructure (schools, government buildings, hospitals) and start constructing a nationwide high-speed rail network - neither contributes to consumerism and both provide a huge number of jobs to do things we badly need. It's too bad the watered-down stimulus was more concerned with tax cuts.

[Blackhatjack]

10. Local news reported recently that pawn brokers have been inundated with goods...

People are bringing in so many items that they have had to turn away customers because they half a dozen or more of the same item previously pawned.

We are getting there .... near the bottom.

The problem is that if the bottom really falls out of this economy, the number of people in need is going to be too large for the government rescue.

We already have a huge number of people who have used up all of their unemployment benefits including the extension of benefits approved earlier this year.

[XemaSab]

33. The number of people having garage sales here is worrisome

:(

[Blackhatjack]

14. As long as the MSM continues to convince the Middle Class it's their fault...

.... the charade will continue.

Soon it will be apparent that the great majority of us have been 'snookered' by those who wrote their own rules(free of govt regulation) and have been playing us all from both ends against the middle.

The whole idea that the middle class could 'invest' their savings in the stock market and get giant returns like the upper class was a sham. We now have a whole generation that has watched at least 50% of their retirement go up in smoke.

And yet the Wall Street banks get bailed out, and the rest of us stand with empty outstretched hands as we are told it was our fault.

[Greyhound]

26. I just keep wondering when the average idiot is going to start to wake up to it.

The banksters robbed the whole world, and most of the "Joes & Janes" are still thinking this is just another "recession" (of course they really have no idea what that is either, but we've had them before and we come out of them).

Meanwhile, DC has literally poured all the money they could into a bottomless pit praying that; a.) it will help, and b.) that their constituents never tip to the fact that they will probably never come out of this for the rest of their lives.

Will they ever realize how bad this really is, even with their Great God of the Screen telling them "all is well", and if they do, what will they do?

There are really only two likely outcomes to this (well three, but the third is unlikely in the extreme), generational poverty and the loss of "the American Lifestyle", or a global economic collapse.

[Odin2005]

45. The last 30 years have been one big specululative bubble powered by low corporate taxes.

When corporate and capital gains taxes are high profits are reinvested back into the real economy, when such taxes are low the investment class turns Wall Street into a giant casino and the little guy is suckered in and screwed.

[InkAddict]

47. The new "domestic violence"

Shakes head: "Why don't they leave?"

[slay]

16. I live in NC and I agree

I'm seeeing more and more "For sale" home signs turning into "For rent" cause people just aren't buying and therefor others can't sell. Filling up family neighborhoods where people usually own their homes with rentals turns the neighborhood to shit. Sometimes up to 4 families will share a rental house - the one across the street rents to 8 adults with cars parked all over the yard. So now the value of the houses has dropped even more and even fewer people can sell. It's a vicious cycle. I wonder who the other 3 families I will have to end up sharing a house with will be if things don't turn around soon... :(

[Blackhatjack]

19. Early on there was an opportunity to avoid the 'foreclosure blight problem'...

... but that window has closed now.

Banks could have been restricted in their application of the federal funds to new loans with federal backing that could have helped subdivisions avoid the unoccupied and abandoned homes from pulling down housing values in the neighborhood.

But when the banks refused to negotiate and insist on foreclosure, the dye was cast as far as plummeting housing values for everyone left.

[slay]

37. I hate it for people like my parents

put all their faith in "the system", did like they were supposed to, paid off their mortgage - and to have lost so much while the banks get bailed out speaks very poorly of America's priorities.

[Mind_your_head]

17. aww...c'mon....."States" can 'rob Peter to pay Paul" just as well as you & I do.....

It won't catch up to *us*.....at least on "my watch" it won't *wink* *wink*

:sarcasm: *sigh*

[shanejfilomena]

22. budgets consit of: ( alaskan point of view )

crap you do not need to begin with.
if you actualy see the list of trash in the budget that causes reasonable elected people to NOT want to upset their public....you would understand in seconds.

what you need to do is grab your phone : call your local agent and tell him if he can not do the job he will be RECALLED from that office and your party will elect another official.
you get out in the road with a sign and a petition for recalling those employees of the people that are failing you.

I am an ALASKAN....here, our government leadership are are not some rich people elected by some far off world television news poll..... they are our friends, neighbors, the girl down the street..... we know where they live, where they shop, we teach their kids and change their tires , we feel for these people like family (because if you can not feel that way about the people representing YOU, then you had no business electing them).----but they are still a public servant and we have rights as their EMPLOYER. one of those rights is to pull the rug out from under them by firing them from the elected post by a vote , the same way we gave it to them we can take it away.

[tavalon]

30. How do you feel about your crazy Aunt in the belfry, I mean, Governor's seat?

[SammyWinstonJack]

50. +1

:evilgrin:

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. "we are not California". Hey, CA is not the pinata of states

:)

[Blackhatjack]

25. No Disrespect... Everyone knows the monumental crisis Calif is facing...

... my point being that NC is supposed to be so much better off than the rest of the country(including Calif) and yet we are struggling with all these issues.

There are only a handful of states not struggling....

[Iggo]

27. But ya are California. Ya are!

[Festivito]

28. Our infrastructure crumbles in the order of our last resorts.

Stocks dropped when Bush was selected by the media in 2000. So people put their money into housing.

Confidence crumbled.

Cars went. We can drive our old ones. That's why Michigan looked so bad so early.

Good jobs crumbled. $60/hr with retirement and health care to $10-15/hr without and people had to move to get those.

Bush borrowed money to prop the economy, then borrowed from other countries to keep things looking good, then continued borrowing from other countries as we'd buy goods from them and they bought our industries, when they bought all the industries they could handle they bought our housing values bundled and insured, then to be re-selected resorted to having banks lend way beyond what they were allowed to leverage. That fueled the housing bubble but kept the goods supplied from the other countries where our industries went a coming.

The excess money went to Texas and other Republican areas. In Michigan, Grand Rapids, a Republican stronghold, has Blackwater of Iraq fame collecting billions. That doesn't help the auto industry for a few guys to have a billion. They only drive one car at a time.

Then the financial sector crashes. Before it crumbles we infuse it with tax dollars.

The insured housing is paid with our tax dollars to the lending countries.

Dawns on people that Bush has been a big lie. So we get the media-selected Obama.

But, the service economy depends on borrowed money going to people even in selected areas and inflated housing. Now the borrowed money goes to the banks and so housing deflates.

Service jobs once thriving but built on endless debt crumble.

Stores close as we wear our old shirts.

Restaurants crumble as we eat in.

Vacation travel crumbles as we stay home and watch TV.

Soon large food suppliers will crumble. We stop wasting so much.

Health care went from $6000/American for years and years to now $8000/American and now it is starting to crumble. (BTW it costs $3000/person in other countries to supply all health care, i.e. everything, to all their people and even to include tourists, the rest of the money goes to useless insurance companies denying care so we'll pay more out of fear of not being covered.)

Newspapers crumble but mostly due to the Internet and secondly to the reduced stores buying ads.

Sheltered by cars and cheaper homes (so the rich can buy the land out from under us patriots who parents paid in blood.) Clothed for a while, food will be the last to crumble.

And, by then, crumbs will be all we'll have and by some: all we deserve.

[jeanpalmer]

31. It all comes down to too much debt

The ratio of debt to personal disposable income went from 65% in 1985 to 133% in 2007. Growing debt kept the economy going, but it was unsustainable. Once housing prices started falling, the debt structure collapsed, and the economy along with it. The result was inevitable. The only question was what would trigger it.

The alarming thing is that debt has only declined to 130% of income. There's still a lot of debt out there overhanging the economy. Even if the economy were to stabalize, where could it go with that much debt hanging over it?

It would take another debt binge to bring the economy back. That obviously is not in the cards. Economists have calculated that the economy from 2002 to 2007 would have been in recession had it not been for the equity people took out of their homes through debt and spent it. How is that kind of spending possible now? Doesn't seem possible.

[H2O Man]

32. Things are getting worse

in the region that I live in, not better. And the pace of decline isn't slowing up. People are getting more anxious, more depressed, and far more stressed.

[jeanpalmer]

35. The pace of decline isn't slowing anywhere

from what I see. Uneployment losses have not abated and state fiscal problems seem to be accelerating and reaching a crisis point. Imo the stimulus money should have been sent to households/people directly and immediately to try to slow down/ward off the collapse. Instead they decided to take an indirect approach of funneling money to projects, but the money doesn't seem to be getting out there very quickly or at all. This has let the thing spiral downward out of control.

[H2O Man]

36. Right.

There is an awareness that things are going to get worse, but only one class is taking a united approach towards taking care of their own. The middle- and lower-income citizens are looking towards the wealthy for help. It isn't going to happen. They are preparing to protect themselves when things spiral further out of control.

[mmonk]

54. That is the problem. Americans have been trained since Reagan

to believe that their future lies with the CEOs and their politics. So therefore, they are waiting for the trickle down manna instead of demanding a return to policies of full employment, steady growth, with the welfare of the citizen at the center of policy.

[SammyWinstonJack]

53. That's exactly where the stimulus money should have gone. Directly to households/people.

:thumbsup:

[depakid]

34. Just the sort of situation that federal revenue sharing could have averted

[black jack brisco]

39. The only solution:

Vote against every incumbent in every election, NO EXCEPTIONS, until Congress and the WH get back to representing The People instead of The Rich and Powerful (aka TRaP).

[Blackhatjack]

40. Until Politicians No Longer Need To Spend 65% of Their Time 'Fundraising' It Won't Matter...

We can vote every incumbent out of office, but all those we elect in their place will face the same problems presented by $$ in politics.

Campaign Finance Reform that gets $$ out of Government is the only hope of returning representation to the needs of the people and away from the the richest campaign contributors.

[jeanpalmer]

64. How is that going to happen

The people in Congress now have no incentive to change the system. And seem completely uninterested in campaign finance reform. What is it going to take to bring about change? The only chance I see is if a crusader/reformer type appears on the national scene and develops a following and the political capital necessary to force a change on Congress. I don't see anyone of that ability. The people in there now, including Obama, are part of the system and will not change it. I know many people here don't like Nader, but it will take someone with convictions like his re corporate and political corruption to make the necessary changes. Where is that person?

[Blackhatjack]

65. It's going to take an uprising of public outrage to absolutely take them out at the polls...

The only thing that ranks higher with a politician than more campaign contributions is the prospect that no matter how much money they raise they will lose anyway because of the constituents' outrage.

Street protests, sit-ins, and public demonstrations against POLITICIANS do make a difference.

And those don't happen until people feel they have nothing left to lose... we are almost there.

[Odin2005]

41. This crisis is a capital investment crisis. We need to raise corporate taxes and raise wages.

Raising wages is self-evident, good for demand.

Now, corporate and capital gains taxes are a bit more interesting. I have been told by an economic historian on another message board that high corporate and capital gains taxes force corporations to reinvest their profits back into the business, but when those taxes are low they are tempted to throw the profits at BS speculation, leading to a bubble economy.

I call it an investment crisis because for the last 30 years it has been more profitable to throw capital at speculative financial BS rather than actual investment into the real economy. Consumer debt has been used to cover the lack of capital investment in the real economy. Now the gravy train has run out.

[L0oniX]

46. Yes, we here in Gods country eliminate programs for the poor and needy when we need money.

God bless America!

[fascisthunter]

52. "When We Need Money..." for the already useless rich

[Blackhatjack]

55. I think the uptick in the DOW to the 8000 level was the last corp opportunity to get out ahead...

... those stock options and accumulated stock are of no value once the market bottoms below 6000, so the solution was to pronounce the stock market had reached bottom and it was safe for the small investors to pour the last of their $$ back into it.

It is a cleanup operation, sucking up the last of middle class funds.

Then when it hits a real bottom the sharks will come in and scoop up the goodies for pennies on the dollar.

The recent revelations regarding Goldman Sachs just confirms the suspicions that the working man/woman who invested their retirement in Wall Street never had a chance.

[CrispyQ]

58. I see co-workers who have been making big bucks for many, many years,

socking big chunks of it in matching 401K plans, realizing that the nice cushion they thought they had isn't as big as it once was & isn't going to last nearly as long as they thought it would. They are also older & not as employable as they used to be, especially at those six figure rates.

There was a report just recently that the number of millionaires is down. It's going to be harder & harder to stay on top as the gap between the haves & have-nots grows. Welcome to 21st Century Feudalism, where the richest 1% of Americans now owns as much wealth as the bottom 95% & are getting more of the pie everyday.

[marketcrazy1]

59. more jobs were lost

in this recession than were created over the last ten years! TEN YEARS of job growth has been wiped out and we are probably only half way through the "greatest recession"......................

[AuntPatsy]

60. Oh something has given or in this case, someone...namely us, we have given it all away by allowing

those on the receiving end to continue taking without end....

[Blackhatjack]

61. As I see it 'the end of the recession' may not be the result any of us expected....

When there is a paradigm shift in a population, the method of measurement used in the past to gauge a common activity no longer applies.

To think that this economy will come back to where it was 8 years ago when Clinton left office is fantasy.

The new 'end of the recession' likely will be at a point of much lower wages, lower job security, and loss of government 'safety nets' that have been in place since WWII.

Welcome to the new order of things....

[Blackhatjack]

63. Governor Perdue Lists Proposals To End Budget Crisis .... LINK

Gov Perdue seems to have put forth a reasonable set of proposals to be considered in bridging the budget gap of $5.4bil. Now the ball is in the Legislature's court....


http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/perdue_wants_1_cent_sales_tax_hike

"Gov. Beverly Perdue told legislative leaders Tuesday she wants a 1-cent sales tax increase and a total tax hike package of $1.6 billion to balance the budget. Perdue, a Democrat, met with lawmakers at the Executive Mansion and gave them a list of tax and other revenue options that she would like to see passed. It was an effort to help break the impasse between Democratic Senate and House leaders over what taxes to increase and how much.

Highlights of Perdue's wishlist, provided to Dome, include: an "emergency" 1-cent increase in the sales tax that would expire in October 2010, an emergency income tax surcharge on single taxpayers who earn more than $500,000 and married couples filing jointly making more than $1 million.

Perdue wants a 50-cent-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes, down from the $1-per-pack she requested in March, plus 2-cents-per-can more on beer and a 2 percent increase on alcohol.

The list included several tax increases that would take effect in the fall of next year, including taxes on some services (warranties, installations, repairs) and a tax increase on "luxury services" such as cosmetic surgery, limousines and chartered flights."

MORE

[mullard12ax7]

66. America could try arresting, trying, convicting and jailing our criminals

but that would presume we are a nation of laws. We aren't and won't be until that happens.