Author Topic: "A black sheriff?!": The Official Topic of Obama and New Era American Politics  (Read 1831117 times)

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Human Snorenado

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1080 on: February 09, 2009, 02:21:47 PM »
This is why Republicans aren't taken seriously:

Quote
STEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

   STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.

   STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating...

   STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?

   (CROSSTALK)

   STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.

   As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is...

   STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.

   STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.

   STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

   STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.

It's like magic!  They'll just come back if we cut their taxes HARD enough!  Get some new ideas, morans.
yar

TakingBackSunday

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1081 on: February 09, 2009, 02:25:07 PM »
Guess what, unemployed?  Your business just was taking a long-deserved trip, don't worry, you'll be hired back after your job recovers from its sun burn.
püp

Brehvolution

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1082 on: February 09, 2009, 02:36:49 PM »
So he is against giving people jobs until their jobs come back?
©ZH

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1083 on: February 09, 2009, 02:51:45 PM »

ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1084 on: February 09, 2009, 03:00:35 PM »
Why isn't the 70's and 80's recession included in this chart? God, I hate liberals.
*chart

Yea, I saw that. I posted a spreadsheet that showed a better indicator of job losses and how to measure them from era to era. I think SD's chart (above) is set up using that data.

Not that it makes any of the news any better. Especially when you factor in that we have much less of a manufacturing base to fall back on and historic competition globally.


Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1085 on: February 09, 2009, 08:21:23 PM »
Quote
Just as the Senate was voting, the Congressional Budget Office released a new analysis showing the total cost of the Senate version of the stimulus bill to be $838.2 billion over 10 years, of which $292.5 billion or roughly 35 percent is in the form of tax cuts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/washington/10stimulus-web.html?_r=1&hp
010

TakingBackSunday

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1086 on: February 09, 2009, 08:27:57 PM »
Obama is layin' shit down right now
püp

Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1087 on: February 09, 2009, 08:29:04 PM »
He's framing the argument brilliantly. The pork argument is being annihilated

edit: live feed http://www.hulu.com/live/obamapressconference
010

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1088 on: February 09, 2009, 08:32:08 PM »
It was all the banks' fault. Consumer overspending had nothing to do with it.

Human Snorenado

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1089 on: February 09, 2009, 08:32:54 PM »
President HNIC laying the smack down.
yar

Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1090 on: February 09, 2009, 08:35:09 PM »
It was all the banks' fault. Consumer overspending had nothing to do with it.

Are you even watching? He just said people who bought homes they couldn't afford were participating in "bad habits" that need to be changed
010

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1091 on: February 09, 2009, 08:37:43 PM »
You need to watch that again.

huckleberry

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1092 on: February 09, 2009, 08:39:34 PM »
It was all the banks' fault. Consumer overspending had nothing to do with it.


Yeah...he should make a Jimmy Carter esque statement. Great idea.


I think one of the first unspoken rules of politics is that the voter is never the cause of anything....
wub

Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1093 on: February 09, 2009, 08:44:37 PM »
You need to watch that again.

You need to join reality. His point was perfectly clear that people who bought homes they couldn't afford made a mistake. No he didn't put all the blame on them, or chastise them as tough as he chastises banks/wall street. What do you expect him to do

010

TakingBackSunday

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1094 on: February 09, 2009, 08:46:35 PM »
to give sd a tax cut
püp

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1095 on: February 09, 2009, 08:48:23 PM »
We'll just have to go to the transcript.

Crushed

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1096 on: February 09, 2009, 08:53:30 PM »
to give sd a tax cut
giving poor people a tax cut is socialism though

give rich people a tax cut, so it can the golden shower can trickle down to sd
wtc

Eric P

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1097 on: February 09, 2009, 10:39:35 PM »


aol.com's snap survey
Tonya

Cheebs

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1098 on: February 09, 2009, 11:23:45 PM »
I loved when Obama brought up and then proceeded to mock the FDR revisionist history types. :lol

It was like he was talking about the wacky libertarians on the net.

ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1099 on: February 10, 2009, 12:51:46 AM »
My Sirius radio crapped out on my ride home from work, so I was flipping through the AM stations and rolled past Hannity pimping his own dating service. WTF


http://web1.hannity.com/hannidate/



Any takers on this 38 year old "strong christian" and his dog? (What grown man takes a formal picture with his dog? lol)

spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1100 on: February 10, 2009, 01:02:42 AM »
Erip P is that the online poll or something more official? Too small to see

the online poll shows mixed results but obviously it's not scientific. Obama defended his position while making the republicans look like assholes
010

Mandark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1101 on: February 10, 2009, 01:06:50 AM »
Multi-paragraph posts from Prole and tennin.   :heart EB

Quote
no, there's no word OTHER than STUPID for anyone who believes that tax cuts should be favored over infrastructure spending in a stimulus package, or who think that a stimulus package isn't needed. even the karl denninger-esque kooks are starting to come around, since it doesn't take a lot of mental horsepower to compute that, say (for example) repealing the amt for the rich will NOT lead to good returns on each dollar "spent", since RICH PEOPLE CAN AFFORD TO SAVE.

meeeeee!  i really don't see why infrastructure spending should be favored over tax cuts if by "tax cuts" we mean stuff like EITC and "tax rebate" demogrants.  infrastructure (and education etc.) spending is fine if it's something actually worthwhile in itself, but if we're just spending money to give people money, better just give them money rather than wasting their time at some make-work job (which I'm not saying the stimulus programs are, but under the logic of some of the "it doesn't matter what we buy as long as we buy stuff" commentators I've seen they could just as well be).

you folks are trying to make the dispute over Keynesian economics out to be fake, like the global warming "controversy", but as far as I can tell it's pretty different.  expert opinion appears genuinely split, empirical evidence is inconclusive, theoretical justifications are (on the surface) dubious.

I think you're misreading the debate and drawing the battle lines wrong as a consequence.  The economists using the Keynes playbook (and those of us cadging their talking points) do rate refundable tax credits pretty highly.



That's just one example but I think sums up the consensus among the Keynes mafia (Krugman, DeLong, that Romer-Bernstein paper, etc.).  When they dis "tax cuts" you should read that phrase as "untargeted marginal rate cuts or cuts to the corporate/capital gains/estate taxes."  You know, the horseshit that actually makes the other side of the public discourse on this issue.

Remember, it was the House GOP leadership who told Obama that the refundable credits were really "welfare" and the Senate GOP that proposed a non-refundable rate cut as an alternative.  I haven't seen any lefty economists attack the EITC, food stamps, etc.

As for Keynes' theory generally, I'm too lazy to read the primary sources but Krugman and Daniel Davies -- my favorite pundits and guys with great bullshit detectors -- swear by him.  Plus most of the criticism I've seen has come in the form of transparently dishonest arguments from Chicago school types.


Quote from: Professor Prole
the trouble is, as i pointed out on your facebook

Man, do I gotta register there to get all my EB-related content?

patrickula

  • Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1102 on: February 10, 2009, 10:39:22 AM »
FYI, Obama sucks starting yesterday :gloomy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123422915277565975.html

:piss state secrets defense :piss2

siamesedreamer

  • Senior Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1103 on: February 10, 2009, 10:41:06 AM »
Quote
All right. Chuck Todd. Where's Chuck?

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending, or over-spending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first, before they start spending money into the economy?

MR. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people's monies, based on shaky assets. And because of the enormous leverage, where they had $1 worth of assets and they were betting $30 on that $1, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.

That led to a contraction of credit, which in turn meant businesses couldn't make payroll or make inventories, which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of the economy.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/politics/09text-obama.html?pagewanted=7


Eric P

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1104 on: February 10, 2009, 10:42:47 AM »
My Sirius radio crapped out on my ride home from work, so I was flipping through the AM stations and rolled past Hannity pimping his own dating service. WTF


http://web1.hannity.com/hannidate/



Any takers on this 38 year old "strong christian" and his dog? (What grown man takes a formal picture with his dog? lol)

spoiler (click to show/hide)
[close]

omgomgomgomg

best thing ever
Tonya

Eric P

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1105 on: February 10, 2009, 10:47:15 AM »
Erip P is that the online poll or something more official? Too small to see

the online poll shows mixed results but obviously it's not scientific. Obama defended his position while making the republicans look like assholes

strange it posted fine here

it's an aol online poll asking "how did obama do?"

and the choices are:
thumbs up, thumbs up, or no opinion
Tonya

AdmiralViscen

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1106 on: February 10, 2009, 10:47:41 AM »
Is there a live stream of the Geithner press conference?

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1107 on: February 10, 2009, 11:09:33 AM »
According to Leisman, there still is no firm plan for the banks.


Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1108 on: February 10, 2009, 11:33:03 AM »
Quote
Once the economy stabilizes and people are less fearful, then I do think that we're going to have to start thinking about how do we operate more prudently, because there's no such thing as a free lunch. So if -- if you want to get -- if you want to buy a house, then putting zero down and buying a house that is probably not affordable for you in case something goes wrong, that's something that has to be reconsidered.

So we're going to have to change our -- our bad habits. But right now, the key is making sure that we pull ourselves out of the economic slump that we're in.

SD annihilated
010

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1109 on: February 10, 2009, 11:36:33 AM »
Geithner: Failure to act quickly made this crisis worse. So, check back with us in a few weeks when we have our plan formulated.

Amazing to think that after almost 3 months on the job he still has no plan. And the markets are reacting very badly. Down 300 at the moment.

EDIT:  :lol PD...so you want to ignore how he specifically responded to the question asked by Todd? Come on dude. Go back to what I said and compare it to what Obama said. There's no difference. 
« Last Edit: February 10, 2009, 11:41:50 AM by siamesedreamer »

Van Cruncheon

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1110 on: February 10, 2009, 11:56:01 AM »
just nationalize the freakin' major banks already, or make a fuckin' national bank to sit on the toxic assets, swiss-style! ARE WE SO AFRAID OF BECOMING LIKE EUROPE, I ASK.
duc

Phoenix Dark

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1111 on: February 10, 2009, 12:00:25 PM »
Geithner: Failure to act quickly made this crisis worse. So, check back with us in a few weeks when we have our plan formulated.

Amazing to think that after almost 3 months on the job he still has no plan. And the markets are reacting very badly. Down 300 at the moment.

EDIT:  :lol PD...so you want to ignore how he specifically responded to the question asked by Todd? Come on dude. Go back to what I said and compare it to what Obama said. There's no difference. 

His entire response was a response, you can't pick and choose. Secondly Todd's question was undeniably distinguished mentally-challenged
010

Human Snorenado

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1112 on: February 10, 2009, 12:05:49 PM »
just nationalize the freakin' major banks already, or make a fuckin' national bank to sit on the toxic assets, swiss-style! ARE WE SO AFRAID OF BECOMING LIKE EUROPE, I ASK.

Stiglitz, Krugman, Roubini, Taleb and Baker all agree that the banks should be nationalized.  Just do it.
yar

ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1113 on: February 10, 2009, 12:21:37 PM »
Who do you think lines their pockets with donation money and offers them cushy lobbying jobs and speaking fees when they leave office?

Once they nationalize the banks, they lose that source of income.

Bank of America donated 2.2 million in 2008
Citigroup donated 4.2 million in 2008
Chase donated 4.2 million in 2008
MBNA donated 1.5 million in 2008

...and on and on. In total, it was 34 million (48% to Dems, 52% to Reps) for  last year alone.


Keep living the dream, comrades. One day our socialist utopia will magically appear.



« Last Edit: February 10, 2009, 12:27:39 PM by ToxicAdam »

y2kev

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1114 on: February 10, 2009, 12:26:32 PM »
I don't think there's any question that one major issue here is the ridiculous leveraging that banks were doing, which you do have to blame banks for (as well as people like Paulson) and not distinguished mentally-challenged hick consumers. But in general, I disagree with Obama there. Consumer spending on easy credit is at least partly culpable.

haw

siamesedreamer

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1115 on: February 10, 2009, 12:27:12 PM »
Questions to anyone who would like to answer.

Why must we get credit flowing again to families who are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Why must we stop greatly inflated home prices from continueing to fall?
Why must we help out homeowners who could never afford their house in the first place?
Why must we continue to prop up insolvent banks?


ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1116 on: February 10, 2009, 12:38:27 PM »
Questions to anyone who would like to answer.

Why must we get credit flowing again to families who are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Getting credit flowing is for businesses. Even solvent businesses are having problems securing credit.

Quote
Why must we stop greatly inflated home prices from continueing to fall?

Because you will cause more home loans to be "upside down". Which straps people with more debt, less spending power and can freeze them into a house for the next decade or more.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902924.html


Quote
Why must we help out homeowners who could never afford their house in the first place?

Because when they take a bath on their property, they are dropping the property value of everyone around them and causing them to be frozen too.

Quote
Why must we continue to prop up insolvent banks?

We shouldn't ... but if you can't find other banks to assume their debts, then the government could wind up spending more when they are forced to cover.

siamesedreamer

  • Senior Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1117 on: February 10, 2009, 12:55:46 PM »
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041902924.html

And there in lies the problem - a high school teacher bought a 1/2 million dollar home. Fucking insane.

Should I bust out my chart again?

And you should read Geithner's speech. He specifically said we need to get credit flowing to families again. I'll try to find it.

Kestastrophe

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1118 on: February 10, 2009, 01:11:13 PM »
I do disagree with their approach to increase credit lending to individuals, but I have yet to see details released as to the extent of this lending. shoring up credit to small business is a must however. there should be some kind of funding going to individual foreclosures, imo, even though that presents a slew of other problems, logistics and such.

siamesedreamer, why aren't you asking "who would fund a high school teacher on a $500,000 house" in addition to placing the blame solely on the consumer?
« Last Edit: February 10, 2009, 01:38:36 PM by Kestastrophe »
jon

recursivelyenumerable

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1119 on: February 10, 2009, 01:18:27 PM »
Quote
Any takers on this 38 year old "strong christian" and his dog? (What grown man takes a formal picture with his dog? lol)

his dog looks pretty in that pic, he made the right decision.
QED

Van Cruncheon

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1120 on: February 10, 2009, 01:27:30 PM »
who wants to give easy credit to families? i want businesses and state governments to be able to make payrolls and purchase assets proactively!
duc

recursivelyenumerable

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1121 on: February 10, 2009, 02:18:40 PM »
I sort of liked season 7 too, but I get why people don't.

season 7 of the Bush years that is
it was admittedly kind of a letdown after season 6 ended on a cliffhanger with the Democrats coming in and people expected they'd actually try to do something
« Last Edit: February 10, 2009, 02:48:50 PM by recursivelyenumerable »
QED

Cheebs

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1122 on: February 10, 2009, 02:32:39 PM »
Shitload of people watched Obama last night. Nearly 40 million on networks, around 50 million with cable included.

ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1123 on: February 10, 2009, 02:54:24 PM »
I saw this up on reddit. It's a PBS interview with a Harvard Law professor about credit and America. Interesting stuff.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/interviews/warren.html

Quote
I'm thinking of ... various economists who would say that you just don't believe in the future; you don't believe in increased productivity; you don't believe in the ... model, for instance, of the U.S. economy which, in spite all the naysayers (interview was in 2004), continues to expand, and consumer credit in particular has been key to that expansion over the last 20 years.

Families cannot expand their earnings fast enough to make up for the 29 percent interest rates. They just can't do it. It's not possible. ... Our economy may grow fast, it may hit another boom, and we may grow ourselves out of all kinds of debt problems, but the individual family can't count on increasing its income next year by 29 percent.

Look at where American wages have been for the last 30 years. A fully employed male today earns 1 percent more than a fully employed male earned 30 years ago. Inflation adjusted, there's been 1 percent growth in wages in 30 years. When people take out credit card loans at 29 percent interest, they're spending tomorrow's wages, and there's no way that those wages are going to go up fast enough that they're going to have the money to pay it back other than by cutting their future purchasing.


Mandark

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Why must you post?
« Reply #1124 on: February 10, 2009, 03:06:56 PM »
Questions to anyone who would like to answer.

Why must we get credit flowing again to families who are in debt up to their eyeballs?
Why must we stop greatly inflated home prices from continueing to fall?
Why must we help out homeowners who could never afford their house in the first place?
Why must we continue to prop up insolvent banks?

What would you do?

demi

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1125 on: February 10, 2009, 03:19:31 PM »
Damn that Hannidate shit was gold, but I cant view shit anymore. Guess you gotta register
fat

siamesedreamer

  • Senior Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1126 on: February 10, 2009, 04:19:56 PM »
Our economy is far too reliant on consumer purchases by people who are living on credit. The economy will need to shrink and everyone will have to take a major hit for things to get to a sane point again. Credit limits need to be slashed and people have to accept that they can only buy what their paychecks say they can. In that same line, employers will have to provide wages which actually allow people to pay for the basics (food, housing, healthcare, education). And those who earn less will need to stop with luxury purchases and the rich will just have to face being less rich.

Now what would you do?

Human Snorenado

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1127 on: February 10, 2009, 04:22:10 PM »
So let me get this right sd, you're saying CEOs shouldn't be making 500 times what the average worker at their company makes?  SOCIALIST.
yar

siamesedreamer

  • Senior Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1128 on: February 10, 2009, 07:42:16 PM »
After the markets implode on the non-news Ogeithner "plan", Dodd is saying suspending mark-to-market accounting rules may be part of it. Wall Street will love it, but inventing the value of assets is fucking insane since the taxpayers are going to be footing most of the bill. That's how the swindle continues on though.

y2kev

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1129 on: February 10, 2009, 07:47:49 PM »
Mark-to-model isn't anything new, and it's not really "inventing" the price of assets. I don't think any models are going to pass for "if x, then x = 1 BILLION ZILLION!!!" But yeah, you'd like it to be mark to market when the tax payer is going to foot the bill, but that would be counterproductive.

there's no point in doing this good bank/bad bank thing with the government playing bad bank if it causes such a drop in net worth/owners equity for the banks that the banks become insolvent again once a single loan defaults.

just nationalize the banks.
haw

Beardo

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1130 on: February 10, 2009, 08:28:07 PM »
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?

Barry Egan

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1131 on: February 10, 2009, 09:12:39 PM »
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?


Human Snorenado

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1132 on: February 10, 2009, 09:13:51 PM »
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?

(Image removed from quote.)

Why is this not an emoticon yet?  Leper Willco.
yar

Crushed

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1133 on: February 10, 2009, 09:16:16 PM »
wtc

ToxicAdam

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1134 on: February 10, 2009, 09:19:07 PM »

Barry Egan

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1135 on: February 10, 2009, 09:29:39 PM »
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?

(Image removed from quote.)

Why is this not an emoticon yet?  Leper Willco.

why bother when his employers going to do it for us?

Oblivion

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Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1136 on: February 10, 2009, 09:30:30 PM »
How's Europe's economy right now? Surely all of their spending and government programs are keeping them healthy?

(Image removed from quote.)

Why is this not an emoticon yet?  Leper Willco.

Can we add a :hippolol too while we're at it?

Mandark

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What would you do, not where do you want to wind up.
« Reply #1137 on: February 10, 2009, 10:59:34 PM »
Our economy is far too reliant on consumer purchases by people who are living on credit. The economy will need to shrink and everyone will have to take a major hit for things to get to a sane point again. Credit limits need to be slashed and people have to accept that they can only buy what their paychecks say they can. In that same line, employers will have to provide wages which actually allow people to pay for the basics (food, housing, healthcare, education). And those who earn less will need to stop with luxury purchases and the rich will just have to face being less rich.

Now what would you do?

You're describing an end-state (less consumption, less consumer debt, living wages) without answering my question.

I'm getting the implication that we should let the market self-correct and trust that it will mete out the pain with efficiency and morality, eventually leading to your desired conclusion.  Tell me if I'm wrong.

Brehvolution

  • Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside.
  • Senior Member
Re: so, Obama is president
« Reply #1138 on: February 10, 2009, 11:42:54 PM »
It really did not occur to me just how much money credit card companies are leeching out of the American public until I read that interview. Billions and billions in interest and bullshit fees that should not be allowed. If you guys haven't read that interview, you need to.

Read it? We just escaped it about 6 month ago. It took my wife 6 months to close a Citibank account with a zero balance because they kept charging fees on a "closed" account.

"Yes ma'am, we are sorry for this and it will be rectified on the next months bill."

Next month we get a bill for the closed account with fees on top of fees we didn't pay the month before.

6 months of this.
©ZH

Mandark

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Ah, nostalgia.
« Reply #1139 on: February 11, 2009, 03:14:12 AM »
The credit stuff is old, but relatively under-the-radar news.

Back in 2005 a really egregious bankruptcy "reform" bill passed, which made it harder to get personal debt relief.  The usual liberal activists were against it but couldn't beat it back as they did with Social Security privatization that year.

Talking Points Memo set up a temporary guest blog specifically dedicated to the issue, where one of the writers was... Elizabeth Warren!  Here it is, still.

It still chaps my hide that Joe Biden was the sponsor for this thing in the Senate.  He actually has a very populist record on economic issues, but banking was a constituent industry for him.

In one of the debates Obama said you couldn't allow cross-state competition among insurance companies or they'd all find the state with the laws most tilted in their favor, like the credit industry had done with Delaware.  Insider baseball, but I appreciated it.

Warren's on the TARP oversight board now, which is good cause she's a mensch.

Anyways, the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights passed the House but was never put to a vote in the Senate.  Coulda been killed any number of ways, since it one Senator can stop a bill if it doesn't have too much momentum.

Definitely should be done, but it might get lost in the shuffle over the stimulus, with further bailouts, healthcare, and energy on the horizon.