Interesting article in the Guardian. I think the key for most people this time around is to be prepared, and do what you can personally to protect yourself. Maybe its too late for many.
[quote] A crippled housing market. Stubbornly high levels of unemployment. Falling consumer confidence. Slower growth in industrial production. No wonder Ben Bernanke, the world's most powerful central banker, appeared a worried man in his testimony to Congress about the state of the US economy last week.
Bernanke's most striking observation was that the prospects for America were "unusually uncertain" – central-bank-speak for concern at the highest levels that the US was at risk of tipping back into a double-dip recession.
The Fed's critics, such as Nobel prizewinning economist Paul Krugman, say it is time for Bernanke to do more than express concern. They point to a drying up of bank credit, 10 million lost jobs in the past three years and a mounting toll of foreclosures from Las Vegas to Detroit. They also warn that America has been here before: in 1937, when a pick-up in activity from the depths of the Great Depression was cut short by a premature tightening of policy.
Comments
Mel posted: Bernanke's most striking observation was that the prospects for America were "unusually uncertain" – central-bank-speak for concern at the highest levels that the US was at risk of tipping back into a double-dip recession.
poly replies: Slipping back implies we've recovered. We havent. It's just a worsening of what already exists. The economy isn't adhering to the public consumption "economic ideology".. It's adhering to economics. It's doing what it was engineered to do.....and the bandits are making out like. bandits just as they did in Argentina and Chile from the same economic engineering..
When the majority of Chile's and Argentina'sr people were driven into destitution...they finally threw the bums out and recovered. Maybe that's what it will take here.
Argentina's Pres. was forced to resign and flee the capital in a helicopter...as the police cheerfully waved goodbye.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
Dylan went off on Bernanke a couple of weeks ago. He pretty much nailed how wrong Little Ben has been, time and time again. This is from last year, but on point none the less.
http://cfecon.blogspot.com/2009/11/video-dylan-ratigan-goes-off-on-ben.html
poly, how long do you think the US can maintain the charade? I have read many, many articles in all types of publications (liberal, conservative), which have more or less stated that the USA is currently entering a Depression.
Although I think when most people imagine Depression, we think of the 1930's. Obviously, today's scenario will look much different.
The charade will probably be sold as the new "normal"....and will look different than the Great Depression.
At that time, soup kitchens were utilized rather than food stamps, unemployment insurance, and the like. There were no government programs of any kind. We won't see people standing in blocks-long lines to obtain a bowl of soup...at least not in the near-future...and that could happen as states go bust...
If the same data were used to determine the unemployment rate as was used during the Great Depression, the rate would be approaching 20%. Skewing the data doesn't change what's actually so.
Chicago SChool Economics focuses on how to make money...generally through finance...NOT in how to maintain a viable economy that works for the majority. It's assumed that if finance prospers, the real economy most people live in will follow suit. It doesn't..
Early economists, the Fathers of Economics, noted that when nations shift their capital, production and labor costs to other countries...they impoverish themselves. Until that's addressed, we'll never return to the prosperity that once was.
People have been dropping out of the middle class for some time now...just not in such large numbers annually as they are doing now.
All states except two are plunging into unconstitutional insolvency this year. I'm waiting to see how the Obama Admin. addresses that. If he doesn't, states will be forced to cut services at a time when they are needed the most...and layoff hundreds of thousands of employees before years end.
It will be sold as the new "norm". Bernanke's remark about the future of the economy being "unusually uncertain" is an understatement. The economy isn't adhering to the new economic "ideology".. Traditional economic thought has been turned upside down. As world class economist Hudson noted, "the economic language has been turned into double think."
Politics/legislation has little to do with labeling crimes and providing sentencing laws for them...it has to do with who gets what. Politics is 95% economics. It's about how a nation's wealth gets distributed. People don't seem to get that. Maybe now they will.
When money (purchasing power) finds its way into only a few pockets...economies collapse. That's been so ever since the invention of money. Our economy has been engineered to do that. It's still being engineered to do that. (note the health care reform that isn't and billion dollar bankster bonuses.)
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
When the majority of Chile's and Argentina's people were driven into destitution...they finally threw the bums out and recovered. Maybe that's what it will take here.
We Liberal Democrats already did that. Bush and sick Dick Cheney are gone.
"Hope & Change"..................
When the majority of Chile's and Argentina's people were driven into destitution...they finally threw the bums out and recovered. Maybe that's what it will take here.
.
We Liberal Democrats already did that. Bush and sick Dick Cheney are gone.
Nope. The Chicago Boys are Obama's economic advisors...re-appointed from the Bush and Clinton Administrations. You're left with the hope we don't allow it to go on long enough to follow the Argentines into mass desititution...or Chile...the first neo-liberal experiment given full reign..
It's the same outcome wherever Chicago School Economics is applied. Chicago School Economcs is about as far from liberal lthought as Genghis Kahn. Obama is no liberal in the tradition of FDR. He's a neo-liberal in the tradition of Clinton the Outsourcer...and Reagan the King of Trickle Down. Rose-colored glasses don't change that..
Just exactly what is the U.S. doing differently than Argentina did under Chicago School Economic Theory? Nothing. A short video history of applied Chicago School Economics...and the economic collapse of a prosperous country .It ends with their neo-liberal Pres. fleeing the capitol in a helicopter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whVSw5X2pVU&feature=related
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=what_will_a_republican_majority_do_next, Gingrich wants to start a war with Iran, then during war times currency controls [for security purposes] become possible. No capital leaving the country [except for the connected]. Militia call outs to keep the peace, as Paul Craig Roberts wrote. Impeachment will keep the charade of a representative gov't. Biden may be getting coached on his new fascist role, as we speak
If, as predicted, the Republicans take control of the House, or both houses of Congress, this November, will they: 1) shut down the government? 2) propose massive budget cuts? 3) begin proceedings leading toward impeachment of President Barack Obama? 4) repeal the health-reform bill?
Some leading political-scientist bloggers (notably John Sides at The Monkey Cage and Jonathan Bernstein at A Plain Blog About Politics), along with Matthew Yglesias, have been discussing this question for several weeks, and the scholarly consensus seems to be "all of the above."
The Presidential Commission on Deficit Reduction will wield the axe. An up or down vote on their recommendations. Congress won't be blamed for the austerity programs foisted upon the middle class and the poor....to pay for the follies of finance.
The Repugnants will get what they've aimed for....the elimination of social programs. Neo-liberal Dems will wring their hands and say, "we had no choice"..
States are already cutting back on social programs. Cuts in education and Child Protectivve Services are getting the first blows in Colorado. There are talks of a 3 month Christmas vacation in some school districts...just to keep them operational.. Private schools will get a boost from the failures of public-financed ones. A goal of the twits....privatize everything in sight..
The neo-liberal agenda...backed by Chicago School Economic Theory that is shared by Republicans and most Dems is on-going. The meltdown of the nation is on-going as well.
Neo-liberalism has always ended in the same way wherever it's been applied.. Mass destitution, then repression, then dancing in the streets when its overthrown. The helicopter in the video is the Argentine Pres. fleeing the capitol after his resignation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvEPPsC3Xfs&feature=related
When Argentina tossed out neo-liberalism with its outsourcing , trickle- down and the favoring of banksters/finance...its economic growth rate became nearly double China's. It recovered.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease".