We Need to Be Planning for the Worst and Work & Hope For the Best
By Thom Hartmann A...
On my radio/TV show last Friday, I said words to the effect of, "Get ready for unemployment levels that are worse than the Republican Great Depression. Get ready for a stock market failure that will be worse than the Republican Great Depression. Plan for the worst and hope for the best." Several people admonished me for talking "fearfully."During the first two years of the Republican Great Depression, unemployment rose up to and through 20%, and had hit about a third of Americans by 1933, in its third year. If we are not already at 20%, we will be soon - as Steve Mnuchin, The former California "foreclosure king" who is now our treasury secretary, admitted on Monday.
Because we are looking at a crisis of Republican Great Depression proportions, and what got us out of that were FDR's programs and the massive stimulus of government spending in World War II, which took us to a national debt of 124% of GDP, it's going to take that kind of stimulus now to prevent this from becoming 30% or higher unemployment. That means instead of talking about a $1 trillion stimulus where every American gets $1000 and a bunch of big corporations get billions, we need to be talking about a $15 or $20 trillion stimulus focused on unemployed workers that extends over the next 18 to 24 months.
Meanwhile, Louie Gohmert in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate tried to block even the feeble stimulus plans being put forward right now by Democrats and agreed to by most Republicans. Congress needs to take this seriously or we're going to see a repeat of the Herbert Hoover presidency in short order.
-Thom
Comments
#2
Tinhat,
Worse part about posting references is people actually check them. Your first one is from the Washington Examiner. It is not really new but is the opinion that Billionaire Phillip Anschutz wants you to have. LIke Fox New and Rush Limbaugh it does not care if it reports lies. The 99% was a dead give away in this article.
https://www.politifact.com/search/?q=washington+examiner
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Anschutz#Political_and_religious_activism
What is interesting about Italy is how we are tracking it. We are about 3 weeks behind with our really low testing.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Your second reference is an interesting article from Reuters. A good source. Suggest that everyone read it. Shows the value of testing and how far behind we are. One thing that the President can do though, is cut red tape. The other is not gut the CDC and the Pandemic Response team. Pick your article.
#4
I would imagine that you have at least one of those conditions. I take a blood pressure medicine so that would qualify me. Italy has an 8.3% death rate for people that get it. We are tracking about 3 weeks behind Italy.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-chart-shows-different-countries-185900633.html
https://www.livescience.com/why-italy-coronavirus-deaths-so-high.html
You like the Washington Examiner
#5
Has anybody done the Census online. It seemed to be very concerned as to your nationality or where your family came from. My Fathers relatives came here from Ireland in 1872. I do not feel much of my Irish roots. My mother was born to 2 from Sweden that came here a year before she was born. She spoke fluent Swedish and never taught me a word of it. And again, I do not feel Swedish. I have been to both countries. Nice places to visit but I am American. The questions get even more intrusive if you are Hispanic. What about African Americans that do not know where their relatives were captured and boarded a slave ship? Why don't they just have us do AncestryDNA.com and have all of the percentages of our heritage? But, what difference does it make? What if you are adopted and do not know? What if you have dozens of countries in your heritage? The Census is for sizing Congressional districts not determining heritage. A lot of people will lie. I considered it intrusive.
#6
With all of us so busy around the Virus, has anyone considered that the Patriot Act was up for reauthorization on 3/15/20 and this seems like just the platform they would use to slide an undetected extension past the public's eye. As it helped them cloak so many indescressions since it was imposed, I'd be surprised to see them just walk away. Did it drop off or did they pass something with the Virus package?
#7
The Trump administration views the census as just another tool to target ethnicities for discrimination. That's what happens when racists are in power.
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This was to easy see it coming. I paid attention to what other countries were doing. China did not lock down millions for nothing. It closed so many factories that the air cleared up. Taiwan took it head on and has had only 100 cases total. South Korea had a large out break and set up a huge testing program. The cases are going down after the action that they took. More than a month ago a retired doctor friend told me that we did not have enough ICU beds or ventalators to deal with this. The Trump Administration ignored all warnings. Now we are charting to be similar to Italy and Iran. Our markets have crashed and will get worse. Everything is an Emergency. We are way behind in testing. Many thousands more have this virus than the statistics show. Millions that cannot afford to miss work will spread it. ER's will be swamped. I live rural and I am a senior. I have decided to hunker down. There is no talking too fearful about this.