O/T Depression or Media???

[sumner4991]

Here is a good article. I fully agree with this accessment. The media has most folks scared of their shadows. It's all campaign hype. Liberal media is trying their best to put us in a depression. Once a President is elected, the media and campaign spin dies and everything is back to "normal" until the next election. In my opinion . . .the networks are trying to "add drama" to get people to watch. We should be playing with our kids instead or helping them with their homework. Do something . . .turn the TV off.

I'm voting for McCain because is he the best man for the job. It's a waste of my time to even watch the debates because, I just see and hear what I want to see and hear. I've developed this "illness" by watching Fox News and doing a lot of internet research. If you like Obama, you developed your "illness" by watching NBC and ABC.

I would love to have another eight years like my previous eight years . . .or even twenty as far as that goes. We have lived a very good eight years. Unfortunately, sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. Appreciate what you have . . .you have it very good by any standard. Could it be better? Not without more effort.

Here's the article . . .


"By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch
Last update: 10:41 p.m. EDT Sept. 28, 2008Comments: 258PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- We are nowhere near a depression, so let's stop talking ourselves into one.
Spiro Agnew's words of the Nixon era ring true today. The politicians, pundits and, yes, the press, are nattering nabobs of negativism.
For example, in recent weeks, the broadcast and the print media have filed stories replete with scare words. You don't even have to look at the tabloids to see what I mean.
The front page of the New York Times recently described what it called "chaos" in the financial markets.
Not to be outdone, most of the first section of The Wall Street Journal one day last week was devoted to articles describing the "spreading crisis" in our economy.
And both newspapers have run stories using the word "depression" more times than I care to count.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying things aren't serious out there, but another Great Depression? I don't think so.
If you look at the data, you will see more differences than similarities between the 1930s and today:
In the crash of 1929 the Dow Jones industrials plunged 40% in two months; this time around it has taken a year to fall 22%.
The jobless rate jumped to 25% by 1933; it is little more than 6% today.
The gross domestic product shrank by 25% during the early 1930s; it is up over 3% during the past year.
Consumer prices fell by about 30% from 1929 to 1933; and the last time I looked they were still rising.
Home prices dropped more than 30% during the Depression vs. about 16% today.
Some 40% of all mortgages were delinquent by 1934 compared with 4% today.
In the 1930s, more than 9,000 banks failed compared with fewer than 20 over the past couple of years.
Remember also it was policy errors, not the stock market crash, that caused the Great Depression:
Instead of increasing the money supply, the Federal Reserve of that era reduced it by one-third.
Instead of lowering taxes, Herbert Hoover raised them.
And to channel whatever demand was left into U.S.-made goods, the government enacted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to keep out foreign products; this only provoked our trading partners to do the same.
Add to this today's automatic stabilizers such as unemployment insurance and Social Security, the FDIC to insure bank deposits and circuit breakers to keep stocks from falling too quickly, and you can see why this is not a depression in any way shape or form.
While I am at it, I would like to take issue with the almost ubiquitous use of the word "bailout" to describe the government's rescue package.
Folks, this is not a bailout of anyone, not Wall Street, not Main Street, and certainly not the so-called "fat cats." It's an infusion of liquidity, designed to unclog the financial markets. In doing so, it will benefit everyone, business and consumers alike.
Also, the $700 billion bandied about will not be immediately handed over to the Treasury secretary; he will simply have a line of credit, similar to what the typical business might have.
Finally, this package may not even cost $700 billion. For that matter, it may wind up costing nothing. It all depends on the price the government pays for these distressed assets and what it winds up selling them for.
As for whom to blame for this mess, there is plenty to go around. In the words of that great philosopher, Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Irwin Kellner is chief economist for MarketWatch, and is Distinguished Scholar of Economics at Dowling College in Oakdale, N.Y."

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/d ... teid=yhoof

[Grizzly Adam]

"By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch

Spiro Agnew's words of the Nixon era ring true today. The politicians, pundits and, yes, the press, are nattering nabobs of negativism. For example, in recent weeks, the broadcast and the print media have filed stories replete with scare words. You don't even have to look at the tabloids to see what I mean.

Boy, does he have that right!

Sumner, if there's one thing that my career of working closely with people for the past 18 years has taught me, it is this:

Many people thrive on bad news!

Sad as it is to contemplate, that's a true statement. There is a perverse tendency innate in many people ... to embrace "gloom and doom" and propagate it at every opportunity.

Some folks are never happier than they are when they're talking about something bad ... and I've found that this sort of person invariably has a tendency to exaggerate and dramatize whatever it is they're talking about.

May their tribe decrease.

[Fred]

Spiro Agnew is just the fellow I wouldn't quote on anything he snuck off to Sicily to avoid prosecution but that is neither here nor there the US economy is a shambles and it was done deliberately. There is one thing I have learned working for rich people is they ALWAYS are trying to figure out how to get even richer and don't seem to care who suffers in the process. I live in Northern In. and jobs here just don't exist the paper has at least a quarter page of sheriff sales everyday. The politicians have turned us into a 3rd world country. How in the world can you gents thing everthing is just fine. All the best

[Grizzly Adam]

How in the world can you gents thing everthing is just fine.

Hmmm.

I don't see the words "everything is just fine" in my post.

For the record:

I don't think everything is fine.

For the further record:

I don't think everything is as bad as things are often made out to be.

Clear enough?

I stand by my experienced observation about some people thriving on bad news, and exaggerating it, dramatizing it, and living to propogate it.

That's what I've seen from many. To say otherwise would be dishonest.

All the best to you, too, Fred.

[wabi]

I think the correct answer is, "Damned if I know, I work day shift!"

[Limbs and Sticks]

We've been seeing scare tatics for 8yrs,every time something don't go the way they want or something has come up to make them look bad a scare of some kind is put out there to change the subject.Bill must have been one bad man to cause this problem we have now being that he was surround by so many repubicans. Yes I'am scared of another civil war.

Wes

[sumner4991]

Let me put it this way . . .if I had a 94% chance of winning the lottery, then I'd buy a ticket. If I had a 94% chance of getting a double lung shot on a big buck, then I'd take that too. If I had a 94% chance of just about anything then I'd go for it. That's good, right? Then why is it that 94% employment is bad? I'd wager than 3% of the folks that are unemployed don't want a job.

Rationally, the economy is still good. With a little more effort it would be better. I don't mean effort from our great government to send me another check for nothing. I mean for every American to put forth a little more effort. Remember John Kennedy? Ask not . . .

If I had a bag with 20 names in it and I said, "I'm going to pull out one name and give that person a $1,000,000", then everyone with their name in the bag would say, "It will never be me". However, if I had the same bag and said I was going to "shoot the guy whose name I pull out", then everyone with a name in the bag would take off running and crying, "it's going to be me". I think that is the attitude Grizz is talking about.

[Grizzly Adam]

If I had a 94% chance of just about anything then I'd go for it. That's good, right?

I once won a cheese biscuit from a Biscuitville restaurant.

Now, that was good!

[bmet]

Every time I start to believe what is being said about the economy being bad I see another new truck or car on the road in front of me or some poor slob with a big ass boat at the gas station putting high dollar gas in his boat and truck so he can go to the lake to ski or fish. Go to the mall and it's crowded and you can't find a place to park. The movie houses are so full people standing in line to buy $10.00 tickets and spend another $40-$50 dallars on snacks. Did you watch any football this weekend, were any stadiums empty, nope. In my opinion this is still the best country in the world, yes even Canada. I love my country and gave 20years of my life defending it but I hope we get our crap together real soon or we could go down for real.

[DrDan]

LOL Sorry Sumner, no time for politics right now. I have the biggest freaking doe I have ever seen coming into my feeder.

Time to fill some tags!

[sumner4991]

bmet . . .here in the Atlanta area there is a real gas shortage. I passed 8 stations yesterday before I found one with gas. I had to wait in line while a guy filled up his Hummer and the 4 gas cans he brought with him. In line were two large boats pulled by those big arse trucks. With gas at $4 per gallon, it didn't look like a shortage of money . . .just gas.

[wabi]

And I just checked the news and found that when the bailout was voted down oil prices plumeted $10/barrel. Don't see much bad about that for the average working person.

DrDan,
Good luck on tagging her!

[sumner4991]

I'm glad they didn't approve it. Government just doesn't need to be taking stock in the market. The plan would have government owning stock of the companies that took the deal. Just seems like a bad idea.

DrDan . . .got that doe yet? Looks like you got your wish, no bailout. However, if it were up to the democrats, it would have passed.

"No" votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill."

60% of the Democrats voted for the plan. Bigger government, more spending . . . porky pigs.

We need to dismantle Congress . . .it's too big. They can't get anything done. Too many people, too many paychecks, too much arguing and not enough results. That goes double for the local governments.

[wabi]

Actually I liked Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat - 10th district) take on the bailout:

Washington, Sep 28 -

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following speech on the floor of the House of Representatives regarding the proposed Wall Street bail out:

“The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

“Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.

[DrDan]

Wabi
Yes and he voted no to this bailout. I'm proud of him! I still believe in free enterprise including the bankers. Let em fall on their face and then when the friendly world of competition gets going again there will be those who are willing to loan money. It's the only way banks can make money. Now they threatening dropping credit card limits and not loaning any money for mortgages. One of them will and then more and more and more until they right back at it again. It's just the law of economics.

We will come out of this without more credit.

In the meantime maybe I ought to dust off the tent and keep the ammo locker and freezer full.

Sumner
Nope I didn't see the doe tonight, but if she wants more apples she will return. I'm going out early in morning and be in blind before daybreak. She was on trail camera at 7:30AM. I cannot believe this doe!
And yes I vote no! I called Charlie Wilson one of my reps tonight and told him that he just lost my vote for his yes vote. In fact I will vote for no incumbant any longer. One term is enough!