Wall Street Gotta Have a Deal

Wall Street was active in the debt deal discussions saying that we had to have a deal. The problem was they never said what that deal should look like. The Republicans assumed that they wanted less taxes, less regulation, and less spending and they delivered. The problem is that the market continued its decline and Wall Street's economists have finally started to say what the problem is and how they recommend solving it. They are saying the problem is that consumers are not spending, companies with cash are not spending, and companies are not hiring. They are now recommending spending on stimulus. This is the position that Robert Reich had stated as long as a year ago. The problem that we have now is that this is the exact opposite of the deal just passed. To quote an old saying they are "a day late and a dollar short".

Dems Against the Debt Ceiling, Oh My!

A lot is being written about how the Democrats, particularly President Obama and Sen. Reid, were against raising the debt ceiling in 2006. But yet that reporting is incomplete. So the Democrats were against an increase but were accused of blowing up the budget in the 2008 and 2010 election cycle. What's up with that. Well the Democrats objected to increasing the debt ceiling because it was being used to fund programs off budget namely 2 wars and bank bailouts. The Democrats wanted these items put into the budget, which they did causing the budget to explode. In the end this is a more honest accounting of the nations expenses and has probably slowed the growth of debt. Now Republicans are opposed to any increase without massive spending reductions. The problem is that the debt is paying for past expenses. We are currently running a deficit because the job creators are not creating jobs or even spending. Until the economy gets moving the spender of last resort is the government, the wealthy as so often in the past cannot spend enough to turn the economy around and when coupled with trade and labor policies that favor creating jobs outside of the country you have the stagnation with record profits for a few that we see now.

It Doesn't Matter

I was attempting to have a discussion about the debt ceiling and was loudly told that it just doesn't matter. That is just so wrong. When this country goes under we are all going to pay. This person was getting financial aid for college. Guess what one of things on the chopping block, that is right student loans and grants. Someone else said the same thing, and they are refinancing a house. When the country defaults interest rates are expected to go up, so do it now. Then I heard the same thing from a retired person. All programs for the "elderly" are on the chopping block. Yes it does matter and when you don't pay attention we get people like what we have elected in Wisconsin.

Michelle Bachmann on the Debt Ceiling

Michelle Bachmann yesterday weighed in on the debt ceiling discussion. As expected she was all for defaulting but she said that it would be no big deal the country won't default because there is plenty of money. She was half right, the President has said that he won't let the country default he won't pay current expenses. i think that will be a big deal. Sure we could not pay contractors, soldiers (especially those deployed), welfare, and unemployment (no longer funded due to the unemployment extensions) but to say that this would not be a big deal doesn't understand the economy very well. Then there are the funded programs that we could take money from (Social Security and Medicare) which would also be a big deal. The Republicans want the country to look like it did in 1929 and they won't stop until there are people on the streets and soup lines. This issue is ridiculous. Every President has run a deficit in bad economic times. The debt ceiling was raised several times under President Bush and no one objected. He had to raise the debt ceiling because of his tax cuts and unbudgeted wars, at least now we are trying to straighten this mess out.

Where are the Jobs?

It has been 10 years of the so called Bush tax cuts that were supposed to be an incentive for the "job creators" to create jobs. Where are they? The latest data indicates that the wealthy have gotten richer during the recovery whereas the job seekers are still seeking. We are now being told that if just cut taxes for the wealthy more and provide more tax breaks for business while cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and education programs for the working masses. Does anyone really believe that this plan is going to work? First off as the masses have lost jobs, salary, and benefits their buying power has declined. The reality is that without customers the job creators are not going to hire. What they are doing is cutting operating costs in the United States by off shoring jobs to places like China. US companies are also selling more products in China because there are millions of Chinese customers that now have some money. A better choice than cutting taxes for the wealthy would be to give the job creators the gift that they have dreamed of, the elimination of the minimum wage. That way those low wage jobs could be created here instead of overseas. This won't save the economy unless we have an appropriate reduction in prices, but that hasn't stopped the Republicans from enacting policies that got us to where we are today.