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Lehman, 158 years old, is dying. Merill Lynch is quite likely next in line. AIG and WaMu are in critical condition. This a week or so after the collapse of Fannie and Freddie.
This is what happens when you put Republicans in charge of the economy and they throw regulation out the window. This is Sununu's radical free market dream - and our nightmare - realized.
This is a Nation of Whiners' Open Thread on the Economy.
(Absolutely frightening words from PermaBear Roubini below the fold)
In 1932, at the rock bottom of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt swept into office with the promise of bold reforms to jump-start the American economy. Although conservative critics of the day cast his ideas as too radical, policies implemented in The New Deal stabilized the banking system within one month, cut skyrocketing unemployment in half and increased our gross domestic product by 50 percent.
Over the past three decades, the pendulum has swung from this New Deal ideology to conservatism. Tax cuts for the rich were supposed to "trickle down" to the masses, spurring job creation and an economic boom. The current economic crisis we are experiencing has shown us that conservatism - tax cuts for the rich and bailing out big businesses - has failed. Tax cuts for the rich have only made the rich richer, the poor poorer... and the middle class isn't doing all that well either. Instead of the promised job creation, we find more and more of our jobs being shipped overseas while unemployment has skyrocketed to the highest level in a decade.
The recession is here and it's real. Many are losing their jobs, homes and health care. Others are maxing out their credit cards just to keep their heads above water. While some politicians call for piecemeal solutions and others declare that our problems are all in our heads, more and more Americans believe that things are only getting worse. As the bad news continues to pour in, people are looking to the government for leadership and answers. Polling over the last few months shows that 69 to 82 percent of voters now favor government intervention to save our struggling economy.
Our forefathers' original intent, as stated in the Constitution, was for government to "provide for the general welfare" of its citizens. Of the people, by the people and for the people has been corrupted into of the elites, by the lobbyists and for the very rich. It is time for every day Americans to take back our country from special interests. We need our political leaders to stand up to the right-wing political spin machine and do what is best for all Americans. Today, we need "The Next New Deal" to get our economy back on the right track.
Recently, more than a dozen members of Congress gathered to voice their support for Invest in America's Future, a plan that would make public investments in our economy and usher in a new era of economic security, opportunity and prosperity. The plan would invest in 21st century jobs, guarantee quality, affordable health care for all, strengthen our educational system and eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.
We applaud the visionary members of Congress - from Maryland to California - who have chosen to step up to the plate before it was politically expedient. America is in crisis and the time to act is now. People are hurting and demanding change. We urge you to visit our website where you can show your support for the plan, contact your representatives and tell them we need to invest in our economy right here at home.
For more information on the Invest in America's Future plan, visit www.nextnewdeal.org.
The spawn of Rove who have taken over McCain's campaign are addicted to the "celebrity" meme, and this time they're pairing it with out and out lying.
The Obama campaign responds:
"This ad is a lie, and it's part of the old, tired politics of a party in Washington that has run out of ideas and run out of steam. Even though a host of independent, nonpartisan organizations have said this attack isn't true, Senator McCain continues to lie about Senator Obama's plan to give 95% of all families a tax cut of $1,000, and not raise taxes for those making under $250,000 a single dime.
This deceitful ad will be playing in New Hampshire. Be ready to counter the spin when you watch it with others.
OK, here's another Andrew reflections:
We're in the garage, I'm painting a wardrobe for Elise's room (that my MIL picked up at Goodwill)... Andrew's riding around on his bike when the following conversation starts:
Why are things getting more expensive?
Well because we get so many of our products from far away, that as gas prices continue to go up, the price that it costs to deliver things goes up, and everythingis affected. That's why things are getting more expensive.
Nope, that's wrong.
No it's not, that's basically why things are getting more expensive.
No. It's because of George Bush. Things are more expensive because of George Bush.
Well, I guess, he is responsible.
And, when he's gone, things will stop being so expensive.
It took a week, but the local press finally reports on Seacoast citizens lobbying their junior Senator.
Sending a message: Citizens tell Sununu funds should be spent at home, not on war
By GRETYL MACALASTER
Article Date: Friday, May 2, 2008
PORTSMOUTH - About 15 area residents turned out at Sen. John Sununu's office recently to present a new report from MoveOn.org that shows New Hampshire voters think federal money would be better spent on domestic issues instead of the war in Iraq.
MoveOn.org talked me into hosting an event related to their new "Iraq and Recession Report." This report is based on a poll which shows that New Hampshire voters are all too well aware of a reality which John E. Sununu and his fellow Republicans seem oblivious to: that we cannot afford to fight an endless and pointless war in a time of recession. 60% of Granite Staters polled stated that they were very worried about the economy, and 46% said that eneding the war would help.
We will present the report to Sen. Sununu (who presumably will not actually be there) at this local office at 1 NH Avenue, in the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, NH on Thursday April 24 @ 11am.
John E. Sununu to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke at the Joint Economic Committee session today (snark courtesy a WSJ blog):
Sen. John Sununu (R., N.H.), referenced lawmakers’ earlier references to the Great Depression and then proceeded to this query: “You may not be prepared to answer questions about the Depression. I’m not sure about your background in this area. Maybe it is pretty substantial. Could you speak a little bit about the differences between the challenges the country was facing during the Depression and today?”
If the senator needs bedtime reading for the kids, we’d definitely suggest Mr. Bernanke’s Essays on the Great Depression over the quite-interesting-but-higher-minded Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience.
I take this as a two-fer for the Sprinter: a) score a cheap political point at the expense of the Democratic lawmakers who brought up the topic of the Depression by making any modern comparison seem ludicrous*, and b) continue with his bizarre obsession with trying to look smarter than Helicopter Ben.
You may remember Part One of this series from mid-November:
New Hampshire Republican Senator John Sununu spent much of his allotted time pointing out that he'd done a better job of predicting future trends of housing inventories in March than the chairman. "I was right," he told Bernanke with a smirk, "and you were wrong." ("Well, Senator, you were right and I was wrong," Bernanke intoned back into the mic with a deadpan expression that basically said, "Satisfied, dick?")
I'll say what I said back in November: Sununu's Achilles' heel is that he has to be the smartest man in the room, regardless of who is actually the smartest man in the room. This lack of intellectual humility is a vulnerability which should be emphasized, ideally on a debate stage.
*In case you are wondering about Sununu's actions versus his rhetoric, Pia over at the NHDP has the latest silly seasoning:
(Concord) - Senator John E. Sununu pulled an election-year flip-flop yesterday, reversing his position on the Foreclosure Prevention Act five weeks after voting against even allowing the Senate to consider the same bill. During those five weeks, more New Hampshire families have faced foreclosure, and the mortgage crisis has continued to spread across the economy.
It's not if there is a recession, but how severe (h/t DHinMI):
An analysis of government data by The Washington Post found that prices have risen 9.2 percent since 2006 for the groceries, gasoline, health care and other basics that a middle-income American family has little choice but to consume. That would cost such a family, which made $45,000 on average in 2006, an extra $972 per year, assuming it did not buy less of such items because of higher prices. For a broad range of goods on which it is easier to scrimp -- such as restaurant meals, alcoholic beverages, new cars, furniture, and clothing -- prices have risen 2.4 percent.
Wages for typical workers, meanwhile, have been rising slowly. In that same time span, average earnings for a non-managerial worker rose about 5 percent. This contradiction -- high inflation for staples, low inflation for luxuries and in wages -- helps explain why American workers felt squeezed even before the recent economic distress began.
I don't know about you, but reading this actually makes me feel better, if only in the sense that I recognize that I'm not all alone. You see, I don't do a whole lot of discretionary spending - I'm a pretty boring consumer who focuses on the basics - food, gas, utilities. I don't own a TV, or the cable/satellite that goes along with it, I don't use a cell phone unless I absolutely have to. I try to grow some of the food I eat. I've tried to "green" my energy wherever I can afford to. Moreover, I'm even more boring when it comes to the basic structure of my finances - traditional 30yr mortgage with no PMI and a healthy down payment, no credit card debt - something I have been scratching together for a lifetime from beginnings in the lower middle class under Reaganomics. But now I feel like I'm rather very quickly sinking under some pretty dramatic price increases. I now regularly think about where I need to drive, and how far I can strip the cupboards before going food shopping again.
The first step to recovery is acknowledging the problem. Please use this thread to chime in on the state of your oikonomika (household accounts, whence we get the very term economics).
Oh, and thanks for the good times, George and John E. You can bet I'll remember it come November.
Adding: I almost forgot - home heating costs. through a mix of design and luck, I no longer use oil or gas to heat my home, so I can't speak with as much authority on that front, but there's no question this is another monster that's doing serious damage to northern New England pocketbooks.
I was struck by this morning's UL piece on the state of the state of the union, and its bleak appraisal from local voices:
The state of the union is in peril.
At least that's what residents across the state are saying. In interviews statewide, the New Hampshire Union Leader found many people concerned with an ailing economy hurt by rising fuel prices and the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, an ongoing war in Iraq and a health care system that leaves large numbers of people without help.
..."The economy is in trouble," said Dennis Lizotte, a small-business owner from Northwood. "Everywhere you go you see houses for sale and people out of work."
Lizotte, 66, works construction, but business has been slow enough that he was recently forced to take a small logging job 150 miles north. He can't afford health insurance for himself or his wife and counts himself lucky that their five children are covered by the state.
"We need a President who pays more attention to us," Lizotte said.
Signs of despair are growing, many residents said.
I'm willing to believe a good portion of the high turnout we've been seeing both here and in the other early state primaries/caucuses has a great deal to do with this.
Or, the short version: Bush has been an unmitigated disaster.
To give just one example, I know personally that my whole concept of travel has changed for the worse in the wake of permanently high gas prices.
Are you better off now than you were in 2000? Tell us in the comments.
Do you remember when, despite all the horrible things George W. Bush had to avoid on his first-term record, he proudly pointed again and again when running for re-election to the rise in home ownership and home equity as a strong indicator of the success of his economic policy?
Me neither:
India's Sensitive Index was the most volatile in the region and suffered the steepest intraday losses for the second straight session. The index, which finished 7.4% lower in the previous session, was recently down 8.9% at 16,040.13. At that level, the index has already lost around 16% from Friday's close...
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shed 5.7% to 12,573.05, while the broader Topix index skidded 5.7% to 1,219.95. Earlier in the day, the Nikkei dropped as low as 12,572.68 -- its lowest level since September 2005.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped 8.7% to end at 21,757.63, as the sell-off deepened from the previous session, when it tumbled 5.5%. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index plummeted even more, sinking 12% to 11,911.91...
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 extended its loss-making run into the 12th straight session, ending down 7.1% at 5,186.80 and setting a 52-week closing low, while New Zealand's NZX 50 index took its losses into the 14th session, dropping 1.1% at 3,607.13. South Korea's Kospi shed 4.4% at 1,609.02.
China's Shanghai Composite, which fell more than 5% in the previous session, sank 7.2% to 4,559.75, its lowest close since August, and Taiwan's Weighted index tumbled 6.5% to 7,581.96, a 10-month low...
Singapore's Straits Times index, which lost 6% in the previous session, dropped 4.9% to 2,773.36 and Indonesia's JSX Composite tumbled 9.4% to 2,252.49 by late afternoon.
Do you remember when, last Friday, George Bush announced how he was going to help us all out of the credit bubble disaster he inflicted on us? Looks like the markets reacted positively to it, eh?
I hear New Hampshire is an ideal state for living off the land.
It IS tanking in some areas, like residential real estate. And the stock market isn't doing well the last couple of weeks. Inflation is up, job creation continues to post lower than expected numbers. Mitt Romney built his Michigan win on talk about reviving that state's economy.
So if we're headed into a recession banana,* what does that do to the 2008 campaign? Some largely uneducated guesses.
On the Republican side:
The "family values" issues get even less traction than they have shown to date. When people start worrying about their jobs, they stop worrying about Bill and Fred getting married.
GWB becomes still more toxic to the Republican field. (And pictures of hugs and kisses with him proliferate.)
Romney's record goes under the spotlight. He uses the standard Republican line, "I'm the only one who has ever signed the front of a paycheck." But did he sign more pink slips? Private equity firms generally make their money by acquiring undervalued companies, laying off a lot of people, and selling them quickly at a higher price. I don't know: but if Mitt stays competitive for eight weeks we will ALL know if that's a common view of his work at Bain.
Economic issues shift from Adam Smith theory down to Main Street. That favors Huckabee. The complaints about him from the Club for Growth backfire.
Refusal to override the SCHIP vetoes gets scarier and scarier for people like John E. Sununu. People are feeling poorer and more vulnerable.
Will the 'immigration issue' get new legs? My guess is no. As voters get more serious about their own financial situation, the theoretical possibility that someone from Mexico is filling a job they would never apply for fades into irrelevance.
The shift would have an effect on the 9iu11iani and Thompson campaigns too, if they were still alive to notice.
On the Democratic side:
The generic lead grows. "Are you better off" gets borrowed from Ronald Reagan
Hillary gets an advantage over Obama here - the Bill Clinton years were prosperous. She may not be able to play it well - she can't say "It's 1992 again!" - but it's a real opening.
Edwards may gain a bigger advantage - depending on how quickly the economy becomes the focus and what states are in play at the time. It could give him momentum out of Nevada.
Obama - all of the candidates, really - needs to get more specific. 'Change' is no longer a rallying cry when voters are worried about their next paycheck.
The Iraq War diminishes as a primary issue - partly because the economy trumps it, but more because none of the top 3 has provided a clearly, meaningfully distinct position.
Health care reform goes to the back burner. Perhaps very foolishly, the public doesn't want to entertain new public spending proposals in a recession.
Other prognostications?
* Alfred Kahn of the Carter Administration got in trouble for using "the R word" and publicly announced that he would henceforth say 'banana' instead.
Since the days of Reagan, America has been chasing a Theory.
Since the Clinton era, and the rise of NAFTA and Global Free Trade, our "Corporate Leaders" have been conducting an unprecedented Social Experiment.
The Experiment: Economic Darwinism
The Test Subjects in this Experiment: none other than American Workers and our "more competitive" counterparts, overseas.
Supply-siders have argued that Economic Growth comes from empowering Corporate Interests to become "More Productive", by whatever means necessary. Be it "Tax-Give-aways to the Wealthy", or "Job-Give-aways to Poor Foreigners", well that's just fine with them, long is it results in Corporate Growth.
Supply-siders are happy to trade away American Dignity for the sake of short-term Profits: "American Workers just need some retraining. They just need to apply themselves."
"We just need to learn to Adapt" ... (to Global Markets?)
That's the Theory, that's the Spin. What are the Results of this on-going plan to outsource the American Dream?
I have a lot of things I really should be doing right now, but after seeing our senior Senator, Judd Gregg, on C-SPAN this weekend, I really have my blood boiling right now, and I won't be able to get any work done until I write this down for somebody to see, so here goes.
Republicans always criticize Democrats for being big spenders, for "tax and spend" policies, and for being fiscally irresponsible. When Republicans inevitably bring this up during the coming year, here's the silver bullet:
I'm proud of the "tax and spend" philosophy. Tax and spend implies balanced budgets and efficient government. But here's the alternative, thanks primarily to President Bush and Senator Gregg, who has been Chair of the Senate Budget Committee during the bulk of the Bush Presidency, in the period when their party had no sufficiently powerful opposition in the lawmaking process.
When the Bush Administration came into office, it inherited from the Clinton Administration balanced budgeting, a politically moderate trade policy that complemented directly that of Bush's father, and a plan to eliminate the national debt.
Bush, Gregg, et al decided to squander all that by giving massive tax cuts, but mostly to people who need it the least. Then he decided to take our country into an unnecessary war with inadequate body and vehicle armor, pitiful pay and benefits to our troops and veterans, and no exit strategy.
Because the war is so dangerous, the troops serving so much time there, and the pay and benefits for troops and vets so disgustingly inadequate, they've been having big problems with recruitment. The Republican solution? Borrow massive amounts of money from totalitarian China, an economic and humanitarian pariah, and give it in State Department contracts to a company the public has never heard of called Blackwater, 2/3 of whose government contracts are no-bid, which means they're probably getting paid more than they should be.
Now, Blackwater employs mercenaries, paid 14 times what an army Sergeant is paid.
Meanwhile, the Inspector General of the Department of State, Howard J. Krongard, the Bush appointee responsible for ensuring ethical conduct, has a brother who sits on Blackwater's advisory board.
Quick recap: Republicans respond to a shortage of recruits for the endless, dangerous, unnecessary war that they started, caused to abysmal pay, benefits, and treatment of troops and veterans, by borrowing money from a deplorable foreign government in order to pay 14 times what the troops get paid to mercenaries working for a company with ties to the watchdog of the Department that gives that company its no-bid contracts.
So let's bring it full circle. As the national debt rises, interest accumulates, and because this money is owed to foreigners (and a deplorable foreign government to boot), not Americans, paying it back is hemorrhaging money from the US economy. But of course, it will be the next generation paying it back, with interest, and suffering the personal, macroeconomic, and geopolitical repercussions of doing so. And guess who's in that generation? Our current troops, underpaid and without adequate care, who are fighting the war right now, who don't get the pay and benefits they deserve, will end up footing the bill for what we borrowed from China to pay a corrupt employer of mercenaries 14 times what the troops themselves were getting paid, who we hired because they started a pointless, endless war without offering adequate pay, benefits, protection, and time at home to those who put their lives on the line at the orders of their Commander-in-Chief.
And yet President Bush, Senator Gregg, and their political allies have the audacity to call the Democrats fiscally irresponsible, and accuse Democrats of not supporting the troops when they bring any of this up. Shame on them. They owe our troops, the American taxpayers, the international community, and the American people an apology.
I've chosen to support Bill Richardson for President because he wants to get out of Iraq by the end of 2009, including all the troops and all the contractors, and has a record of balancing budgets. But this is a difference between the parties, a difference in philosophy, and any of the Democratic candidates is a world of difference for the better on this than any of the Republican candidates. There is no concise buzz phrase like "tax and spend" that can describe how derelict their leadership has been on the economy, the war, and foreign policy at large, but I think "borrow, waste, and sabotage" is pretty close.
Tell this story to any so-called conservative who makes that ignorant argument. There's just no way the Republicans can take the mantle of fiscal responsibility--not this year.
"The only things Inevitable in Life, are Death and Taxes!"
These are both unpleasant subjects, and since political candidates can't really do a lot about one, this diary will be exploring the other -- Taxes.
John Edwards has based his campaign on hard hitting messages about the need for "Economic Parity" in our Country -- this Diary will be taking a serious look at what Edwards will do about Taxes.
The Senator often says "I do not wanting to live in a Country made up of the Super-Rich and Everybody Else!"
That's not the America we all grew up in. Each year achieving the American Dream becomes more and more difficult. What are working people to do, in this society of Haves and Have-Nots?
Is John's tough Campaign Rhetoric just Talk, or does he actually have the Plans to Back it up?
Turn the page, to see where the "Rhetoric meet Reality" when it comes to that annual April Ritual, most hard-working American love to hate -- spelled I.R.S.
We cannot forget who we are. We are a nation of, a nation welcoming and built by immigrants. And though this Administration wants to divert attention from its current mistakes, we cannot forget who we are in the process. To Dennis Kucinich, America means "give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses...". To Dennis Kucinich, in an open and free democratic nation there must be a path to citizenship. To Dennis Kucinich, there is no such thing as an illegal human being.
What I want to do is explain what Dennis Kucinich is offering our country right now when he talks about "Strength through Peace"; to get a better understanding of what he means by peace and how it will make our country stronger as a whole. We need to understand that creating peace is not simply some idealistic hope for ending wars, but rather a very pragmatic plan that builds relationships based upon fairness and justice and which, predictably, reduces the likelihood of hostilities that lead to crimes, violence and wars. I want people to start seeing peace as a balance, not only in our foreign relationships, but here at home as well; a balance in the economy, a balance in healthcare, in education and government. And I want others to understand peace as paying us a dividend, that peace is a practical investment in our future. But, I want to begin by looking at where we are. Where is America right now?
This diary is part of the candidate series for Bill Richardson on MyDD. I am not part of his campaign.
Congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Energy and in his second term as Governor of New Mexico after a landslide victory in November 2006, Governor Bill Richardson is running for President to heal America and restore our place in the world. He possesses the experience, vision and leadership skills to be a great President.
Richardson is goal-oriented, assertive and confident. He has the ability to quickly evaluate a situation but is not rigid in his thinking and will modify policy when necessary. He takes a practical approach to governing, focusing on solutions to problems rather than ideology.
Success! Today, over a thousand miles away from each other, marchers in Iowa and New Hampshire converged on the capitols of each state. Here in New Hampshire, there was a great turnout. But more than the numbers, it was the spirit: hopeful yet determined, loud and joyful, united in our vision and our call - we are the leaders we've been waiting for to create a clean energy economy here in this country and around the world.
There'll be more reflections to come, but for now, check out our videos from the New Hampshire march - and thank you to all who made this journey possible!
TOMORROW is the rally to ReEnergize New Hampshire, from noon to 3:30 on the State House lawn in Concord.
We hope to see you there (or at the final rally in Des Moines, Iowa, if you're in the Midwest). We've all been marching for four hot but gloriously sunny days, and we're ready to walk the final stretch down Main Street to call on our leaders to take action for a clean energy future.
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