unpredictable timetable for instant hyper inflation is what is the scariest. If China makes good on their anger over QE2, America will be caught with its pants down in this game of chicken. Go to bed after a glass of milk, wake up and the price of milk is $500 a gallon!
You know I balked at the idea of a major financial crises when it was predicted in 2006! I'm not baulking at the worst case predictions for Wiemarica now! Its going to end up worse than the worst case!
"Year after year, the government spends money it doesn't have ..."
Is the new Gold-Standard proposed by Robert Zoellick already up and running? Otherwise the above sentence doesn't make any sense. The US government is the monopoly issuer of the currency. From an operational perspective the US government has US$ in the quantity of infinity-1US$ at his disposal.
Just start subtracting programs up to 1.3 trillion and stop taking the trust fund. When they hit the wall and have to make serious payments, there will be a crisis of some sort, a major distraction and we'll all have to "sacrifice."
Here's an excellent quote from a very astute observer:
What we have is a curious suppression of growth (in projecting trust fund income) projected in the out years. Given that the economy was consistently hitting the high end of the forecast, why ratchet down this number? A look back at the Economic Projections for 2004 suggests an answer. A difference of .2% or .3% can result in huge changes in Trust Fund Ratio. If the Trustees substituted the numbers considered perfectly reasonable in 1996 into the charts for the 2005 the result would have been a substantially over funded Trust Fund.
That would not fit the Privatization agenda at all. Bruce Webb
The reports of impendindg doom come from people show shop for convenient assumptions, it would seem. This is congressional behavior similar to a year or so after the Iraq invasion. It was discovered, without doubt, that the intel reports justifying the war had been altered materially and that there was never any real basis for WMD. Congress continued the funding, without missing a beat.
Well, we've known for quite a while about the bait-and-switch with payroll taxes turning them in to questionable IOU's, special securities. Yet the process goes on and on. It's a bipartisan effort, just like the war.
The "full faith" of the governments that we've been subjected to is not a comforting thought.
Break down the federal budget and deficit current, future. Last I saw it was Medicare/Medicaid that will eat the nation alive and of course Defense is never mentioned (except by Ron Paul).
You can't make this stuff up folks. Corporate representative Melissa Bean is on the verge of finally losing her House Seat (cheer everyone, this is one corporate corrupt Democrat). So, what does the White House Do? Float her name as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (previously known as CFPA).
The situation is getting bleak. We have a host of conservative Populists, i.e. Tea Parties who assuredly would get an "F" on the test in Economics 101. Then, we have Obama out there dancing with offshore outsourcer India and things like this.
Me thinks a new coalition of people gravely concerned about our nation and our economy, who also know, from the statistics that x != y or z ~= w, join forces. We're goin' to the dogs in no uncertain terms in seems.
You are right. Cars do not count. It is my son and his wife who are going through this; they have two very young children.
I got a bit confused, since they have also been trying unsuccessfully to get the children (and hopefully my daughter in law) on Medi-Cal, (their insurance ran out last spring); they have been told that they have "too much money" to qualify. (As a veteran, my son is now covered by the VA, but they do not cover family members.) They DO include a second car in one's assets, maybe both. One car is a 1983 model that runs, but frequently breaks down; the other is a 2003 sedan with 110,000 that is worth about $3,500-4,000; they just spent $800 on repairs for it. They have $2,000 in the bank; his UI runs out in 2 months.
My husband and I cannot help them with rent any longer, so I imagine that they will soon be forced to give up their apartment and will qualify for both. However, if they are forced to move in with us, I worry that they won't qualify if they then count us.
I could not find who created that painting, logo, image of the 99ers with the running on empty marker. I like to credit people's work but unfortunately this image is all over the web, with no citation on who created it. If anyone can find the artist, I'd add the citation to this post.
When you make big promises and get people hoping for real change, you had better deliver. The public is not stupid. They knew what the Obama message was - we'll have something vastly different from Bush that puts the people first. Obama's obviously inept inner circle thought that their carefully crafted qualifiers and weasel words would give them an excuse to "move to the center" (which means move to the corporate agenda, has nothing to do with any center except money center banks). They were wrong.
Here's how I see Obama and Democrats losing their golden opportunity.
Early on, we had more bailouts and more Wall Street Bonuses. In the first marked time frame, Obama tried to sell the economy as "back from the precipice."
Then we had the rah-rah Afghanistan surge announced with more "Empire Speak" about making the world safe for our children and grandchildren.
And then the BP oil spill took place where our coastline was assaulted and the Gulf polluted only to see the perpetrator put in charge of the clean up.
That's how I see it. But basically, Obama, with a wink and a nod, filled people with hope then did little or nothing. Bad politics, bad governance, bad results.
Yes bring back all the jobs back to our shores again. We keep helping all of these countries out in need, then here they are not even in the good old USA and they take jobs away from us. Then they help these company avoid paying taxes here. We send money to help children eat and get an education all over, but we have so many going hungry, and childrend not getting the education they need here, and all our homless because no jobs, in other words we have trouble helping ourselfs, but yet so welling to help others. For once let us help our self with all the trouble we have first.
The Federal Reserve as "Federal" as Federal Express and "Owe"bama are going to collapse the US Dollar. They are intentionally bringing on inflation. We are going the direction of Zimbabwe or other nations that have tried to print away their debts and obligations. Wake up people! The Treasury has no one to buy the US debt, nobody wants the worthless paper. The Fed is the lender of last resort. It's going to get a whole lot uglier. I would listen to people like Peter Schiff and start preparing. Buy food, supplies, a functioning gun, lots of ammo, gold, silver, and other barter items (smokes and alcohol). It's coming.....weeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh
Cars do not count as resource in California. The are excempt since 2004. So you can have a car in southern California and still get foodstamps. Read the rules. Than give your comments!!
I've written about that many times on this site, but not recently. The official poverty rates are so low, you cannot afford a cardboard box to live in.
On the top, you'll see a breakdown of wages with 16% of working people earning $5000 or less per year in this country.
So, even with these high of numbers for food stamps, the reality is America is poor in the majority.
On accounts: You can register here and bypass moderation to comment.
On WSJ: actually you can register for free with them too and comment on their "free" articles, but many are not "free", their business model is mixed with a lot of "subscription only" content, so some things you can comment on, others not.
We're free though, although anyone who wants to give us a donation to keep the site going, that's useful, but don't do it if you are broke.
Honestly, hang out here and learn how to read graphs and statistics. This claim "free market" is mostly politickin' and not what reality is.
A "free market" has never exited but more importantly, it was the right mix of mixed economies, not a "free market" which build the U.S. in the first place.
From this site I don't think you'll "feel the love" for Bernanke. That said, this isn't out to "destroy free markets", about the only way you can look at that is from the angle of Wall Street, or the Banks. If you look at crony capitalism as not "free market", then the rhetoric has more of a chance.
But this I honestly think is about the only tool the Fed has left and it is in part trying to spur demand in the economy...
So, you might look at government to get off of their bi-partisan rear ends and pass some direct job problems, infrastructure that is efficient, not loaded with political favoritism, to spur demand.
To understand U.S. monetary policy, you need to understand that the people in power in U.S. federal government are, for the most part, wanting to destroy the dollar and the free market system here. Their view of the average American is that we are all greedy bastards who feed on the remainder of the world and we must be "brought to heel". You don't really believe that Bernanke holds the dollar or free market dear to his heart do you? Open your eyes, please. This struggle is as old as mankind. Hint: If it looks like a communist, and acts like a communist, it's a communist and baby, we got them in power over here in the good old U.S.of A. The folks in power are revolutionaries and anarchists and have focused their entire lives on destroying America; it is their life's dream and goal. Those in power in Washington will wake up soon and realize they are dealing with communist revolutionaries and wonder how it happened. Easy to see how it happened from back here in fly-over country, mankind is fallen and corrupt in general and in Washington in particular. Fasten your seatbelts everybody.
This story hardly tells the whole story. What about youngsters who are too young for school? What about states (like California) that–punitively–make people re-qualify for SNAP every 2-3 months?
What about the ridiculously low income/assets any family can have to qualify for food stamps. Do you really think you know what they are??? If not, get educated:
1) If you have $3,000 in assets of any kind for a family of four, YOU ARE TOO "WEALTHY" to collect food stamps (SNAP);
2) If you have $3,000 in assets of any kind for a family of four, YOU ARE TOO "WEALTHY" to qualify for Medicaid.
These limits apply to a family family of four whose ONLY assets at are a "beater" car many years old, but worth $3,200 on Kelley Blue book's page.
Yet... in a place like southern California, you probably need this old car to get to an interview.
Please tell me: In what world does $3,000 in total assets for a family of four make you TOO RICH???
You PRAY that your toddlers don't get sick, because you, ironically enough, don't have enough income (even if your unemployment hasn't run out) to qualify for the federal SCHIP children's health program!
So, you find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place, and lucky if you have any family at all who is willing to let you move in until you can find a real (if lower paying) job.
Yet, the luckier ones among us, cozy in your nice middle class suburban house eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving and Christmas, (even if worried about cutting back on your vacation plans or maybe selling your boat), obviously never understood what the spirit of the season was all about; or what your priest, pastor or minister meant when they spoke of grace and charity. You thought they were only talking about those poor children in invisible far flung places on other continents (who certainly do suffer).
But if they truly spoke of compassion and preached charity, then you ignored them. Your taxes? Oh, no! You definitely don't want to pay any taxes for ANYTHING (including food stamps, road/bridge/airport/dams/waterworks/power grid... construction and repair, public schools, sanitation, and even perhaps defense spending, etc.) The wealthiest among you cry like babies on these discussion boards. It is so convenient for you to blame all our problems on illegal aliens, when in fact most of us who are so desperately looking for work and trying to support our families are ordinary working people born and raised here; many of us (like my husband) are those very veterans than you so cynically give lip service to.
I first saw this article on the WSJ site, but because I could NOT afford a subsciption to it, was unable to comment; yet I wanted to add my 2 cents! So thank you...
Look over in the left hand column. or click on the meta tag CPI. Every week it is flat. Maybe you are thinking of wages, which in real terms are depressed.
What they are trying to do is increase loans and counter the lack of money velocity.
So far, I would claim it did help someone keep deflation at bay in QE1, but in terms of lending, banks are sitting on loans, the money is not circulating, it's sitting in the super rich and also creating a massive carry trade.
One reason they would do this is to devalue the dollar. Why would they do that? Because the Federal Reserve cannot walk into Congress and demand they pass tariffs against China for currency manipulation. If you look at U.S. GDP, it's being eaten alive by a massive trade deficit. Lowering the value of the dollar makes our exports cheaper and their imports more expensive, except for China of course, because they are manipulating their currency and have it pegged. But....China does that by buying U.S. Treasuries, so this move should hit them as well by lowering the value of their holdings.
I'm not saying this is so great and as mentioned previously, another $100+ oil event is a terrible thing for the economy, really bad, as in trigger double dip bad, but on the other hand, it was clear from GDP report, demand in this country is anemic, and increasing exports is a way to increase demand.
If inflation was calculated using the same criteria as was used in the 1980s it would be around 10%. All of these activities by Bernanke
appear insane to me.
unpredictable timetable for instant hyper inflation is what is the scariest. If China makes good on their anger over QE2, America will be caught with its pants down in this game of chicken. Go to bed after a glass of milk, wake up and the price of milk is $500 a gallon!
You know I balked at the idea of a major financial crises when it was predicted in 2006! I'm not baulking at the worst case predictions for Wiemarica now! Its going to end up worse than the worst case!
"Year after year, the government spends money it doesn't have ..."
Is the new Gold-Standard proposed by Robert Zoellick already up and running? Otherwise the above sentence doesn't make any sense. The US government is the monopoly issuer of the currency. From an operational perspective the US government has US$ in the quantity of infinity-1US$ at his disposal.
Just start subtracting programs up to 1.3 trillion and stop taking the trust fund. When they hit the wall and have to make serious payments, there will be a crisis of some sort, a major distraction and we'll all have to "sacrifice."
Here's an excellent quote from a very astute observer:
The reports of impendindg doom come from people show shop for convenient assumptions, it would seem. This is congressional behavior similar to a year or so after the Iraq invasion. It was discovered, without doubt, that the intel reports justifying the war had been altered materially and that there was never any real basis for WMD. Congress continued the funding, without missing a beat.
Well, we've known for quite a while about the bait-and-switch with payroll taxes turning them in to questionable IOU's, special securities. Yet the process goes on and on. It's a bipartisan effort, just like the war.
The "full faith" of the governments that we've been subjected to is not a comforting thought.
Break down the federal budget and deficit current, future. Last I saw it was Medicare/Medicaid that will eat the nation alive and of course Defense is never mentioned (except by Ron Paul).
You can't make this stuff up folks. Corporate representative Melissa Bean is on the verge of finally losing her House Seat (cheer everyone, this is one corporate corrupt Democrat). So, what does the White House Do? Float her name as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (previously known as CFPA).
The situation is getting bleak. We have a host of conservative Populists, i.e. Tea Parties who assuredly would get an "F" on the test in Economics 101. Then, we have Obama out there dancing with offshore outsourcer India and things like this.
Me thinks a new coalition of people gravely concerned about our nation and our economy, who also know, from the statistics that x != y or z ~= w, join forces. We're goin' to the dogs in no uncertain terms in seems.
You are right. Cars do not count. It is my son and his wife who are going through this; they have two very young children.
I got a bit confused, since they have also been trying unsuccessfully to get the children (and hopefully my daughter in law) on Medi-Cal, (their insurance ran out last spring); they have been told that they have "too much money" to qualify. (As a veteran, my son is now covered by the VA, but they do not cover family members.) They DO include a second car in one's assets, maybe both. One car is a 1983 model that runs, but frequently breaks down; the other is a 2003 sedan with 110,000 that is worth about $3,500-4,000; they just spent $800 on repairs for it. They have $2,000 in the bank; his UI runs out in 2 months.
My husband and I cannot help them with rent any longer, so I imagine that they will soon be forced to give up their apartment and will qualify for both. However, if they are forced to move in with us, I worry that they won't qualify if they then count us.
Can you put on their health care, but not the bill, when Obama was talking to lobbyists and they killed the public option and other ideas...
then when they refused to put in Buy American, Hire America clauses in the Stimulus...
then ....Financial Reform...
I think he just really done it by this proclamation India is a U.S. job creator. OMG, what statistical fictional falsehood!
I could not find who created that painting, logo, image of the 99ers with the running on empty marker. I like to credit people's work but unfortunately this image is all over the web, with no citation on who created it. If anyone can find the artist, I'd add the citation to this post.
I'll take a meta perspective to explain it all;)
When you make big promises and get people hoping for real change, you had better deliver. The public is not stupid. They knew what the Obama message was - we'll have something vastly different from Bush that puts the people first. Obama's obviously inept inner circle thought that their carefully crafted qualifiers and weasel words would give them an excuse to "move to the center" (which means move to the corporate agenda, has nothing to do with any center except money center banks). They were wrong.
Here's how I see Obama and Democrats losing their golden opportunity.
NBC News/WSJ Poll
Early on, we had more bailouts and more Wall Street Bonuses. In the first marked time frame, Obama tried to sell the economy as "back from the precipice."
Then we had the rah-rah Afghanistan surge announced with more "Empire Speak" about making the world safe for our children and grandchildren.
And then the BP oil spill took place where our coastline was assaulted and the Gulf polluted only to see the perpetrator put in charge of the clean up.
That's how I see it. But basically, Obama, with a wink and a nod, filled people with hope then did little or nothing. Bad politics, bad governance, bad results.
Yes bring back all the jobs back to our shores again. We keep helping all of these countries out in need, then here they are not even in the good old USA and they take jobs away from us. Then they help these company avoid paying taxes here. We send money to help children eat and get an education all over, but we have so many going hungry, and childrend not getting the education they need here, and all our homless because no jobs, in other words we have trouble helping ourselfs, but yet so welling to help others. For once let us help our self with all the trouble we have first.
The Federal Reserve as "Federal" as Federal Express and "Owe"bama are going to collapse the US Dollar. They are intentionally bringing on inflation. We are going the direction of Zimbabwe or other nations that have tried to print away their debts and obligations. Wake up people! The Treasury has no one to buy the US debt, nobody wants the worthless paper. The Fed is the lender of last resort. It's going to get a whole lot uglier. I would listen to people like Peter Schiff and start preparing. Buy food, supplies, a functioning gun, lots of ammo, gold, silver, and other barter items (smokes and alcohol). It's coming.....weeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh
Cars do not count as resource in California. The are excempt since 2004. So you can have a car in southern California and still get foodstamps. Read the rules. Than give your comments!!
I've written about that many times on this site, but not recently. The official poverty rates are so low, you cannot afford a cardboard box to live in.
On the top, you'll see a breakdown of wages with 16% of working people earning $5000 or less per year in this country.
So, even with these high of numbers for food stamps, the reality is America is poor in the majority.
On accounts: You can register here and bypass moderation to comment.
On WSJ: actually you can register for free with them too and comment on their "free" articles, but many are not "free", their business model is mixed with a lot of "subscription only" content, so some things you can comment on, others not.
We're free though, although anyone who wants to give us a donation to keep the site going, that's useful, but don't do it if you are broke.
Honestly, hang out here and learn how to read graphs and statistics. This claim "free market" is mostly politickin' and not what reality is.
A "free market" has never exited but more importantly, it was the right mix of mixed economies, not a "free market" which build the U.S. in the first place.
From this site I don't think you'll "feel the love" for Bernanke. That said, this isn't out to "destroy free markets", about the only way you can look at that is from the angle of Wall Street, or the Banks. If you look at crony capitalism as not "free market", then the rhetoric has more of a chance.
But this I honestly think is about the only tool the Fed has left and it is in part trying to spur demand in the economy...
So, you might look at government to get off of their bi-partisan rear ends and pass some direct job problems, infrastructure that is efficient, not loaded with political favoritism, to spur demand.
To understand U.S. monetary policy, you need to understand that the people in power in U.S. federal government are, for the most part, wanting to destroy the dollar and the free market system here. Their view of the average American is that we are all greedy bastards who feed on the remainder of the world and we must be "brought to heel". You don't really believe that Bernanke holds the dollar or free market dear to his heart do you? Open your eyes, please. This struggle is as old as mankind. Hint: If it looks like a communist, and acts like a communist, it's a communist and baby, we got them in power over here in the good old U.S.of A. The folks in power are revolutionaries and anarchists and have focused their entire lives on destroying America; it is their life's dream and goal. Those in power in Washington will wake up soon and realize they are dealing with communist revolutionaries and wonder how it happened. Easy to see how it happened from back here in fly-over country, mankind is fallen and corrupt in general and in Washington in particular. Fasten your seatbelts everybody.
This story hardly tells the whole story. What about youngsters who are too young for school? What about states (like California) that–punitively–make people re-qualify for SNAP every 2-3 months?
What about the ridiculously low income/assets any family can have to qualify for food stamps. Do you really think you know what they are??? If not, get educated:
1) If you have $3,000 in assets of any kind for a family of four, YOU ARE TOO "WEALTHY" to collect food stamps (SNAP);
2) If you have $3,000 in assets of any kind for a family of four, YOU ARE TOO "WEALTHY" to qualify for Medicaid.
These limits apply to a family family of four whose ONLY assets at are a "beater" car many years old, but worth $3,200 on Kelley Blue book's page.
Yet... in a place like southern California, you probably need this old car to get to an interview.
Please tell me: In what world does $3,000 in total assets for a family of four make you TOO RICH???
You PRAY that your toddlers don't get sick, because you, ironically enough, don't have enough income (even if your unemployment hasn't run out) to qualify for the federal SCHIP children's health program!
So, you find yourself caught between a rock and a hard place, and lucky if you have any family at all who is willing to let you move in until you can find a real (if lower paying) job.
Yet, the luckier ones among us, cozy in your nice middle class suburban house eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving and Christmas, (even if worried about cutting back on your vacation plans or maybe selling your boat), obviously never understood what the spirit of the season was all about; or what your priest, pastor or minister meant when they spoke of grace and charity. You thought they were only talking about those poor children in invisible far flung places on other continents (who certainly do suffer).
But if they truly spoke of compassion and preached charity, then you ignored them. Your taxes? Oh, no! You definitely don't want to pay any taxes for ANYTHING (including food stamps, road/bridge/airport/dams/waterworks/power grid... construction and repair, public schools, sanitation, and even perhaps defense spending, etc.) The wealthiest among you cry like babies on these discussion boards. It is so convenient for you to blame all our problems on illegal aliens, when in fact most of us who are so desperately looking for work and trying to support our families are ordinary working people born and raised here; many of us (like my husband) are those very veterans than you so cynically give lip service to.
I first saw this article on the WSJ site, but because I could NOT afford a subsciption to it, was unable to comment; yet I wanted to add my 2 cents! So thank you...
Look over in the left hand column. or click on the meta tag CPI. Every week it is flat. Maybe you are thinking of wages, which in real terms are depressed.
What they are trying to do is increase loans and counter the lack of money velocity.
So far, I would claim it did help someone keep deflation at bay in QE1, but in terms of lending, banks are sitting on loans, the money is not circulating, it's sitting in the super rich and also creating a massive carry trade.
One reason they would do this is to devalue the dollar. Why would they do that? Because the Federal Reserve cannot walk into Congress and demand they pass tariffs against China for currency manipulation. If you look at U.S. GDP, it's being eaten alive by a massive trade deficit. Lowering the value of the dollar makes our exports cheaper and their imports more expensive, except for China of course, because they are manipulating their currency and have it pegged. But....China does that by buying U.S. Treasuries, so this move should hit them as well by lowering the value of their holdings.
I'm not saying this is so great and as mentioned previously, another $100+ oil event is a terrible thing for the economy, really bad, as in trigger double dip bad, but on the other hand, it was clear from GDP report, demand in this country is anemic, and increasing exports is a way to increase demand.
If inflation was calculated using the same criteria as was used in the 1980s it would be around 10%. All of these activities by Bernanke
appear insane to me.
In this post. It has the St. Louis Federal Reserve graph of current Treasury holdings and how that will expand and in what timeline.
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