Putin calls USA a parasite on the world economy!

[BC]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fqCS7Y_kME&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[Gator]

The problem is that for much of the last decade it was less a question of making the pie bigger but inflating bubbles IMHO that invariably burst; first the dot com bubble, then the housing bubble. Could the USA survive a new bubble?

A bubble?  Given the state of this economy!
 
The only bubble will be the hot air and bull shit of the forthcoming political campaigns.
 
 

[Faux Pas]

video wouldn't post

[Misha]

A bubble?  Given the state of this economy!

That is the problem. For a decade the United States economy has been fuelled IMHO by a succession of bubbles. Now, the addict is going through withdrawal with no new hit in sight. It is never pretty to watch...

[Gator]

That is the problem. For a decade the United States economy has been fuelled IMHO by a succession of bubbles. Now, the addict is going through withdrawal with no new hit in sight. It is never pretty to watch...

And if fracking were allowed and NG used to power automobiles, maybe Canada would suffer the bursting of an oil bubble.  That would be pretty to watch, not because of the hit on the Canadian economy, but the lift it would give to our economy.  However, I have low hope for this happening soon.
 
 

[Gator]

SF&EE,
 
I know CEO is a bad word, but what do think about Schultz's proposal to other CEOs?  Supposedly Congress spent $4 billion in campaigning.
 
http://www.shalomlife.com/news/15775/panic-in-dc-as-starbucks-schultz-calls-for-ceo-boycott-of-campaign-donations/#

[GQBlues]

.....http://williamhfranklin.blogspot.com/2011/07/who-is-rick-perry.html
 ...It is of course biased in Perry's favor when contrasting him with Obama; however, it admits and discusses Perry's weaknesses.  A Perry-Christie ticket in 2012?

I realize I have more than a full year to read up on both Perry and Romney as I know every little about both candidates other than the media snippets tossed out here and there.
 
I am as apprehensive about the Republicans as I am about the Democrats, but witnessing how the 110th Congress abused their authorities and blatantly ignored the nation's bidding in the past 2 years to push their agendas, I'm inclined to seriously look deeper into the elephant den..
 
I watched the GOP debate last weekend a little and it's pretty disheartening. These politicans really need to take a sabbatical and quit bickering against each other like kids fighting over a cookie. Pawlenty suffered that rude awakening.
 
What ever happened to Marco Rubio? There were a lot of talks about the guy, but then all of the sudden he's gone from the limelight?
 
I don't believe we need a 3rd party. It's a reach, but I believe what we need is a simple accountability clause in DC. Political monetary infusion/contribution/donation should be outlawed at all times.

[Misha]

And if fracking were allowed and NG used to power automobiles, maybe Canada would suffer the bursting of an oil bubble.  That would be pretty to watch, not because of the hit on the Canadian economy, but the lift it would give to our economy.  However, I have low hope for this happening soon.

It is half-a-dozen of one and six of another. If oil prices go down, that will hurt Alberta and other oil producing regions of the country and bring the dollar down, which will thus help the manufacturing sector in other parts of the country and helping our other exporters as lower dollar makes us more competitive when exporting what we produce other than oil. Canada is more than just oil eh     

[Faux Pas]

I don't believe we need a 3rd party. It's a reach, but I believe what we need is a simple accountability clause in DC. Political monetary infusion/contribution/donation should be outlawed at all times.

Simple? What planet are you living on?  It'll never happen. The last thing any politician will do is enact legislation that will make them accountable. Likewise, a 3rd party never will either but, we need one

[SMS60]

The problem is that for much of the last decade it was less a question of making the pie bigger but inflating bubbles IMHO that invariably burst; first the dot com bubble, then the housing bubble. Could the USA survive a new bubble?

We are going to find out in the near future. The college loan bubble is growing rapidly.

The last generation were saddled up with home mortgages they could not repay and the current generation is piling up college debt which they will never be able to pay. This bubble will be as big as the housing bubble.

[Misha]

We are going to find out in the near future. The college loan bubble is growing rapidly.

The last generation were saddled up with home mortgages they could not repay and the current generation is piling up college debt which they will never be able to pay. This bubble will be as big as the housing bubble.

The NY Times had an interesting piece a while back on unemployed young lawyers with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/business/09law.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=general

[Jooky]

TG,

Explore this page.. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/googleplex3.htm

Obviously google is a money making machine.. but it seems they provide a quite nice 'socialized' structure..  I wonder why..  They are not just throwing away money.
 
Day care, haircuts and yes.. even breakfast.

Obviously the benefits are higher than the costs.  It increases productivity and employee loyalty.

I'm not saying the government has to do all this, but just an example to show that 'socialism' is not incompatible with business.

Productivity and employee loyalty.. People that love to go to work..

Isn't that what the US needs? 

Incentive enough to at least think about it?

I remember well in the 60's and 70's visiting the US.. a sense of community oozed.. neighbors were neighbors.. you could feel it.

Is it still there? 

My feeling is that 'dog eat dog' took a huge chunk out.

Forget the politics, but this is interesting to me since it's right up my alley.
 
"Googleplex" is nothing new. This is how many internet boom companies were run (into the ground) and this is how game companies are usually run.  I've worked with dozens of companies with these in house benefits. Fun places to work? Yup. Sense of community? Yup. Employees staying extra hours and practically living at work? Yup.
 
Increased productivity?
 
Let's put it this way... for about 7 years my company worked contracts with major 'google' style web and game companies in the SF Bay. Our typical projects involved our 'crack team' of 4 consultants taking over work supposed to be done in house so that deadlines could be met and work could actually be completed while their high paid slacker full time employees would continue to have fun at work.
 
So I'm not convinced about the productivity.
 
Also, I don't get the link between googleplex and socialism. Google's providing these benefits to people who contribute to Google. If they were handing out benefits to their struggling and broke competition then maybe you'd have a point. 

[GQBlues]

Simple? What planet are you living on?  It'll never happen. The last thing any politician will do is enact legislation that will make them accountable. Likewise, a 3rd party never will either but, we need one

I know I'm likely pissin in the wind with that thought FP, but heck if there's a dire demand for regulating pretty much everything under the the US sun, maybe it's due time we regulate our DC bumble bees.
 
A case in point, we can take Chris Dodd as an example re: AIG bonus clause on the TARP program. He knew, Geithner knew that AIG will deal a huge part of the bailout money to give out multi-million dollar bonuses as soon as they get their hands on the US taxpayer's money. Yet those 2 clowns denied it to John Q. Public until they were met with hardlined inquisition. 150 billion public dollar that is likely not to ever be paid back. Both Chris and Tim, along with Frank are still 'serving'. Sheesshh.
 


Coincidentally, AIG just happened to be one of Dodd's chief election campaign donor. 
 
If the likes of Madoff can be locked up 150 years for scamming private investors, politicans ought to be burned at the stake for doing the same to the public they're supposed to serve.

[Faux Pas]

I know I'm likely pissin in the wind with that thought FP, but heck if there's a dire demand for regulating pretty much everything under the the US sun, maybe it's due time we regulate our DC bumble bees.
 

It is a novel idea, I'll grant you that. Perhaps another judiciary arm of the USSC of federally elected judges. A panel of 24 or so that does nothing but investigate and adjudicate our politicians. Much as House and Senate sub-committees do now? 

[GQBlues]

An automatic impeachment, followed by a public beating, then jail time in the protracted amount of a minute for every dollar they swindle; $1,000,000 will net them approximately 2 years in jail, etc...
 
That would suffice, I think. Do that and I'd bet there'll be no second-guessing as to the candidates' sincerity during election times. 

[Daveman]

An automatic impeachment, followed by a public beating, then jail time in the protracted amount of a minute for every dollar they swindle; $1,000,000 will net them approximately 2 years in jail, etc...
 
That would suffice, I think. Do that and I'd bet there'll be no second-guessing as to the candidates' sincerity during election times. 

Heh, now you got my attention... 


and make it mandatory to drop that stupid "Distinguished" crap.   And they have to pass a test covering bills
on with they are voting.  Miss a certain number of votes, they're autocanned. 


Make it Treason to lie in any way to the American People.  ahhhhhhh

[Muzh]

Heh, now you got my attention... 


and make it mandatory to drop that stupid "Distinguished" crap.   And they have to pass a test covering bills
on with they are voting.  Miss a certain number of votes, they're autocanned. 


Make it Treason to lie in any way to the American People.  ahhhhhhh

Geez
 
All you have to do is stop the moneyflow from the special interests. Make it a felony to accept money from them.

[BC]

Geez
 
All you have to do is stop the moneyflow from the special interests. Make it a felony to accept money from them.

Or give money to them.

[BC]

Boy, it seems interest in this thread is waning fast.. guess the two week 'media window' has passed. 

Is the crisis over now?

[GQBlues]

 For the 2012 line-up of the usual suspects, I do hope the majority voting public would key on candidates, sans party affiliation, that in their minds would greatly contribute to bringing our country back to health as a whole. Not a candidate with whom they feel would simply provide them even more entitlements.
 
I have no problem indulging our baby boomers and veterans with everything and anything they need. If it means we must take monies out of our military AND increase revenue by way of tax increases, then by golly, pronto! No ifs and buts….
 
Defense budgeting. Admittedly, I am one of the few who strongly feel the monies spent in the past for our military is/was worth every cent. Why? For this simple reason…
 
In the 8-year Iraq war, this country suffered 4,474 deaths. That’s 560 deaths every year!  Comparatively, the Korean 8-year war resulted in 36,914, or, 4,614 per year.
 
Afghanistan’s 10-year war: 1,660, or 166 deaths yearly. Comparatively, Vietnam’s 20 year war caused 58,151 deaths, or roughly 2,910 deaths every year. Note: I’m not even counting Desert Storm into the mix.
 
I am not too worried with folks lambasting us for getting involved in wars. True, war is ugly anywhere, anytime. But ironically enough, the very same folks doing the cursing are the exact same folks who nearly damned us for NOT getting involved fast enough when their butts were on the line. Understanding post-WW II era, the general Asiatic region do, for the most part, understand what this country had done during and after that big war.
 
Europeans, LOL, hardly. With one lone exception, of course.
 
Europeans are a fickle bunch…they can’t help it. I don't mean to say I dislike them, but now and then they can sure be annoying, LOL. It’s the whole superiority complex seething through them. They boast of socialism and shortened hours of work, longer vacation, quality of life nonsense…but when the pshyiat hits the fan, it really means very little in substance. Hard working Americans will likely never see their tax dollars back from the AIG giveaway. European banks GREATLY benefited from that silly giveaway. It doesn’t take much to understand, considering the present state of Europe today despite that infusion, what could have happened had the billions of AIG dollars wasn’t injected back into their banking system. One thing they are right about however, the general American public will be ignorant of one small fact that one way or another, their hard-earned tax dollars will continually pamper Europeans in their respective Utopia and ridicule us at the same time.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/16rescue.html
 
Another recipient to the AIG bailout that we’ll likely never see get paid fully back? The very same Warren Buffet’s Goldman’s Sachs loan. Imagine that, eh…
 
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42153208/Warren_Buffett_Gets_an_Unwanted_Call_from_Goldman_Sachs
 
 
I was very leery and skeptical about GWB when he first took office. I started to like the guy when he refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (how prophetic is that, eh? Re: Al Gore – AND - the ICC re: Rwanda). I didn’t mind so much someone like Obama had taken the helm. I began to abhor him when he liberally started making apologies for me and my country for his own ego.
 
Yes, I am Pro-Choice. I like Clinton despite him being a Democrat. I like him because he wasn’t influenced by his own party and followed his conviction to do what was right for the country at the time. Abolish welfare and scrub entitlements. That’s how you cut spending…
 
If anyone believed the 2008 election was a ‘just’ election, read about the Sen. Ted Stevens’ case. Alaska Sen. Stevens, a Republican, represented the lone Republican than would have created problems for the Democratic dominated congress had he been elected, or so they believed at the time, a race which had him leading by a sizeable margin. Read the case, the court proceedings, the aftermath, and Eric Holder’s face saving pronouncement thereafter. Soon after the election, the matter simply faded to black on up to his plane crash…
 
Don’t worry folks, my vote only count as one. Maybe I need to move to Chicago before the election takes place…

[Muzh]

Boy, it seems interest in this thread is waning fast.. guess the two week 'media window' has passed. 

Is the crisis over now?

Don't think so.
 
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-progression-of-10-year-treasuries-vs-japans-experience-2011-8
 
So why don't we starve the beast? Hopefully we will get there (graph) a lot faster.
 
 

[BC]

Don't think so.
 
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-progression-of-10-year-treasuries-vs-japans-experience-2011-8
 
So why don't we starve the beast? Hopefully we will get there (graph) a lot faster.

Well if comparisons of Japan are in order there are some consequences...

Starving the beast will result in less healthcare costs and folks will live longer.

Of course the first is needed, the latter to be avoided at all cost as Social Security cannot afford such.

[Gator]

Boy, it seems interest in this thread is waning fast.. guess the two week 'media window' has passed. 

Is the crisis over now?

No, but Congress and the President are on vacation.   And if the President is not in a hurry: 
 

  By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 17, 6:03 AM    WASHINGTON — AP source: Obama to give major speech in early Sept. to unveil ideas for jobs, economic growth 

If he has a plan for creating jobs, why wait three weeks?

[Gator]

BC,
 
Meanwhile it would seem that Rick Perry would give you enough material.

[GQBlues]

...If he has a plan for creating jobs, why wait three weeks?

Why?
 
Who else would stay at Martha Vineyard's posh 28.8 acres complex the US taxpayers are paying for? This, during the arguably most tumultous economic state this country had ever seen since the depression.
 
It's definitely a far cry from the days of the Crawford / Santa Barbara ranches that were respectively owned by the then-presidents which the taxpayers didn't have to dole out for.
 
I am hopeful that Perry at least understands that August 16th date is not Elvis' birthday....