“… If you look at United States history since World War II, you find that of the 10 presidents who preceded Barack Obama, seven left office with a debt ratio lower than when they came in. Who were the three exceptions? Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes. So debt increases that didn’t arise either from war or from extraordinary financial crisis are entirely associated with hard-line conservative governments.
And there’s a reason for that association: U.S. conservatives have long followed a strategy of “starving the beast,” slashing taxes so as to deprive the government of the revenue it needs to pay for popular programs.
The funny thing is that right now these same hard-line conservatives declare that we must not run deficits in times of economic crisis. Why? Because, they say, politicians won’t do the right thing and pay down the debt in good times. And who are these irresponsible politicians they’re talking about? Why, themselves.
To me, it sounds like a fiscal version of the classic definition of chutzpah — namely, killing your parents, then demanding sympathy because you’re an orphan. Here we have conservatives telling us that we must tighten our belts despite mass unemployment, because otherwise future conservatives will keep running deficits once times improve.
Put this way, of course, it sounds silly. But it isn’t; it’s tragic. The disastrous turn toward austerity has destroyed millions of jobs and ruined many lives. And it’s time for a U-turn.”
And his column appears the same day that The Guardian is reported a full-scale depression in part of the Eurozone and they will not be in recovery anytime soon, and the German founder of the Euro is calling for its breakup, according to The Telegraph.
Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth.
Austerity! Economic growth is not in the political interests of Wingnuttia, so everyone can suck eggs.
UPDATE: Great minds think alike: One of the Internet Blogger Hall-o-Fame greatest stylists and a personal hero of mine, Jurassic Pork also is calling Chimpy’s Lieberry a collection of pop-up books. Also, too: What JP Said.
The Chimpy McStagger reading room…”will preserve for history the important decisions made by President Bush during his presidency and will embody and carry on the values of President and Mrs. Bush.”
I think that’s a long-winded way of saying that there will be an open bar and a pharmacy.
Rejoice, fellow hobos, for Taco Bell is hiring. It seems we are eating our way to economic recovery, as ABC News tells us…
It may take a village to raise a child. But all it takes to raise employment is a taco.
That seems to be the situation at Taco Bell, anyway, which added 15,000 employees last year, company chief executive Greg Creed told the Daily Beast, largely on one new product.
Creed attributes the success to Doritos Locos Tacos, which the company rolled out in March, 2012 and was the “biggest launch in Taco Bell history,” he told the Beast. Throughout 2012, the 170-calorie taco, whose shell is made from a nacho cheese Doritos in a collaboration with Frito-Lay, 375 million were gobbled up, which averages out to about one million per day.
But why stop there? On March 7, it launched Cool Ranch Dorito Locos Tacos. The slogan? “Collect All Two.”
“We believe we can add 2,000 new restaurants in the next 10 years, because what we have is proprietary and exclusive. Nobody else can make a Cool Ranch Doritos Taco. And that’s just in the U.S.,” Creed told the Beast. Creed was traveling today and unavailable to talk to ABC News, a spokesman said.
Taco Bell is part of Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky. It’s one of the world’s largest restaurant company with more than 39,000 locations in 125 countries. Its brands include KFC and Pizza Hut.
“The U.S. economy unexpectedly shrank from October through December for the first time since 2009, hurt by the biggest cut in defense spending in 40 years, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The drop occurred despite stronger consumer spending and business investment.”
Why did it drop, you ask?
“Still, the government spending cuts and slack inventory growth in the fourth quarter offset a 2.2 percent increase in consumer spending. And business spending on equipment and software rose after shrinking over the summer.”
Which means, of course, that Wingnuttia is going to demand more cuts, because the only way out of a recession is to cut services and give money to gazillionaires. We are so screwed.
If you want to know more about The Kenyan Usurper pushing us into the tight grip of Socialism, then you need to read Matt Taibbi’s latest bit in Rolling Stone. He details for us how no one has yet to be indicted or go to jail over the financial theft of 2007/2008 that provoked the Great Recession
By the way, Mary Jo White–who figures prominently in that piece–is Obama’s nominee to run the SEC.
Indeed, George W. Bush, now 66, has spent the past few years living as invisibly as possible, working diligently on his golf game at the Brook Hollow Golf Club in Dallas, showing up at a Rangers baseball game, or being spotted eating a steak in one of his favorite restaurants. While the rest of the world judges his years in office, he’s taken up painting, making portraits of dogs and arid Texas landscapes. “I find it stunning that he has the patience to sit and take instruction and paint,” says a former aide.
Why do I imagine Chimpy’s portraits must look like those Keane, big-eyed children pictures? Or maybe clowns? Clowns with big eyes? Wild Turkey bottles with big eyes? Yes, I think that’s it.
Dallas Morning News: “For all the talk about whether Mitt Romney should distance himself from George W. Bush — and the policies of the last GOP White House — a new survey shows that the former president actually has better favorability ratings than the Republican nominee.”
The most recent Bloomberg poll shows Bush with a 46% to 49% favorable rating as compared to Romney’s 43% to 50%.
That’s quite an accomplishment, Willard! How do you plan to celebrate? Oh, that’s right: don’t drink, don’t smoke…
The US Garbage Indicator Is Telling Us Q3 GDP Stinks
The Business Insider made news when it correlated the amount of waste going to landfills with the GDP and found that they are closely aligned and makes a great indicator of where the economy is heading. “The more you produce, the more you waste” seems to be the axiomatic principle here, and I suppose it could be true. So when the boxcar loads decline, the economy declines doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch.
Anyway, the B-I chart shows that we are heading back into a slump.
Hey guys, remember that time during the the beginning of Chimpy’s Economic Disaster and following the election of the Kenyan Usurper Hawaiian Devil Baby, when all the Atlas Shruggers were deriding the so-called Stimulus Package, but none more so that ZEGS Paul Ryan?
Me Neither!
But anway it seems that it was like a cheap magic trick, you know, look over here so you don’t see what I’m doing over there! Take it away, TPM:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has ascended to political stardom among conservatives for his staunch opposition to big federal spending programs, but the newly minted Republican vice presidential nominee sought grant money from the 2009 stimulus package he has consistently derided.
The Boston Globe reports today that Ryan penned four letters to Energy Secretary John Chu in 2009 to request millions of dollars for two Wisconsin conservation groups through the federal government’s sweeping American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, often simply referred to as the stimulus package.
Both groups ultimately secured the funds — including one that received a $20 million grant — but the letters were submitted at a time when Ryan was in the vanguard of the Republican Party’s opposition to the federal program, decrying it as an example of wasteful government spending.
Well, color me shocked. No one could see that coming. Politicians lying to us. What a world!
“We got the pre-spun job quantity data already, where we learned that nearly 3 times the headline print was due to seasonal and B/D adjustments and is thus nothing but noise. Now we get the quality. As can be seen below, courtesy of Table A9 from the Household Survey, in July the number of part-time jobs added was 31K, bringing the total to 27,925, just shy of the all time record of 28,038. Full time jobs? Down 228,000 to 114,345, lower than the February full-time jobs print of 114,408. Once again, more and more Americans are relinquishing any and all benefits associated with Full Time Jobs benefits, and instead are agreeing on a job. Any job. Even if it means working just 1 hour a week. For the BLS it doesn’t matter – 1 hour of work a week still qualifies you as a Part-Time worker.”
“Once again, more and more Americans are relinquishing any and all benefits associated with Full Time Jobs benefits, and instead are agreeing on a job. Any job. Even if it means working just 1 hour a week. For the BLS it doesn’t matter – 1 hour of work a week still qualifies you as a Part-Time worker.”
This has been the thing sticking in my mind. I’ve written before about seeing a former colleague of mine (a gifted engineer) working as a sales guy at Best Buy selling flat screen teevees instead of designing them.
I get it. There is a point where putting food on the table outweighs all other concerns, and so why not accept that Sales Associate job at the big box store, who will give you just enough hours to not qualify for benefits? Complain? Hey, there’s a line out the door waiting for your spot.
It isn’t just that this is the new normal, it is that you can make the argument that this is the policy of the United States. This is the desired outcome from our elected officials and their paymasters when they design legislation.
But here’s the thing that really worries me: the rising middle class in Asia is a market of 3.5 Billion people; our declining middle class in the US is 350 Million. So who do you think is going to buy more stuff? Where do you think that the market is?
Our multi-national corporations have gamed this system; it is not just that the cost of production is lower “over there” (wherever the there is), but it is also where they want to sell stuff. The various Free Trade Agreements have made this possible, and there are more in the works.
Generally, I am of the opinion that legislation can be undone; globalization is not a law of nature like gravity. But I’m guessing that even if NAFTA, CAFTA, and all the other X-AFTAs were repealed (and that’s not going to happen), these companies have moved on. Those jobs are not coming back; we’ve already gone past the tipping point.
Weepy and Eric-the-Dead say that cutting to the bone leads to prosperity:
The number of people unemployed across the 17 countries that use the euro hit a record high in June, official figures showed Tuesday, in a stark reminder that Europe’s debt crisis has ramifications beyond the financial markets…
It’s particularly grim in Spain, which is at the forefront of Europe’s debt crisis concerns. It had the highest unemployment rate across the eurozone of 24.8 percent. Greece’s rate was not far behind at 22.5 percent, though the latest figures available are for April. In Greece and Spain, every other person aged under 25 is unemployed.
It’s like that whole War on Poverty thing never happened. Thanks GOP, you guys are swell.
According to economists and other experts surveyed by the Associated Press, the U.S. poverty rate is on track to hit its highest level since the 1960s. The consensus among those surveyed is that “the official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent.” Just a 0.1 percent increase would put the poverty rate at its highest since 1965.
We should note, for the record, that this also includes the fraying social safety nets.
The success story of the Eurozone economy continues:
IRISH PEOPLE’S finances are continuing to deteriorate with the number who say they have less than €25 to spend each week once all essential bills have been paid increasing sharply over the last three months, according to research published by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU). What’s Left tracker survey of the year found that 1.82 million adults say they have less than €100 a month to spend after bills are paid. This compares with a figure of 1.64 million it recorded in April.
Simple math from a simpleton: that means at best the Irish are trying to stimulate what’s left of their economy on 25 euros a week, which ain’t gonna happen. But on the upside, aren’t those potatoes great?
But I suppose I’m whistling past the graveyard: this is what Wingnuttia wants to do here, too.
Gawker reports that amongst the many decapitated heads in scenes in a Game of Thrones segment, one is of Chimpy. Of course, all of Wingnuttia is up in arms over this, Hollywood conspiracies, etc., but the producers have a calm and reasonable explanation: they rent these heads in bulk because (it seems) that they have a lot of scenes with head-on-pikes, and they don’t know what the props guys are going to get in their box.
This feel-good scene will be removed from future editions of the DVD, so I better run out and buy it today…
Anyway, Gawker has a picture of Chimpy’s head on a pike, so at least one item on my bucket list is now complete.
We’ve officially wasted a year debating the deficit (Thanks GOP! Thanks Carebear!) when all around us was the proof that deficit reduction during a recession only prolongs the pain. Anyway, as if Greece and Spain were not evidence enough, the UK has now gone into their double-dip of the Great Recession.
Are we on the same path? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
My very bright niece graduated from one of the name-brand UCs with a 4.35 average as the Great Recession started and was lucky enough to end up after a year with a cocktail waitressing job in a depressing strip mall somewhere in suburbia; she got the job because she is pretty. She saved up enough money (and was smart enough) two years later to get a fully-paid scholarship at a very good law school, where she is soon to graduate. As the world needs another lawyer so desperately, I’m sure she’s looking at another McJob to hold her over when she graduates. I think it is probably safe to say that her hard work is not going to pay off. And that’s a crying shame.
I’m really worried that we have a new Lost Generation. These bright young people are in debt up to their eyebrows and there are no jobs waiting for them upon graduation. Now imagine when they have kids, do you think that they will encourage them to go on to college? I’m not sure that I would at this point.
It’s not that the point of college is to assure anyone of a job, I don’t think that was ever true. But there was always a sense that if you showed you had the discipline to make it through the system that you at least moved ahead in the line; employers felt secure that you were at least trainable. I don’t think employers see their workers as an asset any more, as they work to tear-down minimum wage and workers rights.
I’m not sure what the future holds, but I keep returning to a line in one of Elton John’s songs–Opportunity awaits me like a rat in a drain. I wonder when the oppressed and depressed 99% have had enough, will the 1% even see it coming? Historians say that the French Aristocracy had no idea that anything was up when The Terror started.
It’s being called the “negative salary”: Due to austerity measures in Greece, it’s being reported that up to 64,000 Greeks will go without pay this month, and some will have to pay for having a job. Numbers in austerity reports have usually reflected figures in the millions, since they reflect industry-wide cuts (i.e. a 537-million euro cut to health and pension funds). And plans of cutting minimum wage by up to 32% is all but a given in the country. Today’s “negative salary” deal—which could have government employees returning funds— reveals the real human impact of the austerity measures.
I’m guessing that fingers all over Wingnuttia are twitching and the Koch Brothers’ phones are ringing off the hook.
OK, I think this was a silly, overblown spot. At first I thought it was the opening of the Exorcist, or whatnot, but then it turns out to be some sort of metaphor for American Cars coming back from the dead oddly using football terminology. Whatevs!
But what I like about it is that it made heads all over Wingnuttia explode:
But better yet, Turdblossom of all people got his Depends in a twist:
“I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Karl Rove on Fox News Monday. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”
Wrong again, you traitorous CIA Agent-outting tool! The money loaned to Chrysler was paid back long ago. It should also be noted that the money loaned to Chyrsler came from Chimpy McStagger’s Administration.
“The tea party has been only a force for good in Washington, D.C., because otherwise we continue to go farther and farther to the left, which is redistribution of wealth. That’s why [President Barack Obama] will be a one-termer, because all he has been about is redistribution of wealth and the rise of socialist principles, and the Tea Party rejects that.”
–Notable Theocrat and successful baby mill operator, One-L
The Queen should be given a new royal yacht – likely to cost at least £60m – as a way to help overturn Britain’s mood of austerity, according to Cabinet minister Michael Gove.
WASHINGTON — The number of middle-income neighborhoods in the United States has dwindled significantly over the past 40 years, as the rich-poor divide deepens across the country, a study released Wednesday showed… Meanwhile, 44 percent of American families lived in middle-class neighborhoods in 2007, down from 65 percent in 1970.
Before anyone asks why I am labelling it as being a problem from Chimpy’s reign of error, it’s late-end datapoint is from 2007. I’m sure that things have improved since then.
You link to me, I link to you; but I do not link to commercial eCommerce sites. Yes, it is that simple. Send me an email to let me know. Tengrain AT mockpaperscissors DOT com.
