a look at BKX versus KRX tells the story of who is feasting and who is not

Dat was a good one. :)

Gulp!

quote: “The report said that California now has about the same number of jobs as it did nine years ago, when the state was home to 3.3 million fewer working-age people.”

quote: “Watching America act is like watching a driver on coke, swerving left and right, over the expressway at 120 miles per hour. We’ve said many a time that all we’ve done to create this “housing bottom” is institutionalize in the government the EXACT same behaviors that was done by the banks.”

quote: “I only wish I could get a tax cease and desist for the future FHA bailout by professing I saw it coming. We should not be forced to pay if we said it would happen.”

quote: “I am going to start keeping a track of this issue because what FHA is today is nothing compared to the crisis we’ll see hit with hurricane force in about 30 months. This is not even the tip OF the tip of the coming iceberg – only the beginning… but now we see (as I predicted) why the Ginnie Mae CEO ran off into the night a few weeks ago – not a year into the job.”

The sense of shame at being poor presented in your story reminds me a lot of “Mississippi Burning” and the reason given for poisoning the mule. But If your family had swallowed its pride and utilized the government benefit of food stamps, you would have had more disposable income, and the mule would still be alive.

CRE = the other shoe.

That wouldn’t be so bad except we’re in Imelda Marcos’s closet.

“No, actually, I think there won’t be *any* sort of sustainable economic recovery if we *don’t* spend now to fix our long term economic problems…

…We need to borrow heavily now to patch what Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush destroyed. Debt is only a symptom of the fact that the American economy has become a giant leech instead of the productive force it once was in the world.”

I think you and your administration are delusional, if you believe the US-economy can grow itself out of the mountain of debt and avoid major defaulting of debtors, massive losses on the side of creditors, debt deflation, and severe economic crisis in the process. Do you really believe the US-economy will ever show annual growth rates of 15 to 20% or more (have you tried a little bit math?), that would be needed to have enough income to divert to pay of government debt of 100% of GDP or more that will be reached in the not so far future, and 300% of private debt to GDP where the private debt levels are now? However, I suspect you are desperate. Neither you, nor the Obama-administraion know what else to do. You don’t know any solution to it. Therefore, you put all the empty slogans about “investing in the future” out here. And you feel threatened by the rest of the world.

rc

@Rootless
No, actually, I think there won’t be *any* sort of sustainable economic recovery if we *don’t* spend now to fix our long term economic problems. At its core, the problem is due to the fact that we haven’t invested at all in the engines of growth over the last 30 years: education, infrastructure, encouraging innovation. Instead, American capital has been directed to various patch-jobs that were designed to keep the public from realizing that we are on an unsustainable course. Simply put, America consumes everything and produces nothing of value to the world. There are always those who profit from such a system; Wal-Mart and the oil companies come to mind. Ever so often, they throw us a bone in the form of a tax cut to keep us happy, which only digs us deeper into the hole.

Now we are at an inflection point. China and India are developing middle classes, and in 20 years they won’t need us to consume their output anymore. When that time comes, they won’t need to finance our debt any more either. If we haven’t rebuilt our production-economy by then…look out below.

The way I see it, we’re on a ship that has been slowly sinking since January 20, 1981. Various administrations of both parties followed the same, debunked libertarian ideology that led them to drill holes of all sorts into the hull. We need to borrow heavily now to patch what Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush destroyed. Debt is only a symptom of the fact that the American economy has become a giant leech instead of the productive force it once was in the world.

@Bruce
A nation is not a family. My father grew up picking grapes in the fields. He ultimately went to state college, back in the 60s when it was free to all Californians. My first job was scrubbing toilets. I cringed as much as anyone else when I saw that my small paycheck was eroded a bit smaller by taxes. But I have never forgotten the fact that, without taxes, both I and my father would probably have had no options except being fruit-pickers.

The same is true for millions of Americans whose families were saved from permanent serfdom by the New Deal and Great Society. It’s a shame that so many have forgotten the fact that their lofty achievements are directly attributable to the fact that they have stood on the shoulders of millions.

What did your nanny think about having to work when you were a small child? I have come to the conclusion that you must have come from real wealth in your disdain of the working class and your lack of understanding of how important wages are to the average American, and how much it hurts to have to give a large portion to the government.

I grew up as the poorest child in my class in a rural school in the south. What little we had, there was always a share to give to Uncle. Government of course, is necessary for civilization. But what I have problems with, coming from a poor background, is that my family was always on a budget. We spent every nickel we had. Our national government is not run so that the average working American gets to hold onto what he earns, no matter what his station in life. And this is true of both parties, not just the latest idiots in the White House or Congress.

More debt? Apparently not a problem. We’ll spend it now, and worry about it later. Maintain infrastructure? I think we’ll be lucky to maintain any sort of a job base….

And Franklin, your government programs….my considered opinion is that in the long run they may do more to keep the poor IN poverty than to alleviate it. As with many poor white families in the south, my family wouldn’t consider food stamps or welfare payments…we’d have simply been crushed if others knew how poor we were.