Intro: "In about a month, if nothing is done, the federal government will hit its legal debt limit. There will be dire consequences if this limit isn't raised. At best, we'll suffer an economic slowdown; at worst we'll plunge back into the depths of the 2008-9 financial crisis."
Portrait, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, 06/15/09. (photo: Fred R. Conrad/NYT)
To the Limit
01 July 11
In about a month, if nothing is done, the federal government will hit its legal debt limit. There will be dire consequences if this limit isn't raised. At best, we'll suffer an economic slowdown; at worst we'll plunge back into the depths of the 2008-9 financial crisis.
So is a failure to raise the debt ceiling unthinkable? Not at all.
Many commentators remain complacent about the debt ceiling; the very gravity of the consequences if the ceiling isn't raised, they say, ensures that in the end politicians will do what must be done. But this complacency misses two important facts about the situation: the extremism of the modern GOP, and the urgent need for President Obama to draw a line in the sand against further extortion.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
"The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies- all this is indispensably necessary."
- George Orwell, 1984, on "doublethink".
Some of the greatest (most genuine, most giving, most caring, most tolerant, people I know in my life are Democrats - some are Republicans. Some are liberals -some are conservatives.
Such talk is evil - and extremely anti-human existence.
And, last I checked, the corporate jet tax credits that Obama mentioned 7 times yesterday, were a part of the Democrat's 2009 Stimulus Bill (and there is much worse in it).
Politics is dirty business - there are few above it - in either party - but there are many, in both, that aspire to it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Sometimes I wonder if Dr. Krugman is aware of the fact that "money" is a) an imaginary construct;
b) that substantially influences everyone's life; and
c) that is currently controlled by a very small number or very unaccountable individuals.
Even "the Dark Ages" in the West typically had general assemblies for public business. When's the last time anyone here saw or went to a 'Town Hall' meeting that wasn't as scripted & stilted as High School Musical?
Having written this, I believe the Dems have a Liberal history which can tend to drag them to Left, at least occasionally. This is happening less and less as the rich are much, much richer.
Regards your Nazi comment. Yes, money (or lack of) can cause as much damage as guns. It's not as noisy, and for that reason a little less apparent.
So I guess you bring out the shock troops to provide the appearance that Democrats still have lots of support. Have at me you OFA losers. It won't change the truth that today's Democratic party is nothing more than the kinder, gentler corporatist party. No doubt that will soon be reinforced by all the entitlement cuts that Democrats are "forced" to make in order to raise the debt ceiling.
I laugh until my ribs hurt. When Greenspan tossed a monkey wrench into the economy in 2000 to stop the Dems, I predicted this. When he hollowed out the interest rates to one percent, as Bush and his academic pinheads marched us into "war", I predicted a "polar bear economy" and housing bubble--and lots and lots of theft. Then derivatives, totally unregulated (thus outlaw), erupted like cancer.
I laugh not because every city, county and state was ruptured by these actions, not that the federal government went from surplus to hideous deficit, not because every social and eco program of value is now targeted. I laugh because it was all foreseeable--hell, it was known--and we let them let it happen.
And what puts me in hysterics is we then let them get away with it. And--talk about a set up for an ass kicking--we're letting them get away with it now.
I laugh, quite simply, to keep my sanity amid this slimy, awful mess.
The deficit is not the problem. People are the problem.
Oct. 2000 - HUD ANNOUNCES NEW REGULATIONS TO PROVIDE $2.4 TRILLION IN MORTGAGES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR 28.1 MILLION FAMILIES
http://archives.hud.gov/news/2000/pr00-317.html
Read - there is where the housing bubble was born, fueled, and how the credit crisis began. From that point on - damn near everyone in the US added fuel to the fire in the never ending want to get rich quick. Greed has few straglers.
Bubbles go up - bubbles go down. All are damaged.
Two GSEs that HUD oversees are Fannie/Freddie.
OK - so it was Fannie that ordered lowered lending standards- then they all engaged in marketing this to millions of poor minorities, via CountrywideFina ncial - their signed partner - and community organizing groups.
See NYT's "Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending". --"Fannie.. has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Admin to expand mortgage loans among low/ moderate income people."
You understand that HUD in 1999 and 2000 was ordering up - regulating - massive and historic new housing goals:
Oct. 2000 - HUD ANNOUNCES NEW REGULATIONS TO PROVIDE $2.4 TRILLION IN MORTGAGES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR 28.1 MILLION FAMILIES
http://archives.hud.gov/news/2000/pr00-317.html
All by itself, that was key in creating the housing bubble - driven by regulated demand, which in turn created meteoric inflation in home values, inviting everyone into the party to play;to get their share. Like this:
In 2001, some 7mil refinanced mortgages, with over 1/2 taking out cash in the process. Fannie est the cash generated by these refinancings at $80 billion, a significant infusion of capital into an otherwise sluggish economy."
W/o HUD's leadership - there'd been no crisis.
I'm not going to argue - Bill Clinton did, however - that Clinton's effort with Geithner, Summers, Greenspan and Gramm didn't add to the crisis, notably in the end - but had the housing bubble not been built by HUD - something entirely different would have occurred.
For one thing - without the housing bubble that Bush inherited - and pushed a tiny bit more himself - the Bush years, would never have experienced a economy growing out of the recession and fallout from the 2000 dot.com Enron bubble collapse - made worse by 9/11.
And that would have been a good thing - as we could have started dealing with the economic collapse of the US earlier - had this historic bubble had not been built an allowed to fester.
The combined effects of the dot.com bubble and the housing bubble are indeed taking their toll.
The country should have at least a layman conversation about the economic horror created by the late 90's..
Not to mention that it was the most deadly period for the world (genocides and civil wars) since the end of WW II.
There's more than one point to how this crisis was born, was fueled, was unregulated, and how it festered before it became a credit crisis.
And, MERS has nothing to do with any of this, other than a bump in the road in the efficiency of the paper trail process.
I get dizzy thinking of all the great accomplishments of the last 3 years.
PSYCHOPATHY.......
The website should show score cards for the balance of the benefits to the rich and to the middle class. It seems that Republicans only try to benefit the rich and they seem so clueless about how trickle down is a proven failure. At the same time, that they try to benefit the rich, they call foul and say that all others are in a class warfare. If classes were treated equally, there would be no need for warfare.
If the Republicans think they are hurting the poor in this country..THEY ARE!
If the Republicans think they will shut down government...THEY WILL!
If the Republicans think their attack on the poor, unemployed, is not painful enough IT IS!
The more they attack the poor, unemployed and disadvantage in this nation and the majority of all these people are affected, a major calamity of despair will be felt by all. Not only will it affect our governmental affairs, it will affect MORE businesses as well. The majority of people are poor, unemployed and disadvantaged and we are the largest CONSUMERS in our communities. THE Republicans WILL FEEL The BIG BANG of REALITY! It's coming!!!
Republicans will reap what they are sowing and it will be doubled!!!
Let's not dismiss the very real likelihood that the recession/depression ploy, all done while record profits roll into the coffers of the wealthiest, is for the purpose of keeping we the sheeple MSD'd - manipulated, spun, distracted. After all, what could be more distracting than worry about putting food on the table and keeping a roof overhead?
The villainiares cannot have lots of folks revolting, Wisconsin style or even more threatening to those rulers wealth and total power over all, now can they?
Come on folks nationwide. Time to revolt and work, work, work, and fight together to restore liberty and justice for all, and UNDO THE COUP as we boot out the greedy ones, just as a beloved man/God named Jesus did when he booted the money grabbers out of the temple.
solidarity & peace
Rick@Averyvoice .com
The last time a deal was made the rich got their tax cuts supposedly to save the Middle class tax breaks and Social Security . Now its Medicare and Medicaid but if you look closer at what is being done money is being taken out of Social Security with these payroll tax cuts they made the last time around and will do again this time around . Right now Social Security is good to pay full benefits till 2036 but if they keep losing money from these payroll tax cuts they will run out of money sooner . Is this the plan both sides have for Social Security as well as Medicare and Medicaid ? Do they want to end all these programs and come out of it looking like they didn't and fought for the people.
I am begining to think this is exactly what they are leading up to while one side blames the other .
These people want nothing less that your total submission and yet we have been suffering under the delusion that the original settlers wanted to escape a monarchy -which their descendants seem to be bent on imposing on us again (happy 4th y'all!).
So where do we flee to this time -Mars? Betelguese 11? Venezuela? Cuba (except that Capitalism seems to be catching hold there like GM seeds drifting southeast from it's failed motherland!)? Any more suggestions, like mass suicide or a general strike? Please regard your sense(s) of humor as a last bastion of defense -it baffles the power seekers every time.
To be fair, her wealth is in a "blocked" trust, the increase was not related to anything she was trying to get enacted, and she has been working hard to re-build the middle class and pass legislation which would increase the taxes she pays. What's your point?
RSS feed for comments to this post.