The Glade 4.0

Politico



I was willing to play political games with the Nation's future before, but not now, no sir!

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

So you're bashing Obama for recognizing and actually being honest about prior poor decisions and the fact that he's learned some things since then?

I'm fairly certain he's bashing the President for lying so openly.

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I can appreciate the honesty. But how do I know he's not playing political games now?

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The Dude abides.

Because the impact of not raising the debt ceiling really would be seriously bad.

Once again, the only job of a politician is to get re-elected. Natural selection will quickly cull out any politician that has any other priority. Everything they do is political, it has to be.

I've seen no evidence that he's changed how he operates. It's just "Do as I say, not as I do."

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Sorry - I don't buy it. But who cares. Lets just keep kicking the can down the road.

In all seriousness, I'm more pissed at Boner (sic) and his ilk than the Dems. I expect the Dems to want to spend us into oblivion. Republicans aren't doing what they were elected to do.

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The Dude abides.

You realize the dollar would be totally worthless like a month after the deadline passes due to every bondholder in the world dumping them as fast as possible as the US stops paying on them, right?

The dollar already is totally worthless, and bondholders are already dumping them as fast as possible. PIMCO dropped 100% of its bonds held in it's Total Return Fund weeks ago. Regardless of wether or not this deadline is extended, we are well past the point of redemption. The Dollar will fail; the world knows it, and savy investors are already abandoning the sinking ship. Stop scape-goating.

Whatever though.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

"Guys I was lying before but I'm being totally serioius now"

Yeah Barry, and the check is in the mail, you'll pull out so we don't need a condom, and I'm sure you'll pay me back next Tuesday for a hamburger today.

But he's keeping great company, Kerry was for stuff before he was against stuff too.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Yeah, I'm not buying this. Japan has triple our debt-to-GDP ratio, plus an even worse looming entitlement problem compounded by a birth rate of 1.2-1.3 children per woman and Confucian morals about supporting one's elders that make said entitlement programs much more untouchable than ours are. They are hit by a major disaster that will severely strain the debt situation even more and the yen is still going strong.

Not to mention, your "worthless" comment is just plain wrong, as I can still use dollars to buy things, and I couldn't if they were worthless. It's fiat currency, the value is what people believe it is, you know that. You're predicting the same doomsday crap people have been doing every time there's a recession, I can dig up some examples from the early 80s if you want. Of course, eventually someone is going to be right, but you know what they say about a stopped clock.....

Far less bad than the consequences of continuing our debt addiction.

Default and no one will loan to us so we will be forced to cut out our debt - or they raise taxes to the point of rebellion.

Either path is a road to a better future.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

Then Yen isn't strong against anything at the moment. In fact, the Yen's been losing ground against international currencies since 1993. At one point, the Japanese Central Bank chained the Yen to a fixed exchange rate against the dollar because of problems with market corrections and perceived economic viability.

But, you know, keep trotting out the neo-Keynesian argument on the subject. I'll tell you what Keynes actually said in situations like this:

1. No country should ever have a debt-to-GDP ratio greater than 0.5. It's part of the reason he rejected the financial punishments levied against Germany after World War I. It's also the reason he said the German War Debt for World War I would cause a second major European war in his life time.

2. Keynes only supported demand side stimulus over very short periods of time: 3-6 months, not as an ongoing pillar of economic policy. 80 years of demand shifting everything has created horrible, horrible situations for most everyone involved.

3. The only reason the world isn't abandoning the dollar wholesale is all the junk bonds issued in USD from the CDO disaster and the recent financial crisis. Well, that and the lack of a viable alternative reserve currency as the Euro continues to evaporate and the EU faces the reality of dissolution.

4. Japanese debt isn't, for the most part, held by its citizens. The average Japanese household saves 40% of its income.

So, keep trying to compare apples and oranges when you don't know enough about economics to even enter the thread, Xeq.

As for doomsday predictions? We've been through two series of "quantitative easing" and only have double digit inflation to show for it.

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This is why I can't take you seriously.

Figure out the tax burden required to support over 100,000 billion in debt (ignoring that more will be added to this pile). Tell me if you be willing to be taxed at this rate. You can use figures from http://www.usdebtclock.org/

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

As long as he's got internet access and a cell phone he will be fine.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

I assume you've all seen to market plunge on open today. I assume you all also know it was due to Standard & Poor's lowering of US debt outlook to "negative".

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Clearly, they are unAmerican. If they had raised the outlook to "positive" our economy would have soared. We have only the greedy corporate types at S&P's to blame for our impending misery. Let's tax them; they're rich, right?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

The amusing thing is if it went up, you'd blame it on inflation or a bubble.

Almost as amusing as thinking that there is a way outta this.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Well, to be honest, this is showing that it was right to blame its previous increases on a bubble, as now that reality is setting in, the bubble has (is?) popp(ed/ing).

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Or maybe the market is undervalued now so it's like an anti-bubble.

When things happen rapidly, it's usually a correction.

Fast changes in the market are changes in perceived value that resonate with lots of people. That is far more likely to be the case when the new information paints a more likely and sensible picture than the one that was previously driving the price levels.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Fixed that for you.