"This Economy"

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Have you felt direct impact from "this economy"?

  • Yes, laid off

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, no raise

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes, salary cut

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, everything is the same

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
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But there is an I in "what a disaster this is going to be."

But here's what I don't get. He's OFFICIALLY President right now. I thought all of our economic problems were supposed to go away now? I mean, the DJIA is down 239 points so far today, shouldn't his inauguration have been enough to thrust the US economy out of the red and back into overwhelming prosperity?

 
But there is an I in "what a disaster this is going to be."

But here's what I don't get. He's OFFICIALLY President right now. I thought all of our economic problems were supposed to go away now? I mean, the DJIA is down 239 points so far today, shouldn't his inauguration have been enough to thrust the US economy out of the red and back into overwhelming prosperity?

It's going to take at least a week for him to turn this country around.

 
I own a chocolate lab, bht pic isn't of mine though. He's too energetic and I'm too shitty of a photographer to take a good pic like that.
I moved from VT to suburban Boston last summer. Things are pretty busy here from what I gather. As for the Northwest, I don't think things are bad in the Spokane area either. My FIL got an obscene end of year bonus. And the cost of living there is pretty low too.
My last job had lots of people coming in only to be let go before me. Some were from the Seattle 'burbs, others from the Northern Idaho tip/Eastern WA area. If Spokane is doing ok, then it would take my wife to convince... not easy. We live in a little Mayberry of a town and the weather is pretty decent in Western Oregon (minus the two-week stretches of rain).

 
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I didn't vote... we were told that there's no more money and all our contracts won't be renewed, but right now my contract is set for a bit so I am good for a while... keeping our fingers crossed that the govt doesn't decide to get rid of contractors....

 
But here's what I don't get. He's OFFICIALLY President right now. I thought all of our economic problems were supposed to go away now? I mean, the DJIA is down 239 points so far today, shouldn't his inauguration have been enough to thrust the US economy out of the red and back into overwhelming prosperity?
Let's look at it like a marriage;

going into it, we are all excited as hell, and can't wait, have high hopes, everything is going to be great.......

Well, when men get married, they all think its going to be happily ever after too.

Go find me 100 married men, and ask them what they think now? LOL

 
the dow wont budge upward until until Obama shows his hands (with whatever he plans to do) since he hasnt said anything specific about his economic plan, other than change, yes we can, yadayadayada.. Odd that were this far into his election and no one really knows what he plans to do, other than bailouts and the public works stimulous.

An investment in public works wont do much for the market because its only going to benefit state and local governments, half of which will piss away a lot of the money on stupid shit, if there is any spillover effect into the private sectors (outside of construction companies and consultants) its going to take a while (IMO)

If they would drop a lot of the bullshit from the feds in relation to the federal gas tax they could easily speed things up in regard to our infrastructure, but no we need to take money from say fuel tax in Ga, send it to washington where they take a cut and then send it back and then tell you how to spend it?

Free government healthcare isnt going to do much to help the markets either.

Closing gitmo or ending the war in iraq wont help the Nasdaq or the dow.

^ -- (not saying there bad ideas, just saying it aint going to get you a raise ;) )

He could make this easier by dropping capitol gains taxes, or substantially lowering it. If we can bailout the banks and the auto industry, why not say, okay for one year no capitol gains taxes (its not like the government hasnt been taxing it all along anyways...)

Anyone remember when the democrats chastised Clinton for proposing a $19 Billion stimulous package? And now were looking at $800 Billion?

WTF

 
He could make this easier by dropping capitol gains taxes, or substantially lowering it. If we can bailout the banks and the auto industry, why not say, okay for one year no capitol gains taxes (its not like the government hasnt been taxing it all along anyways...)
Anyone remember when the democrats chastised Clinton for proposing a $19 Billion stimulous package? And now were looking at $800 Billion?

WTF

+1

 
I'm still cheesed off that they willingly gave away 300+Billion (so far) to the banks and it did nothing, as most expected. yet the automakers, WHO MANUFACTURE A PRODUCT, had to wheedle and drive in electric cars for a lousy 14B line of credit.

I'm glad Ford basically said, "F y'all. We don't need it that bad."

 
RG, check this proposal out:

Proposal to Turn the Federal Highway Program Back to the States Would Relieve Traffic Congestionby Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.

Backgrounder #1709

Representative Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has introduced legislation that would devolve, or "turn back," the federal highway and transit programs to the states by allowing them to take over collection of the federal fuel tax and spend those revenues on transportation priorities of their own choosing, not Washington's. The policies embodied in this bill--the Transportation Empowerment Act (H.R. 3113)--would significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of surface transportation programs without imposing a tax increase.
http://www.heritage.org/research/smartgrowth/bg1709.cfm

 
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where to begin?

as for the bailouts, they suck. First, the government shouldn't be picking winners and losers, the market should. A lot of people point to Lehman as why these big banks can't go bankrupt, but it wasn't the size, but that the bankruptcy was put together over a weekend and most of the Lehman management was focused on trying to get a bailout. If a company had sometime to plan a bankruptcy, you wouldn't see a repeat in the credit markets. Second, they can't even get bailouts right. First and foremost, how can the current management be allowed to stay on when you are asking for billions of dollars because you screwed up your company. Also with banking we are following the Japanese model that produces a long drawn out, but not acutely painful, rather than the Swedish model that is painful but quick.

I think the problem with the economy/state of the country comes down to one fundamental human desire, instant gratification. Consumers have it, investors have it, the corporations have it, and the government has it. Consumers want the flat screen now, they want the big house now, etc. Investors/Business only care about the quarterly earnings, they don't think about the long term sustainability of the business. how many of the Bank CEOs would be around if they had decided to sit out the tremendous profits of the housing boom. How many stupid mergers have been done just to please investors. The government is only concerned with how decision impact the next vote; how can officials "serve" you today, what does the public want to hear today. No regard for what all of this means down the line.

Rant off.

 
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I heard someone say that the worst thing you can do is give a stimulous to the middle class, they (we) will come to expect it and stop creating ways to develop our own stimulous......

 
I heard someone say that the worst thing you can do is give a stimulous to the middle class, they (we) will come to expect it and stop creating ways to develop our own stimulous......
True, it'll be just like welfare. Welfare for the well educated.

A lot of what is proposed to fix our economy has been tried before. Rather than paraphrase:Thomas Sowell Column 12/23/2008
And he has a point. However, and I'm just throwing this out there, as a result of government spending, a lot of things got accomplished that probably never would have without federal help, notably roads, dams, and electrification.

 
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