Bush's Other Legacy: Deepening Cycle of Job Loss

NY Times :

As automakers dropped their latest batch of awful sales numbers on the market on Tuesday, reinforcing the gloom spreading across the economy, the troubles confronting American workers seemed to intensify.

Plummeting home prices have in recent months eliminated jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, from bankers and real estate agents to construction workers and furniture manufacturers. Tighter lending standards imposed by banks in the wake of huge mortgage losses have made it hard for many Americans to secure credit -- the lifeblood of expansion in recent years -- crimping the appetite of consumers, whose spending amounts to 70 percent of the economy.

Read the whole story: NY Times

Comments

[ObamaLover]

I vividly remember in 2006 how the Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress trumpeting "Change" and a better America. Let"s review how that has worked out for us.

* Mortgage companies have declared bankruptcy costing thousands of people their jobs
* Home values have nose-dived
* Millions of Americans have lost their homes
* World oil prices have risen astronomically
* The Democrats continue to block drilling in oil rich reserves to continue and even increase our dependence on foreign oil
* Gasoline prices have increased to over $4 a gallon and there appears to be no end in sight even though Americans have reduced their driving over one billion miles a month.
* The stock market, where most Americans" retirement hopes are invested, has dropped by more than 15%.
* Food prices are increasing at an alarming rate fueled mostly by rising energy costs

All in all I"d have to say that the Democrats fulfilled their promise and have brought change to our country

[Redrover666]

And lets get even more of this change by voting for OBAMA 08!!!

If we cross our fingers, we could be a third world country in less than twenty years!

[Vyvjala]

This sub-cretin's name will forever be a household curse word...............

[schoolmaster]

Surprising that none in the government or private sector has a clue as to how to save the country from slippery slope from all aspects. Stock market analysts and predictors are making chunks of money predicting the doom. Fed does not seem to be having any solution but tinkering with interest rate or keeping it as it is. All this is obviously tied to our loosing edge on the world stage, the huge loan that we accrued to be able to maintain our standard of living lest there should be political repercussions, and our challenged aid and military support that we give to the other countries not because we can afford it, but because we still would like to maintain our supremacy on the world stage. Ron Paul would have made a dent on our dealings inside and out if he were president, as he and Dennis Kucinich seem to be the only two with right perspective and bring about the change that Obama can not.

[collprof]

Please do not worry folk for Bush and Cheney have solutions to the current wave of depressed news for all Americans.

We will war on Iran and hopefully Lebanon, Hezbollah and Syria will join the fracas requiring a larger military in the USA so we can assist Israel in this GWOT and this axis of evil. This will put those new graduates to work who can't find employment and as they will need equipment, arms to fight the great new Bush/Cheney war we will spend billions, if not trillions, of newly increased national debt dollars to fund the endeavor increasing consumption and therefore increasing employment, stock market.

With oil soaring to over $200 per barrel there will also be soaring employment having embroiled the entire Middle East into one big caldron of crusader activity. McCain will be elected and we will begin anew another round of BRING EM ON.

With gas at $6.00 per gallon we will then achieve conservation. But employment will be 3.5%.

[watchingthings]

This economic crisis is caused in large part by speculators. They are Parasites of society. They are the worst kind of parasite......they are destroying the livelyhood of many families. To protect against bodily parasites, people get themseves innoculated against various parasites. These parasites must be controlled...they don't do any of the work in the products they speculate on......yet they reap the highest benefits. This is like the bank borrowing you money at 50-100-150% interest. We control what the bank can charge you....why should the speculator [parasite] not be controlled?

[Veri]

Here you have the end effects of Reagonomics, trickle-down economics, disaster capitalism, and Friedman (who recognized that corporations are ultimately only interested in their bottom line and not, as portrayed, in democracy). These principles are just dressed up forms of feudalism with wealthy aristocrats and poor serfs at the bottom tilling your small plot of land and tithing some of your gains to your masters. Except, you don't see any benefits.

While the U.S. Government, controlled by extreme special-interests, provide hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money to corporate welfare queens on Wall Street, Americans routinely reject modest proposals to help those truly in need at the bottom and the no longer existing middle-class. Oh, you think you are middle class? Add up all your bills. ALL of them. And compare them to your income. If you don't make $45,000 dollars as single person after that, congratulations. YOU ARE POOR.

Well, now the poor are reacting. And only after your PS3s and HDTVs became unaffordable. You deserve you get for being selfish. So easily controlled by propaganda from your unacknowledged masters.

[MadAppraiser]

"America: Welcome to the inner city blues in coast-to-coast wide screen format!" The smiles from the human resources department personnel do not mean too much to you when you receive that pink slip! All of the intuitional crap we have received concerning expensive education, professional designations, resumes, and experience mean nothing when compared to the corporate bottom line.

The expensive corporate marketing campaign placing America"s dark economic perspective upon the global economy is convenient corporate escapism. Either American corporations import inexpensive labor, or they outsource labor to compete with international corporations given the foreign trade policies. "Get a life!"

How does the federal government regulate trade, and borrows billions of dollars from foreign trading partners? Borrowing foreign capital to cook the books for the Middle East Oil Campaign is more important than regulating foreign trade. The Enron energy manipulation scenario is casting a dark shadow upon the entire American economic landscape as more economic events unfold. The term globalization of trade is a new mask for the creation of even larger American national debt service, and employment loss.

[Veri]

Americans have forgot to ask some questions. Such as.

"How come foreign corporations are setting up factories in America while American corporations are dumping them?"

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Along with this the real estate market is not going to be bouncing back for another 2 - 3 years. It is going to take that long to flush all this thru the system.

[Veri]

Just in time for the next crisis. LOVE IT!

[OkieMon]

Here"s an idea...rather than tax oil companies on their profits, tax speculators on their profits on oil and corn futures, the real causes of high prices these days. A tax is a good way to discourage certain behavior . we actually want oil companies to produce more gas and we want speculators to speculate less in the commodities markets which will lower the prices overnight...so tax profits on oil and corn speculation!!!!!!!!

[Veri]

Well, the sensible thing to do is just sell oil to those who buy AND USE the oil. Not just buy the oil and hold it off the market to drive up prices. Too sensible. The public would never go for it.

[SaintJimmy]

Bush doesn't have a legacy. He has a swath.

[Indubio]

I've read many statements and predictions by professional market analysts and my sense is that as a group they are in denial regarding the severity of our present economic situation. One analyst suggested a turn around in fall of 2009? On the basis of what does he make this prediction? Historical patterns? Historical patterns of economic behavior are essentially useless in today's reality. An analyst speaking frankly has to admit that $170.-$200/barrel oil will make the present situation worse. How does a global economic system built on requisite of cheap fuel adopt to $200/barrel oil and $13/cf natural gas? My point is there won't be any quick adapting. We had a chance some 30 years ago to plan for the present reality of scarce energy supplies and world leadership elected a short term, take all you can get give nothing back strategy; in fact, politicians exacerbated things by intensifying globalization over the past 20 years. Anyone reasonably expecting an economic turn around in 2009 had better be prepared for disappointment and quite honestly I think the situation is so bad that POTUS might be able to take measures to lessen some of the personal pain experienced by Americans but I suspect he's going to be powerless to change the situation, which is quite out of our hands at this point.

[thatsitfortheotherone]

Agreed. As recently as last year, I thought I was on track to retire at 55. One round (so far) of hyper inflation later, and I've pushed my estimate out to 95.

Hope we're both wrong, but I'm not counting on it.

[Veri]

You are a little person, just like me. We do not matter to those with money and power. Many Americans do not matter to the political mis-leadership in America. They just window dress the corruption and hide what they are doing to turn America into a nation of aristocrats and serfs.

[Viper]

Today I met with some engneers in the oil industry down here in Houston.. they assured me there is no oil crisis and no shortage. They named sites in U.S. ( and yes some off shore) already known that had more reserves than Saudi. Now granted we still end up with the carbon we dont need. Note there have been no platform problems/spills in more than 40 years even in the North Seas .. which is a brutal environment. technology is much improved.

They also agree the current prices is more than 50% speculation and that their employers dont want more refineries in the U.S..


So next question is why our government not busted the oil specualtion bubble... why has Congress not done away wioth the ENRON loophole or the 2006 offshore unregul;ated trading?

And it was a Repug that FIRST did price control.. Nixon for an entire country. If the U.S. and Europe set a max price of oil at 100 per barrel ( thats $20 bucks more than it s/b per oil experts in the oil industry), then this bubble would have been over a week ago!

Besides our government being bought off or the fact that Hedge funds which have invested billions in pumping up the price of oil , could lose billions... there is no excuse for leting millions lose their jobs. If you bust thois bubble, the money in oil moves back into the stock market.

Regards

[Redrover666]

So, let me understand this. We only produce a small fraction of the worlds oil but we control the price it sells for worldwide? All we have to do to relieve the cost of energy for all the importing nations in the world is tweek Enron and spank some speculators.

Boy are the Chinese going to be happy to get this news!

[speakeasy]

Until I see proof of any of these sites I will continue to reat as a conspiracy theory. Like the ex-reverend in Alaska who says there is more oil in Gull Island than Saudi Arabia, but has never been confirmed or corroborated by anyone outside of this guy. Or the Bakken Formation, which has 2-4 billion barrels of accessible oil. There is lots of shale rock that holds oil in a hardened form, but under current technology it takes more than one barrel of oil to poduce a barrel from shale. I really do hope we have huge reserves, but most likely we will just use up what we have left in the shortest amound of time and then be F&^**ed.

[reno 77]

That this is an election year, and as of yet no one is willing to admit we are in recession, is of course entirely coincidental.

[Veri]

The Obama-McCain ticket dare not mention it. But then again, they don't have to care. One of The Party is still going to be elected.

[SantaFeStars]

The Democrats cannot be blamed for this mess we're in today. As pointed out in other posts, the Democrats took control of both houses 2 years ago with a very slight majority. GOP obstructionists and Prez' veto power whacked us. Almost 8 yrs of abandonment by this administration. Look at the prosperity we enjoyed under Bill Clinton's leadership. Obama and his administration (I feel he's going to have a dynamic group with him), will restore faith, integrity and equality to all the good people of America. We deserve it!

[Indubio]

Regretfully, the prosperity we enjoyed under Clinton (and Reagan) is partially responsible for the present mess. I place more blame on Reagan for beginning a cycle of living beyond our means and for torpedoing the austerity measures and energy policies initiated by Carter. Yes, Carter's policies were unpopular because they hurt but had we stuck with them we'd be in a much better situation today. Instead, the electorate fell for a GOP line that because we're Americans we can have it all: low taxes, enormous increases in defense spending, and let the free market deal with everything else. Clinton bought into the GOP and the DLC bought into GOP free market thinking and fully supported it for eight years. SantaFeStars post says a lot: We're Americans and consequently we deserve prosperity. That may have been the case a generation ago but we live in a vastly different world today and just because we're Americans it doesn't entitle us to anything. We have been poorly led by self serving politicians from both parties (but mostly Republicans). If we want to pull ourselves out of the present economicand environmental morass, then we had better start thinking as a society rather than three hundred million individuals who happen to live under the same government.

[Oldtimer]

Your reference to Carter cannot be over-stated. He wanted to solve America's energy
crisis in a thouhtful responsible way while Reagan just wanted to get elected on a free market wave of trickle down economics. Here we are 30 years later and its time to
pay the piper but only now it will be much much more painful. Nothing short of a
New Deal program will save us from a depression. Globalization, war, energy and the
rapacious greed of special interests have shrunk the over-worked middle class to the point that we are entering a depression. The big difference now is we are being fooled by the corporations. sure we have a choice of fifty flavors of ice cream but we have no choice for healthcare, or energy or political parties. Don't beleive anything the Bush Labor
Dept says. When Bush speaks you should interpret the opposite.

[Viper]

Kill FREE TRADE and make stuff again! yes the goods short term will cost more.. but not as much as when China delinks from the U.S. currency... which they will do once our MFG capabilitis are completely gone.

We are becoming so weak in the Trades because of the gutting of MFG, that we may not have the trade school skills needed to keep even existing plants working. Super power My ASS.

DEMs are not talking about that and hiow weak and insecure we have become under BUSH. Soon there will not be much to protect.

The airforce says we dont have the MFG base left to build our weapon systems here.

Regards

[Viper]

Prosperity is not bad.. its the way it was being gotten.. by outsourcing MFG for short term prosperioty for some and at the long terms expense of almost all.


And wasting money on Dumb wars, that you have to borrow so you can pretend you are asuper power

[hank48188]

The DEMS just don't have the BALLS to make a move on ANYTHING even though they ARE IN CHARGE, keep making excuses for them.

[Calinative]

Umm...pretty sure Bush is still president, and he's a Republican.

[Viper]

They could have killed the Enron loophole.. prices dont go up at their highest rate as demand declines unless its momentum speculation.

Regards

[Veri]

Wrong! During the decline of America over the last thirty years, there have only been two dominant political parties. The Democrats and The Republicans. So, yes, politically, both parties can be blamed.

It is your thinking like this that allows the malfeasance to go on.

[holeybuybull]

Imagine what the unemployment statistics would look like if all of the "weekend warriors" of the National Guard weren't "gainfully employed" in Iraq and were here competing for those "factory jobs" at McDonalds.

[Economike]

I wish they were.

[Veri]

Currently around twelve percent. Not the five-five the government quotes to hide the disaster that is now America.

[zephyrus]

Anyone else think inflation is running at only 4%?

[biwee]

I doubt if this will get past the HuffPo censors, but, I will try.......inflation is at least in the 7-9 percent range for most Americans. The BLS numbers are a scam.

[Veri]

You need to factor in food and energy. The government does not to this. They use a lie called core-inflation, excluding food and energy prices. Makes for a rosier picture. It is enough to fool most Americans.

[zephyrus]

The biggest legacy of George W. Bush's presidency could very well be that it was a time when we could definitively point to where the Federal Reserve failed. The IMF is conducting what would generally be considered an "audit" of the U.S. financial system, particularly the Federal Reserve. Apparently Bush has blocked this investigation for all of his years in the White House and only relented once it was agreed the investigation would begin during his last year in office and not conclude until after he has left office.

We are now being subjected to the intense investigation typically only reserved for third-world nations and banana republics. Austerity measures will be imposed on the U.S. as foreign investors look for debt repayment.

[Indubio]

The IMF is auditing the Federal Reserve? And who do we get to audit the IMF? These two organizations (and the World Bank) are pretty much opposites sides of the same coin and they feed off each other. None of these organization can evaluate the policies and actions of each other; what's required is a totally independent audit but the question is what organizations exists that can do it since they are all mutually self supportive of the present economic regime.

[Veri]

The Federal Reserve has not failed. They are doing exactly what they were designed to do. Outside of wartime, The Federal Reserve has produced recession cycle after cycle. Prior to the creation of The Fed, inflation was more or less stable when not influenced by international moneylenders.

The Fed has produced the worst inflation in the history of America consistently over its entire existence than existed prior to them. Oh, and The Great Depression.

If one wants to examine the period after The Civil War, America endured economic turbulence due to not having enough workers after the war. Too many casualties. Today, and during the 1930's, America had plenty of workers and work to be done.

Yet, disaster looms, cycle after cycle.