patrick.net

Strategist says

Heraclitusstudent says

All Obama had to do was let housing collapse, let the banks fail, buy them for $1, execute the leaders, recapitalize them and sell them. We wouldn't be stuck trying to pay back what they lost.

That is pretty much what happened.

You still think what happened with the housing bubble was sustainable, healthy and generally desirable, don't you?

You can't wait to go back to that?

BoomAndBustCycle says

I think a Republican controlled Senate and House is going to have a HARD time improving on what on paper is a pretty good economy…

Not unless they can put the fear of God into the Fed.

We need a prez like Coolidge, or Van Buren maybe a Rand Paul could fill the bill? At any rate it would be nice if they could get rid of O handiwork in the ACA and Frank Dodd

that is the atomic bomb of the whole exercise.
the repubs will vote on and pass everything now.
lay it at obama's feet.
obama will veto it all
2016 rolls around and obama will be the obstacle to improving everyones lot in life.
Sarah is elected along with the house/senate staying red and we will control the whole shabang, ushering in the Christian State to counter ISIS.

Call it Crazy says

Another plus, Dirty Harry Reid gets sent packing and back to Nevada!!

Great a bunch of lobbyists will become repub congress critters. A bunch of ex dem congress critters will become lobbyists and wait till the tide turns. What a sorry bunch.

+1

indigenous says

He is just excited that the Ds got bitch slapped out of office,

Call it Crazy says

Oh God, another kool-aid drinker....

http://patrick.net/?p=1251545&c=1145661#comment-1145661

Oh, don't get me wrong… I definitely think the current administration is creating new bubbles and propping up a "house of cards" economy. But, they really didn't have much of a choice… When everything was free-falling in March of 2009… They could have let all the banks fail and we'd have a few weeks maybe years of chaos.

Instead the bail outs just gave us another 10 years of can kicking fun.

It's gonna get ugly… When the next crash happens I wouldn't want to be the party in power.

It looks like the Republicans are going to be biting off way more than they can chew.

Great news!
Now they can pay for unfunded wars. Find the WMD. Get all Rep/Con/Tea individuals & businesses off Big Govt. Socialist programs. Eliminate the minimum wage & pay themselves $2.00/hour & no benefits & outsource all American jobs & eliminate Obamacare.

Any R/C/T that can't pay cash for their family's medical care needs, should die. That's what True American Patriots, who believe in "Personal Responsibility", would do.

BTW,where's my Voodoo Economics Trickle Down Check?

Strategist says

Governor of Maryland - Republican

I'm still elated over this one. Not only did Hogan win, but by a considerable margin.

It's all Obama's fault!!!

Now it's the GOP controlled Congress's job to crank out lots of bills that seem very good to the public at large. Then when Obummer exercises his veto, the Demo-hate will grow and grow. If they do that consistently enough, it will guarantee a GOP POTUS in 2016.
But I think they can fuck it up. :)

Does this mean that Jon Stewart and Bill Mahar was voted out off their office?

You realize the economy is already slow, so
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE???

Heraclitusstudent says

Strategist says

I voted Republican. It's time to get the economy moving, and it's time to change our foreign policy.

You realize repubs have a strong incentive to keep a slow economy and blame Obama.

It will be just as interesting to see what the 2 Independent candidates do as well.

What's just as interesting is all the new woman GOP members...
http://13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/ny-elects-youngestever-congresswoman-17379.shtml

NEW YORK (AP) -- Republican Elise Stefanik has become the youngest woman elected to Congress by defeating Democrat Aaron Wolf in a race for an open U.S. House seat in northern New York. The 30-year-old former aide in George W. Bush's White House won her party's nomination this summer with the help of super political action committees that funneled more than $1 million into the primary. Woolf is a documentary filmmaker and business owner who dipped into his personal finances to lend his campaign $600,000. Stefanik and Woolf were first-time candidates. Matt Funiciello ran on the Green Party line. New York's 21st District extends from the Canadian border across the Adirondacks to Saratoga County. The district is one of the largest in the Eastern United States.

Read More at: http://13wham.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/ny-elects-youngestever-congresswoman-17379.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/embed/H2epDK0xdaI

Heraclitusstudent says

Strategist says

I voted Republican. It's time to get the economy moving, and it's time to change our foreign policy.

You realize repubs have a strong incentive to keep a slow economy and blame Obama.

That's just dirty politics. Democrats and Republicans are both the same when it comes to dirty politics.

Call it Crazy says

You think the "game" holds together until 2017?

It could. Right now US is the "fortress" of the world - closed economy that's based on healthcare and defense sectors. The bubble can get much bigger.

tr6 says

Listening to Republicans on CNBC today.

Problem: "Middle class is struggling"

Solutions

- lower corporate tax rate (companies already pay the lowest tax rates in history)

- build a pipeline (don't worry about WTI at 75)

- don't raise minimum wage (because there is a study that proves raising it hurts economy)

So how is that helping middle class?

All of above ends up creating jobs. We need jobs to get the economy moving again.

Strategist says

Democrats and Republicans are both the same when it comes to dirty politics.

Nope.

Democrats are plenty corrupt, but a lot of Democrats gave Bush the benefit of the doubt on the war vote. That is, they put country before party.

I haven't seen the Republicans do that since 1994.

Strategist says

All of above ends up creating jobs

Tell me how building the pipeline that will lower the price of oil even more would help create jobs in a long term?

How is having $5 an hour job helping the economy?

How is giving corporations even higher share of profits (which are at historic highs) good for middle class jobs?

Can you address each one specifically?

Strategist says

The government creates government jobs.

The government pays for most of the drugs that pharma and biotech makes. It also pays for everything defense companies make. Those are government jobs in the hottest sectors of economy.

tr6 says

Solutions

- lower corporate tax rate (companies already pay the lowest tax rates in history)

- build a pipeline (don't worry about WTI at 75)

- don't raise minimum wage (because there is a study that proves raising it hurts economy)

Ah, such fresh, totally new ideas. Totally unlike their previous ideas, which didn't work at all.

Strategist says

All of above ends up creating jobs. We need jobs to get the economy moving again.

Did all this during Bush, and continued the caviar tax cuts under Obama. Do you remember the jobs? I don't.

Keystone is irrelevant, even in the minds of the oil-industry leaders. They have plenty of other ways to move oil. The only jobs Keystone will create are in the hazmat and soil-remediation industries, digging up broken sections of pipeline and going door-to-door telling people not to drink their well water for the next 800 years.

From Forbes:

Just Greed and Politics. Pipeline defects have been identified along a 60-mile stretch of the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, north of the Sabine River in Texas (Winnsboro, Texas). 
Sections of pipe have dents, faulty welds, and pin-holes in some sections enough to see daylight through.

The installers have been digging up parts of the new southern segment of the Keystone pipeline that only recently have been installed. 
It seems that the existing leg of the Keystone has spilled more oil in its first year than any other first-year pipeline in U.S. history (HuffPost).

With the tens of billions of dollars this pipeline will make for these companies each year, you’d think they’d spend a little extra to build it right. Or that they’d care about using new pipe that’s up to specs. We do have specs.

I can just imagine the mid-level manager’s thought processes on this. ”Hmmm…I’m making a decision on a pipeline that is involved in an extremely political battle, that may have a huge impact on the American economy, that could make tens of billions of dollars a year for my company but that could, if done badly, destroy the drinking water and irrigation supply for the bread-basket of America, and that even has international diplomatic ramifications.”

Strategist says

The government creates government jobs.

Bureaucracy

Red Tape

Unfunded pensions

Low growth

More welfare

Those are pretend jobs, to fix pretend problems, the whole fucking deal is a charade.

Value = something a person will pay money for

Production = producing a product that someone will pay for

The corollary is that if no one will pay for it, it ain't production

Conclusion is that government doesn't produce anything and hampers a lot.

And don't say national defense, as that is a solution to a created enemy. Even police could easily be privatized.

tr6 says

So how is that helping middle class?

How giving corporations even higher share of profits (which are at historic highs) good for middle class jobs?

High corporate tax rates are causing companies to leave the country. This means less jobs for Americans, as well less tax dollars.

tr6 says

Tell me how building the pipeline that will lower the price of oil even more would help create jobs in a long term?

It's cheaper to transport oil via a pipeline when compared to rail.

tr6 says

How is having $5 an hour job helping the economy?

The minimum wage is much higher than $5/hour.

tr6 says

Strategist says

All of above ends up creating jobs

Tell me how building the pipeline that will lower the price of oil even more would help create jobs in a long term?

Building the pipeline itself creates construction jobs.
When oil prices are down, we have more money to spend on other things like going to the movies, vacations, and iphones.
Creates lots of jobs.

tr6 says

How is having $5 an hour job helping the economy?

It creates lots of jobs for teenagers who would otherwise roam the streets stirring up trouble. Minimum wage is an entry level opportunity to gain experience and progress down the road.

tr6 says

How giving corporations even higher share of profits (which are at historic highs) good for middle class jobs?

Corporations are there for profit only. The more profit they make the more they will invest, and more employees they hire.
@tr6

I would say that jobs are created when there is a lot of added value being generated. Any other type of economic activity is just a zero sum game from which there can be no growth.

Quigley says

I would say that jobs are created when there is a lot of added value being generated. Any other type of economic activity is just a zero sum game from which there can be no growth.

That's basically productivity.

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. It usually seems to work out better when senate is Republican and White house is Democratic.

I'm just worried that it might get a little too one sided again, one sided has never been good.

http://www.fox8live.com/story/27263083/hot-races-high-stakes-on-big-night-for-gop

Republicans won a commanding majority, pushing their dominance to near-historic levels. They defeated the last white Democrats in the South.

FortWayne says

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. It usually seems to work out better when senate is Republican and White house is Democratic.

Perhaps it will be Clinton versus a Republican congress again? :-)

Peter P says

FortWayne says

It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. It usually seems to work out better when senate is Republican and White house is Democratic.

Perhaps it will be Clinton versus a Republican congress again? :-)

last time that scenario went well, so I'm all for it.

Strategist says

Quigley says

I would say that jobs are created when there is a lot of added value being generated. Any other type of economic activity is just a zero sum game from which there can be no growth.

That's basically productivity.

It's not that simple. You can have lots of productivity, but be producing the wrong kind of product or too much for the market. It doesn't matter how efficiently you produce weasel condoms if no weasels are buying them. To add value, you must produce things that are needed. We don't need more rubber sporks at any price, and the market for Halloween decorations just took a major shit. Any additional production of such would negatively affect value.

zzyzzx says

Woolf is a documentary filmmaker

These are the only kind of jobs most Democrats have. They're almost never Cadillac dealers.

Strategist says

I have no reason to lie. "Real wages are ultimately determined by productivity"

Productivity improvement is a necessarily condition to any real wage increase.

However, it alone is not sufficient. Nevertheless, philosophically, a wage earner should *NOT* enjoy the fruit of productivity. Employees do not take risks, hence they need not have gains.

My message: become a risk-taker!

"I see a bad moon arisin'
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes ablowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers overflowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
Alright

Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye

Well, don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

Songwriters
JOHN C. FOGERTY"

The "phantom" real wage gains in parts of the 20th century was caused by a temporary imbalance of higher productivity and a lack of labor competition. Information technology and other advances eventually allowed the global market to become more efficient. As a result, this imbalance had been corrected.

Now, to improve your life, you have to take economic risks.

A wave of red has descended upon our nation; the soviet citizens from 1917-1989 can relate...

Quigley says

That's basically productivity.

It's not that simple. You can have lots of productivity, but be producing the wrong kind of product or too much for the market. It doesn't matter how efficiently you produce weasel condoms if no weasels are buying them. To add value, you must produce things that are needed. We don't need more rubber sporks at any price, and the market for Halloween decorations just took a major shit. Any additional production of such would negatively affect value.

That's where the wonder of capitalism comes in. If a business keeps making the wrong product they will eventually go out of business. e.g.. Kodak. If a company makes the right products, they will thrive e.g.. Apple.