Obama sees a catastrophe

All I can tell you is from my own personal situation.
My livelyhood is diirectly dependent on the housing industry.
Maybe not soley on the US market but definitly on the world lumber market for softwoods.
In the last ten years"free trade" (One way street to better the other guys)has seen new competition for trim and moulding market with cheap imports from south america .
But now with housing at at worldwide standstill my income has been halved and next step is a total supply shutdown because the mill I buy my bedding material from is one step from total shutdown. Right now they are on 20 hours of production and layed off half the people.
This story is multiplying faster each day with over 100 large mills gone defunct in Canada and that many on the verge in USA soon if it does not stop soon.
Someone needs to do something ,anything at all and try something we dont need anymore "ArmChair Agitators" screaming political partisan crap with the red versus blue Republican versus Democrats mentality.
It's easy to be critical but another thing to really do something and make it work.
stop the "I told you so's" and GET TO WORK WASHINGTON
PS
Just remeber how many members there are in Congress.....HOW MANY ARE ON A "FREE PASS" with the IRS on taxes....BET IT WILL SCARE US IF WE KNEW

Carefull Tim, these guys will call you out for being angry. I have been called angry twice the last 2 days and I didn't even raise my voice!

Kevin

Devil505 wrote:Government spending is EXACTLY what we do need right now.Spending on war materials brought us out of the Great Depression & spending on jobs & infrastructure is what will bring us out of this one. Tax cuts for the wealthy & corporations was tried & helped lead us into this mess.

We got here because of deficit spending and too much credit for consumers and businesses alike. Unless the economy truly shifts to one of depressionary deflation, then the proper course of action is to let economics take its course. We are not currently in a depression. We are in a recession and we haven't had one for quite some time so no one seems to know what to do. The past course taken by the government and the fed has only postponed the current recession by stoking the spending. Its effect has been to increase the severity of the current recession. But now we have run up a serious debt tab with each other and the rest of the world. The prescription for overspending is to stop spending.

Simply put, This country has spent more than it has earned since the mid 1960's. You cannot continue that indefinitely without endangering our existance through slavery to debt or war.

The government should concentrate on saving the banking system by ensuring liquidity therein, insure bank deposits, assist homeowners in keeping their homes if their case is reasonable, and run the existing programs and keep taxes the same. Essentially there should be no changes to the day to day operations of government unless we fall into a deflationary situation. This is not to assume one will transpire as Geithner is suggesting today. He is playing politics into the fear to pass the pork bill.

The US government is facing a very serious problem in that our "full faith and credit" is running out of faith by the Chinese. To finance the currently proposed spending, the US will have to borrow or print money (or both). Geithner is running around saying that the Chinese are manipulating their currency. Maybe, maybe not. The US set the stage for that in at Bretton Woods and in 1971 when we went off the gold standard for international settlements. Since then all currencies float free on their relative desirability. We continue to influence that through the IMF and the World Bank. Our dollar is becoming less desirable in the eyes of the Chinese and rightly so. They don't want any more of our debts. They want wealth. We don't have any except our overinflated RE values and our companies. There is a serious deflation risk with both. The Chinese will soon start buying up RE and US stocks if they haven't already.

That is why Geithner wants them to drop the value of the yuan, so that they cannot buy up our wealth and so that our debts to them are paid more easily. If we are unsuccessful at doing that, they will accumulate our wealth (fairly) in the settlement of debt. We are between a rock and a hard place. Even if we are the best customer the Chinese have, we aren't the only one. They can sell to themselves, India and the ROTW.

Spending now in reckless ways puts one more nail in the coffin of the US economy. Increasing our consumer spending when we don't have the productive capability to sell American, let alone buy American as the bill stipulates, will undoubtedly increase our debts to the Chinese and others.

Stop the INSANITY and tell your idiot congressman or senator to stop spending increases of all kinds. They need to work with what they have.

Obama said:
Obama bragged they're putting in over 3000 miles of electrical improvements. So, like one power line from L.A. to New York big deal.

This is more BS. Congress passed a bill and Bush signed it into law in 3/08. This law was to make it easier for large electric companies, i.e. PP&L, the ability to run the large lines across open & private property. I know, it may happen behind my back yard soon.
Obama can take no credit here. It goes to Bush and the last Congress (as bad as they were) Besides, aren't these lines paid for by the PP&L's of the USA or are they in line too for infrastructure money?

Devil505 wrote:Off topic but know why they built it with bent wings?

To keep the prop off the flight deck, it was huge.

coaledsweat wrote:To keep the prop off the flight deck, it was huge.

Another good post mikeandgerry. I read a book awhile back that described all the wealth in the world as a finite thing, which it is. What is wealth? It is commodities and labor. All things can be catagorized as one or the other. We took raw materials, work ethic, motivation, and cheap labor and dominated the world for years. I am afraid the Chinese may have the edge now. We have regulated and socialized ourselves into the same corner many great nations have through out history. Complacency and apathy and the belief that some bunch of nameless wealthy individuals are to blame for our woes will bring us more ruin. We have to get back to making things here to employ all the migrants we take in and give free things to. All of us can't work at Mcdonald's or a 7-11. I know most will say we can't go backwards but we cant go forward if no one works.

Kevin

KLook wrote:Another good post mikeandgerry. I read a book awhile back that described all the wealth in the world as a finite thing, which it is. What is wealth? It is commodities and labor. All things can be catagorized as one or the other. We took raw materials, work ethic, motivation, and cheap labor and dominated the world for years. I am afraid the Chinese may have the edge now. We have regulated and socialized ourselves into the same corner many great nations have through out history. Complacency and apathy and the belief that some bunch of nameless wealthy individuals are to blame for our woes will bring us more ruin. We have to get back to making things here to employ all the migrants we take in and give free things to. All of us can't work at Mcdonald's or a 7-11. I know most will say we can't go backwards but we cant go forward if no one works.

Kevin

I agree. The only obstacle to regaining our former industrial self is the federal government.

The transition is what scares me: People will have to work harder and accept less for quite some time. Investment is applying those commodities and labor to production. Investment takes commitment and time. It took 30-40 years to divest. It will take as long to re-invest.

We need to get back to our roots. Free market economy, less taxes, less government interference, and less social programs. Government interference, IE: the subprime mortgage mess, is the democrats' fault.
We need to cut taxes and cut social programs. You don't work, you don't eat.
If you want to spit out kids you can't feed, that's your problem. I'm sick to death of paying for other people's irresponsible behavior.

From my understanding , alot of that cash is going to help states that are in deep. Calif. is getting like 12 % of that money. What others are getting I don't know , but of 50 theres like 45 hurting. Feds need get their house in order and so do the states. You don't have the money , cut back. Feds waste so much money , their just to big. All the fed emploees and programs. They don't even blink an eye when you talk hundreds of billions. It's not their money and could careless were it comes from , what their doing to this country or how it will be paid back.