Alan Sloan, Editr Fortune Mag. Leaves Repub Party

[Gayle in MD]

<span style="color: #990000"> And other information about the Great Bush Recession, as well, including how simple things should be, and aren't due to political obstructionism, and overall economic ignorance on the part of our country's representatives.</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> American Idiots: How Washington is destroying the economy
By Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large August 18, 2011: 5:00 AM ET
What's ailing us? It's not just unemployment. It's not just Europe's debt woes. And, no, it's not Wall Street this time. It's the takeover of the economic debate by fanatics who are up to no good. Fix that -- and maybe you fix the economy.

FORTUNE -- What the hell is going on?





Standard & Poor's, the bond-rating agency, downgrades the U.S., and the world trembles. The markets here go nuts on the first trading day after the downgrade, losing $1 trillion in value. European Union finance chiefs are playing Whac-a-Mole with members' debt problems. And England … England was literally burning.

Only three short years ago we were all terrified when our financial system was on the brink of disaster after Lehman Brothers went broke in September of 2008. Those scary times seemed to have disappeared in the spring of 2009. But now those fears are back -- and things are even scarier, the stock market's "green" days notwithstanding.



</div></div>


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The root of our current problem is that there are no grownups in positions of serious power in Washington. I've never felt this way before -- and I've written business stories for more than 40 years, and about national finances for more than 20. Look, I certainly don't worship Washington institutions. I called former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan the "Wizard of Oz" when he was known as the "Maestro." I've said for more than a decade that the Social Security trust fund had no economic value and would be useless when the system's cash flow turned negative -- which I also predicted. But despite being an irreverent professional skeptic, I never felt there was a total absence of adult supervision in our nation's capital. Now I do.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>I spent July on family leave, not writing columns, and watching with increasing horror as market-illiterate know-nothings, abetted by the craven leaders of the Republican Party (from which I'm about to resign) and the unspeakable ineptness of Obama and his minions, brought our country to within an inch of defaulting on its debts.</span>


<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>I'd really like to know what he thinks President Obama could have done to prevent the Repiglicans who hold the majority in the house, and their completely Repiglican creation, of threatening to block raising the debt limit? </span> </span>

</div></div>




<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'> If I sound angry, it's because I am. Think of me as an angry moderate who's finally fed up with the lunacy and incompetence of our alleged national leaders -- and with people stirring up trouble from which they hope to benefit politically or financially. Some policies and statements you hear from Tea Party types about the economy and the debt markets are utterly insane. Any competent economics instructor would give you an F if you asserted the same sort of nonsense on an exam.

</span> </div></div>

<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>Well, I can surely agree with that statement. We were recovering, until they scared the public about the Health Care Act, and lied their asses off about it, as they continued to spread falsehoods about President Obama's citizenship, and exploited the racist in our country, who want to take the country BACK, BACK to the days of discrimination, back to the days of alley abortions, back to the days of submissive women, who thought they should give up their rights, and not even be able to vote, or expect any opportunity to advance in the business world. </span> </span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now that I've finished venting , let me make one more attempt to be reasonable -- and show how relatively easy it would be to solve our problems while allowing both the Tea Party and the left wing to claim victory and go home. This requires (1) that we survive the 2012 election cycle (boy, that's going to be a blast) and (2) that the winners recognize that our current federal income tax rules and rates, Social Security benefit formula, and Medicare provisions are historical and political accidents rather than holy writ handed down to Moses by the Lord on Mount Sinai.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>We need more jobs, more growth, and more tax revenue.</span> Note that I said more revenue, not higher rates. There are lots of proposals kicking around that would cut rates, eliminate the alternative minimum tax, and broaden the tax base by drastically reducing itemized deductions. Only about a third of taxpayers, primarily higher-income types, itemize deductions, so only they would be affected. Do this right, and you end up with more tax revenue from high-income people (which allows the "tax the rich" types to be happy) but lower rates (which lets the Tea Party folks claim victory). Making the system fairer should be doable.


<span style="color: #990000">Should be, but won't be doable, as long as Repiglicans hold the majority in The House. </span>

On the entitlement front, we modify Social Security and Medicare formulas, imposing higher costs on higher-end retirees (which would include me, should I ever retire). What's in it for the right-wing fanatics? Those programs' projected costs drop. For liberal wingnuts? They can claim victory because people are living longer than when these programs were introduced and will collect more benefits over their lifetime than originally intended.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Yes, rationality is out of style, and fanaticism is the new normal. But do we really want a national life like the one we've had the past few years? All shrieking and no thinking? Today's problems are horrible, but what are they compared to the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II? Enough screaming. As for me, I'm going back to the beach to finish my vacation.</span>This article is from the September 5, 2011 issue of Fortune.
</div></div>


http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/18/how-washington-is-destroying-the-economy/


<span style="color: #990000">I'm going back to the beach, as well. Stopping by here is always a waste of time. We have too many here who prove, painfully that...."rationality is out of style, and fanaticism is the new normal."

G.</span>

[Gayle in MD]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Op-Ed Columnist
The Mistake of 2010
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: June 2, 2011
Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a blog post about the “mistake of 1937,” the premature fiscal and monetary pullback that aborted an ongoing economic recovery and prolonged the Great Depression. As Gauti Eggertsson, the post’s author (with whom I have done research) points out, economic conditions today — with output growing, some prices rising, but unemployment still very high — bear a strong resemblance to those in 1936-37. So are modern policy makers going to make the same mistake?


Mr. Eggertsson says no, that economists now know better. But I disagree. In fact, in important ways we have already repeated the mistake of 1937. Call it the mistake of 2010: a “pivot” away from jobs to other concerns, whose wrongheadedness has been highlighted by recent economic data.

To be sure, things could be worse — and there’s a strong chance that they will, indeed, get worse.

Back when the original 2009 Obama stimulus was enacted, some of us warned that it was both too small and too short-lived. In particular, the effects of the stimulus would start fading out in 2010 — and given the fact that financial crises are usually followed by prolonged slumps, it was unlikely that the economy would have a vigorous self-sustaining recovery under way by then.

By the beginning of 2010, it was already obvious that these concerns had been justified. Yet somehow an overwhelming consensus emerged among policy makers and pundits that nothing more should be done to create jobs, that, on the contrary, there should be a turn toward fiscal austerity.

This consensus was fed by scare stories about an imminent loss of market confidence in U.S. debt. Every uptick in interest rates was interpreted as a sign that the “bond vigilantes” were on the attack, and this interpretation was often reported as a fact, not as a dubious hypothesis.

For example, in March 2010, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Debt Fears Send Rates Up,” reporting that long-term U.S. interest rates had risen and asserting — without offering any evidence — that this rise, to about 3.9 percent, reflected concerns about the budget deficit. In reality, it probably reflected several months of decent jobs numbers, which temporarily raised optimism about recovery.

But never mind. Somehow it became conventional wisdom that the deficit, not unemployment, was Public Enemy No. 1 — a conventional wisdom both reflected in and reinforced by a dramatic shift in news coverage away from unemployment and toward deficit concerns. Job creation effectively dropped off the agenda.

So, here we are, in the middle of 2011. How are things going?

Well, the bond vigilantes continue to exist only in the deficit hawks’ imagination. Long-term interest rates have fluctuated with optimism or pessimism about the economy; a recent spate of bad news has sent them down to about 3 percent, not far from historic lows.

And the news has, indeed, been bad. As the stimulus has faded out, so have hopes of strong economic recovery. Yes, there has been some job creation — but at a pace barely keeping up with population growth. The percentage of American adults with jobs, which plunged between 2007 and 2009, has barely budged since then. And the latest numbers suggest that even this modest, inadequate job growth is sputtering out.

So, as I said, we have already repeated a version of the mistake of 1937, withdrawing fiscal support much too early and perpetuating high unemployment.

Yet worse things may soon happen.

On the fiscal side, Republicans are demanding immediate spending cuts as the price of raising the debt limit and avoiding a U.S. default. If this blackmail succeeds, it will put a further drag on an already weak economy.


<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>How right you were, sir, and that is exactly what Repiglicans created. </span> </span>

Meanwhile, a loud chorus is demanding that the Fed and its counterparts abroad raise interest rates to head off an alleged inflationary threat. As the New York Fed article points out, the rise in consumer price inflation over the past few months — which is already showing signs of tailing off — reflected temporary factors, and underlying inflation remains low. And smart economists like Mr. Eggerstsson understand this. But the European Central Bank is already raising rates, and the Fed is under pressure to do the same. Further attempts to help the economy expand seem out of the question.


<span style="color: #990000"><span style='font-size: 14pt'>Yes, they were out of the question under the REpiglican majority, whose ONLY goal was to destroy President Obama.

I suppose it was just too much for the mostly white Repiglican party, to be so exposed for their incompetence by a half black American man, so fr above their pay scale in intelligence, and so handily able to make the tough decisions which finally led to the killing of the worlds most wanted terrorist, a feat which completely escaped George Bush, whose incompetence annd deceit is legendary!</span> </span>

So the mistake of 2010 may yet be followed by an even bigger mistake. Even if that doesn’t happen, however, the fact is that the policy response to the crisis was and remains vastly inadequate.

Those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it; we did, and we are. What we’re experiencing may not be a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s little consolation for the millions of American families suffering from a slump that just goes on and on.





</div></div>


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/opinion/03krugman.html?ref=opinion



<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>As with all of Mr. Krugman's articles, his on-going brilliance and correct predictions and assertions, this one proved true, as well.

But then, Repiglicans have also managed to besmirch and degrade those who posses high Intelligence, and who ourshine Repiglican predecessors, with their excellent performance, such as President Obama's Nobel Prize, which really galled the right, given the pisspoor performance of their chimp.

Krugman, as well, is bashed by the right, in spitge of his excellent accuracy in predicting what will destroy us, if we do not adhere to policies that make sense, rather than buying into the Fear Mongering of the RW Radical Repiglican Tea Party.

Krugman, who holds many honors, including the most dignified and honored prize available to a journalist, or economist, pointed out long ago, exactly how and why Repiglicans would destroy the recovery.

Yes, sadly, since they have none, Repiglicans have managed to besmirch intellectual supremacy, offering instead, to their ignorant sheep, claims of God Speaking Personally to their con artist Contenders for political office, the members of and the pawns of the rich.

The Grand Oil party.

The Evolution Deniers.

The Climate Change Deniers.

The Fear Mongering liars, who lied this country into an illegal war, to benefit profiteering by their cronies.

They are treasonists to a fault, annd have destroyed the essence of American Exceptionalism, along with the American Dream.

G.</span> </span>

[LWW]

Not that you would actually understand what he was telling you ... but that was a persuasive condemnation of leftist politics.

[cushioncrawler]

A lot of Sloan's stuff i agree with, and Krugman's.
The Nobel Prize iz (are) dignifyd and honourable.
But Krugman's Nobel Memorial Prize for Krappynomix certainly iznt.
mac.

[LWW]

I read it again.

Charlotte would like us to believe that he left the (R) party to join the democrooks ... but he sounds much more like a tea partier than anything.

His analysis is pretty much spot on with mine, and is a scathing indictment of the democrook's and Obama's stupidonomic policies ... and theRINO's unwillingness to stand firm against it.

[Gayle in MD]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gayle in MD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="color: #990000"> And other information about the Great Bush Recession, as well, including how simple things should be, and aren't due to political obstructionism, and overall economic ignorance on the part of our country's representatives.</span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> American Idiots: How Washington is destroying the economy
By Allan Sloan, senior editor-at-large August 18, 2011: 5:00 AM ET
What's ailing us? It's not just unemployment. It's not just Europe's debt woes. And, no, it's not Wall Street this time. It's the takeover of the economic debate by fanatics who are up to no good. Fix that -- and maybe you fix the economy.

FORTUNE -- What the hell is going on?





Standard & Poor's, the bond-rating agency, downgrades the U.S., and the world trembles. The markets here go nuts on the first trading day after the downgrade, losing $1 trillion in value. European Union finance chiefs are playing Whac-a-Mole with members' debt problems. And England … England was literally burning.

Only three short years ago we were all terrified when our financial system was on the brink of disaster after Lehman Brothers went broke in September of 2008. Those scary times seemed to have disappeared in the spring of 2009. But now those fears are back -- and things are even scarier, the stock market's "green" days notwithstanding.



</div></div>


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> The root of our current problem is that there are no grownups in positions of serious power in Washington. I've never felt this way before -- and I've written business stories for more than 40 years, and about national finances for more than 20. Look, I certainly don't worship Washington institutions. I called former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan the "Wizard of Oz" when he was known as the "Maestro." I've said for more than a decade that the Social Security trust fund had no economic value and would be useless when the system's cash flow turned negative -- which I also predicted. But despite being an irreverent professional skeptic, I never felt there was a total absence of adult supervision in our nation's capital. Now I do.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>I spent July on family leave, not writing columns, and watching with increasing horror as market-illiterate know-nothings, abetted by the craven leaders of the Republican Party (from which I'm about to resign) and the unspeakable ineptness of Obama and his minions, brought our country to within an inch of defaulting on its debts.</span>


<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>I'd really like to know what he thinks President Obama could have done to prevent the Repiglicans who hold the majority in the house, and their completely Repiglican creation, of threatening to block raising the debt limit? </span> </span>

</div></div>




<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'> If I sound angry, it's because I am. Think of me as an angry moderate who's finally fed up with the lunacy and incompetence of our alleged national leaders -- and with people stirring up trouble from which they hope to benefit politically or financially. Some policies and statements you hear from Tea Party types about the economy and the debt markets are utterly insane. Any competent economics instructor would give you an F if you asserted the same sort of nonsense on an exam.

</span> </div></div>

<span style="color: #990000"> <span style='font-size: 14pt'>Well, I can surely agree with that statement. We were recovering, until they scared the public about the Health Care Act, and lied their asses off about it, as they continued to spread falsehoods about President Obama's citizenship, and exploited the racist in our country, who want to take the country BACK, BACK to the days of discrimination, back to the days of alley abortions, back to the days of submissive women, who thought they should give up their rights, and not even be able to vote, or expect any opportunity to advance in the business world. </span> </span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now that I've finished venting , let me make one more attempt to be reasonable -- and show how relatively easy it would be to solve our problems while allowing both the Tea Party and the left wing to claim victory and go home. This requires (1) that we survive the 2012 election cycle (boy, that's going to be a blast) and (2) that the winners recognize that our current federal income tax rules and rates, Social Security benefit formula, and Medicare provisions are historical and political accidents rather than holy writ handed down to Moses by the Lord on Mount Sinai.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>We need more jobs, more growth, and more tax revenue.</span> Note that I said more revenue, not higher rates. There are lots of proposals kicking around that would cut rates, eliminate the alternative minimum tax, and broaden the tax base by drastically reducing itemized deductions. Only about a third of taxpayers, primarily higher-income types, itemize deductions, so only they would be affected. Do this right, and you end up with more tax revenue from high-income people (which allows the "tax the rich" types to be happy) but lower rates (which lets the Tea Party folks claim victory). Making the system fairer should be doable.


<span style="color: #990000">Should be, but won't be doable, as long as Repiglicans hold the majority in The House. </span>

On the entitlement front, we modify Social Security and Medicare formulas, imposing higher costs on higher-end retirees (which would include me, should I ever retire). What's in it for the right-wing fanatics? Those programs' projected costs drop. For liberal wingnuts? They can claim victory because people are living longer than when these programs were introduced and will collect more benefits over their lifetime than originally intended.

<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Yes, rationality is out of style, and fanaticism is the new normal. But do we really want a national life like the one we've had the past few years? All shrieking and no thinking? Today's problems are horrible, but what are they compared to the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II? Enough screaming. As for me, I'm going back to the beach to finish my vacation.</span>This article is from the September 5, 2011 issue of Fortune.
</div></div>


http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/08/18/how-washington-is-destroying-the-economy/


<span style="color: #990000">I'm going back to the beach, as well. Stopping by here is always a waste of time. We have too many here who prove, painfully that...."rationality is out of style, and fanaticism is the new normal."

G.</span> </div></div>



<span style='font-size: 20pt'>We must destroy Repiglican Fascism before it's too late! </span>