The good news is, with the state of the economy, no new coal power plants will be built. The bad news is, no new anything will be built. So basically, what you see now is what you get.
Posted by Tim at November 22, 2008 06:40 AMI thought this appropriate:
Nina Simone, "Mississippi Goddamn"
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"do it slow"
Desegregation
"do it slow"
Mass participation
"do it slow"
Reunification
"do it slow"
Do things gradually
"do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know
With firm control of both houses and a global-warming “can do” administration occupying the White House, expect the economy to get less attention from our domestic brain trust than “fixing” the faux problem of global warming.
As a consequence, expect the economy to get worse, unless you are one of those who subscribe to the notion that heavy regulations, oppressive government mandates and increased costs and taxes on energy will some how stimulate the economy.
Link.
Posted by Muck at November 22, 2008 08:32 AMPhoenix has been breaking records for the past 2 weeks. Probably just a coincidence.
Posted by TIKI AL at November 22, 2008 08:57 AMIt was better when the chattering scum (see muck-fuck).were absent..shorter muck:how to waste bandwidth...
Posted by headxray at November 22, 2008 10:35 AM...expect the economy to get worse, unless you are one of those who subscribe to the notion that heavy regulations, oppressive government mandates and increased costs and taxes on energy will some how stimulate the economy.
I subscribe to it. The last 8 years compared to other times in our history shows that regulations and mandates can not only grow the economy, they make the United States a better place for the majority of people who live here.
What did the end to known financial regulation and the promotion of capitalism as social programs for the wealthy and big businesses get us? How are healthcare costs? How is college tuition? How is the cost of energy? How is job growth? How are your property taxes? What shape are your roads in? How is the cost of your food? How is your stock-dominated retirement?
The last 8 years made the wealthy a little wealthier then sucked at least 50% of their wealth away in the blink of an eye, not to even begin to account for the value of the dollar dropping 40%.
You see, people like you get played. You are easy, and you have no idea what you've really lost. I have a feeling your ancestors would look at you and consider you a waste of their genetic material. At least you have that Asian skank porn to while away your time.
Amazing how people like you consider your financial prowess and screwy morals as somehow superior. It's very telling.
Posted by phidipides at November 22, 2008 11:45 AMPerhaps you missed the push for regulation in the housing industry by Bush that was rejected by Congress, in the name of getting folks who could not afford a home, into a home? That was in 2003. With the bold my add, here's Congressman Barney Frank in September 2003:
I want to begin by saying that I am glad to consider the legislation, but I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis. That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury.
I must say we have an interesting example of self-fulfilling prophecy. Some of the critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say that the problem is that the Federal Government is obligated to bail out people who might lose money in connection with them. I do not believe that we have any such obligation. And as I said, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy by some people.
So let me make it clear, I am a strong supporter of the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in housing, but nobody who invests in them should come looking to me for a nickel--nor anybody else in the Federal Government. And if investors take some comfort and want to lend them a little money and less interest rates, because they like this set of affiliations, good, because housing will benefit. But there is no guarantee, there is no explicit guarantee, there is no implicit guarantee, there is no wink-and-nod guarantee. Invest, and you are on your own.
Now, we have got a system that I think has worked very well to help housing. The high cost of housing is one of the great social bombs of this country. I would rank it second to the inadequacy of our health delivery system as a problem that afflicts many, many Americans. We have gotten recent reports about the difficulty here.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a very useful role in helping make housing more affordable, both in general through leveraging the mortgage market, and in particular, they have a mission that this Congress has given them in return for some of the arrangements which are of some benefit to them to focus on affordable housing, and that is what I am concerned about here. I believe that we, as the Federal Government, have probably done too little rather than too much to push them to meet the goals of affordable housing and to set reasonable goals. I worry frankly that there is a tension here.
The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disastrous scenarios. And even if there were a problem, the Federal Government doesn't bail them out. But the more pressure there is there, then the less I think we see in terms of affordable housing.
Barney sounds pretty silly in hindsight.
Posted by Muck at November 22, 2008 12:18 PMmuck, You know all this started with deregulation and abolishing the Glass-Steagall Act. Who was that economic wizard? Right, "Americans are a Bunch of Whiners" Phil Gramm.
Then Greenspan says before congress, (paraphrase) "The fomula was sound, I don't know what went wrong!" Well nobody figures in the human factor... greed, graft and corruption.
The GOP lives by those rules.
Only Peter Schiff was warning people as far back as August 2006 of the troubles ahead. Most people thought he was nuts... instead he was prescient.
Posted by Seven of Six at November 22, 2008 12:36 PMAbolishing the Glass-Steagall Act was part of it, thank you Phil Gramm and Bill Clinton.
But the bottom line was making loans to people who had no means to pay the money back. Remove that from the equation, and there was no real estate mania and subsequent fallout.
Posted by Muck at November 22, 2008 02:08 PMBut the bottom line was making loans to people who had no means to pay the money back.
Wait, isn't their a whole industry for that? People who's job it is to make sure people can repay their loans?
D'oh! Someone didn't do their job but blame the consumer? Who's fault is it again? The one being offered and getting the loan... or the idiot that lends that money when there is no guarantee that the loan will get paid back?
I say it the one who didn't do their homework.
muck, How many people did you know who were flipping houses (and not just one house at a time?) with no money down and taking a risk?
Thousands of us had risky credit, no money down and got fixed rates. We also knew... don't blow this opportunity.
It was only when Greenspan said to buy with ARM's that it got stupid.
And all this crap about selling the paper as if the money already existed... not once, but over and over again. Someone should be in jail over that!
Don't blame the consumer... if people are offered something cheap... most people will believe the seller and think they are getting a great deal... not that they can never repay.
I say don't make unrealistic offers that will jeopardize the real estate industry in the long run.
Posted by Seven of Six at November 22, 2008 03:41 PMEveryone was out to make a buck. From the banks to the mortgage brokers to the consumers who said they made $20,000 a month to qualifiy for the loan.
Greed runs wild in manias.
Never one person to blame. Bubbles take a collective effort.
Posted by Muck at November 22, 2008 05:26 PMThe only "mania" arund here is Mr waste of bandwidth..muck-fuck...begone scum..
Posted by headxray at November 22, 2008 09:32 PMLet the amusement continue...
Who did President-elect Obama send to the recent G20 economic talks as his representatives? Some former Rep. Jim Leach was one. I seem to remember Rep. Leach, you know he spoke at the Denver's DNC that Monday night, had something to do with Sen. Gramm on several money matters that President Clinton signed into law. Funny how Gramm gets the labeling but not the House component in Leach. I guess his being associated with the winner clears his past voting records. All is forgiven now that he's spoken at the DNC!
Posted by peter at November 22, 2008 10:34 PM