Bernanke sees economy slowing

Well, good thing the Senate is on the job to make sure we avoid any economic problems...

Glad that * appointed him... :eyes:

Give him credit for that. You should be glad he's not another sycophantic cheerleader like Snow, the former Sec. of the Treasury.

if you tell the truth in the Bush Administration, and the truth is bad news, then you're fired and/or run out of Washington on a rail.

It has happened time and again.

and when the market goes south, so does the GOP. We can't have people wandering around passing out the truth, now, can we?

He appears to like to express his opinion more freely than Greenspan did. I don't think a Fed chief has ever been fired (can he be?) and his term will go well beyond 2008 so he's being smart and being honest. No sense in lying when you don't need to.

He said it was actually a logical choice. Bernanke really does know what he's talking about.

The Marriage Amendment will put a stop to that nasty inflation, and assure continued growth for the economy going forward!

:sarcasm:

over from the Ford administration that we can wear.

For those who are too young to remember, in the Ford administration some genius came up with the idea of WIN buttons (Whip Inflation Now).

As I recall, they didn't work. :silly:

this morning

It is amazing how they only want to report good news, or destroy the messenger

should marriage be between a man and a woman. You know that is all that matters. Who cares if the marriage desolves due to money problems, at least we kkknow that those gays are on their own to begin with. :sarcasm:

and then after Election Day, the rates go UP. Way UP.

Finally admitting this shit are they? It must be 10x worse that I thought.

But Thanks for sharing what most of us have known for YEARS.

Now go start up that copter and drop some worthless monopoly money on the peasants.

Just another day in the new Third World States Of America.

no one will be working or spending.

:eyes: And if you believe THAT I've some lovely ocean-front property in Idaho to sell you. ;) There are so many people out of work right now, people who've just given up trying to find a decent job, not to mention the under-employed, that the REAL unemployment numbers would send the market into a death spiral. Oh, and the inflation numbers aren't really that bad (excluding, of course, food and energy, two of the biggest expenditures for the American family) so what's everyone making all the fuss about? :sarcasm:

The economy is balanced on a razor's edge for most Americans at the moment and they know it. Consumer confidence is WAY down (except for the rich, of course) but even they are getting a little worried. A 3.1% average return on investment in the market isn't going to keep the Beluga Caviar and Veuve Clicquot flowing in the manner to which they're accustomed so something's going to have to change, and FAST! If the rich start hurting.......well, the whole thing slides down the tubes then! ;)

say it was growing? :shrug:

1987 is coming. Again.

In our race for the bottom...

the world $9 trillion in 1929. We're in hock up to our eyeballs. What happens when the rest of the world forecloses?

for the bondholders. I can't tell if you're kidding or if you have no idea how it works.

It's much better to owe someone $9 trillion than to be owed by $9 trillion. When you owe somebody money, and they have no way to take it from you, you hold all the cards.

China is on the verge of economic eruption. It's energy demand is set to skyrocket. It has 2 major competitors for the worlds energy resources: the USA and Europe.

Now, when China finds itself in competition for energy resources, and it realizes that, through our indebtedness, it can strangle the very ability of the worlds #1 energy consumer to be economically viable, do you think it will hesitate for even a microsecond? I don't.

China can trip us right out of contention, buy us for pennies, and then rebuild us as their feifdom 50 years from now when renewables hit their stride.

Without this China could not sustain its 8%+ annual growth - and this growth is necessary to accommodate the millions moving from the countryside into urban areas who expect jobs.

I don't trust the Chinese leadership all that much, but I trust them to do what is in their own best interest. They will keep buying US t-bills and Americans will keep buying low-cost, high quality Chinese goods.

And the US gov't can run up a $9 trillion debt and default and no one can do anything about it? No repercussions? Deficits really don't matter?

I'm not being too glib here. I would really be interested in understanding how US debt works.

The $4+ Trillion in SS savings is used as an offset to us Debt. we are actually in about 13 trillion in Debt. Now, Congress can invalidate that class of bonds, or "IOU"s since they defeated Bu$hitCo's grab at it.

Some have said our debt ois over $53 Trillion, but that is future debt w/o considerations for offsets, like taxes collected, as far as I can see. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-03-debt-cover_x.htm

Regardless, in essence, what we are seeing is the largest transfer of wealth to those who sit on their ass (the uber-Rich and wealthy) from those who actually create wealth (Labor). Keep in mind, only Labor can actually create wealth (Adam Smith). Capital, properly managed along with mechanization and organization, can magnify the effects of Labor's efforts, but it still takes labor. Everything else not contributing to the creation of wealth via labor is a wealth extraction/transfer mechanism. (E.G. Bank loans, Stocks, etc.).

A very good and clear writeup is here: http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/capitalism_economy.htm

what little I know. And I am not a happy camper over what they've done in Washington over the last almost 100 years. And the more I learn, the less I like it.

When you owe the bank a $1000, that's YOUR problem.

When you owe the bank a $1,000,000, that's THEIR problem!!!

:party: :party: :wtf:

:rofl:

wait a minute? we had growth? where? when?

If you were one of god's chosen rich people, you'd see LOTS of growth!

But it's not for people like you. Go get rich; then you'll see.

(That was irony, kids. I was being staristic.)

The short term strategy of Bush's rendition of Reaganomics is rearing it's ugly head. It creates a hollow economy, one that profits only the upper echelons and cannot support sustained growth. 12 freaking years with Reagan and Bush 1 proved that. Soundly. Yet here we are again.

This was a sputtering economy at best, and that only if you used blinders to keep you from looking at rocketing energy costs, food prices, fast dwindling average income, insurance and savings rates, and the denuding of the middle class economic engine.

This economy is on the verge of whipstalling, and these economic pundits say this: "The anticipated moderation of economic growth seems now to be under way."

Masters of understatement.

ever since he got in office.

Realtors, mortgage brokers, appraisers, construction workers.

In short, 40% of the job growth under Bush. And, take note, they represent a great deal of the Republican base, so there will be convulsive efforts at first to stop the hemorrhaging.

Bushland is also the huge number of shaky mortgages in exurbia. Mired in debt and holding exotic mortgages they can't afford, these are the people for whom the housing bubble has been a gigantic Alice-in-Wonderland teat. Take it away, and...

...options are scarce. Emergency socialism, as usual, or a draft, as usual. The former requires sane government, of which we have none. Happily for our sociopathic leaders, the draftable youth have been wearing their fingers to the bone on Xboxes practicing "democratizing" dead foreigners; they'll be ready.

Watch the housing collapse, in progress, here: http://thehousingbubbleblog.com

over the last 5 years.

Finance has such antiseptic terms, and "flight to quality" means the same
as rats leaving a sinking ship. As the dollar devalues internationally,
by 1/5th over the next time, it will probably inflate at least that much
internally. You don't devalue a currency like that without causing investors
to seek quality. Then money seeks to find fungible proxies for "cash" which
traditionally have been gold, commodities... and yes, "housing".

If the dollar inflates to 1:1 yen parity, a house is still a house. So
investors are taking an plunging investment capital in to housing stock, and
this speculator behaviour is driving up housing costs, exacerbating the
inflationary pressures.

And all the while the printing presses are primed to do a weimar.

to go another training class...

that when the Fed Chairman makes an observation completely in line with the economic consensus, the NASDAQ drops 2% in a matter of hours.

Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back was on Al Franken today. He says corporate and shareholder profits and CEO salaries/compensation are at an all-time high, and workers' earnings are at the lowest in decades. Workers are squeezed from all directions, including higher health care premiums (if they have them). It ain't a slump if you're on the receiving end of corporate America!

I wouldn't be surprised if the economy takes a dump, at any moment.

If by transition, you mean collapse to third world shithole, then he may be on target!!