Its all in your head, the economy is fine, stop worrying. Sound familiar? And what’s with the smiling at inappropriate moments?




  1. bobbo says:

    #30–Damn. Once again I fell for it. Giving bullshit neo-con rayguns the benefit of the doubt, but all you did was poop and run.

    Sad really—not that you think that way, because such a position is not the product of thinking, but that you win elections that way from the very people you take advantage of with those talking points.

    Now, take the pointy hat and robes off, and give response #29 a thoughtful response. I almost quibbled with it==surely openings exist to show the correctness of your dogma? Might even strengthen your arguments, which shouldn’t be hard to do given where you are starting from.

  2. Neocon liberal says:

    Damn, I just stepped in a pile of bobbo! Watch it! Here comes another.

  3. bobbo says:

    LOOKOUT for the bobbo!!!!!!

    Good one!

  4. RBG says:

    25 JimD. Now I understand why the Democrats wanted McCain to run as their Presidential candidate. (Or was it because Democrat VP candidate Joe Lieberman is backing McCain 4 Prez?)

    RBG

  5. MikeN says:

    #10, I don’t see how slowing down an economy would benefit the economy. Why don’t I come break your windows. It’ll create jobs for window repair. Or maybe I’ll break your legs so you can develop your bionic running.

  6. bobbo says:

    #35–Mike==how do you get “slowing down” from what was posted. You’ll have to explain that to me. Please use small words.

  7. Raster says:

    Wow! All these problems are psychological!

    High medical costs, housing foreclosures, government debt – they’re only problems because we *think* they are.

    It’s great that somebody has the “straight talk” to tell us the Bush presidency has only been an illusion!

    Thank you St. McCain!

  8. the answer says:

    all the reason not to vote for him

  9. MikeN says:

    Economic growth is driven by access to cheap energy. Taxing such energy drives up the cost, thus putting a damper on the economy.

  10. bobbo says:

    #39–Mike, Mike, Mike. “Dogma.”

    Lets turn to the dictionary, or as I like to call it, “OFTLO’s Nemesis”:

    Dogma: a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds.

    I won’t be infinitely recursive here, but lets look at what is economic growth? Is that an end in itself, or only one of many factors?

    Pollution controls also hamper economic growth (IN THE SHORT TERM)–ie, cheap energy is good while it lasts but then what?===as in, why not spew mercury or lead into the air because its good for economic growth?====because in the long term society is better off not to be sick all the time.

    Same with energy derived from Muslim Fanatics. Good for the short term, bad for the long term.

    And I’m sure we would both agree that the free market should be used whenever possible??? To that end, increase the cost of an economic opiate that we don’t need and that will stimulate other areas of the economy enabling a brighter future for us all.

    Now Mike, are you for a brighter future, or one filled with short term economic pollution?

  11. bafh says:

    I love how liberal arts majors become experts in economics when its suits them.

    1. Rising medical costs – Unless you are planning on getting rid of all the lawyers, you are NEVER going to stop spiraling health care costs. The increase in costs in the medical care profession have 99.8% to do with litigation costs.

    2. We are not in a housing foreclosure crisis. It is a correction. Mortgage companies overextended themselves on low quality debt and now they have to pay the piper. Yes, it affects many other areas but that is expected. The bottom line is the companies will take write-downs but will actually foreclose on very few homes. The last thing your mortgage broker wants is your home. Especially in a time when property values are decreasing. They will take even bigger losses if they actually foreclose.

    As much as it pains me to say it, McCain is right. It is completely psychological. If you believe there is a crisis, you cut back to save for a rainy day. You cause a decrease in retail sales, and more importantly, you hang on to the car or home for a year or two more than you otherwise would. You cause a decrease in demand in the supply chain. As they say, the sh*t begins to flow upstream. The “economic boom” of the Clinton presidency was all fairytale. It was all make believe. It didn’t exist. It was just perception. We believed the economy was great because the stock market was booming. The fact of the matter is that in the 2 years following the Clinton presidency, over 65% of the Companies in Dow Jones S&P 500 had to restate their earnings for their previous 5 – 10 years by at least 50% per company. Stock values were inflated because they lied about their income. We wanted to believe it so we looked the other way. What was until the Enron house of card collapsed. Enron knew it was coming, they were just trying to keep all the balls in the air as long as possible. The mortgage companies are now suffering the same fate. Just not to the same extent. It is all completely psychological. If you want to believe things are fine, they are. If you want to believe the end is near, you can always find a political party or network news station that will take up your cause.

  12. MikeN says:

    bobbo, pollution controls didn’t boost the economy, they reduced pollution.

    You don’t develop cheaper goods by eliminating the competition. Banning/restricting other forms of energy would indeed create an incentive to produce cleaner fuels, but it doesn’t make them cheap. The best way to do that is to increase the amount of competition.

    It may be that this is a worthwhile measure anyway, but it is foolish to think that this will boost the economy as people with an agenda try to claim to help sell a program of adding hundreds of billions of dollars in costs per year(according to the scientific global warming models).


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