You Better Pray The Great Stagnation Is Not The Great Depression

thing IS back in the 30's, people actually had to WORK for their benefits and ALL OF the US WAS BETTER off for it. The TVA which provided electricity to the rural poor in a VERY depress area, the Hoover Dam which supplied water AND electricity out west, roads were built and infrastructure developed. Money was NOT just passed out among the extraordinarily rich (Wall Street) nor handed over to the underclass without WORK. My own family history for that era...Immigrants from Europe (grandparents on both sides) took NOTHING from the "government"...BIG families too. One side had a small farm AND my grandfather work on projects like public buildings as a mason. The other side, my grandfather was ill with a disabling bone disease, so my grandmother worked. When my dad was 14 he went to sea on a freighter so he could live for free and send his pay home. His brother, my uncle when he turned 14 a few years later went to TN to work at a CC camp. His pay all went home to his family except for $5 a month he was allowed to keep. Two IMMIGRANT families made it thru the depression WITH NO GVT AID, now Americans born and raised here want handouts, both the filthy rich and the generational welfare folks.
We need to realize, NO ONE deserves a 100 million dollar salary, and no one is entitled to money/goods/housing/food without WORK. It just isn't working.
Figure it out...the MIDDLE CLASS is the backbone of any society. They BUY from those who are very rich, enriching them further, they are TAXED to supply the underclass, and the GOVERNMENT is the middle man, collecting money to grease it's wheels.
When the middle class runs out of money, it will come to a grinding halt..Make no mistake, the GOVERNMENT IS SPENDING YOUR MONEY... that figure in the trillions represents the GOVERNMENTS ability to MAKE YOU PAY, and make you pay that bill is just what they will do.

Many people had good jobs throughout the depression. Those were the ones who said it really wasn't all that bad. Of course the unemployed had a very very different view. Sorta like today.

This is not rocket science. (1) Cut the failed Departments like Education, Energy and the EPA by 90% so that there are only small teams to manage important issues (like atomic energy regulation) - that saves just over $1 trillion over ten years. Cut every other federal department by a minimum of 10% - that's another $700 billion from the DoD alone. Cut all Congressional staff by 50% - that saves money upfront and saves a lot in the future since they won't have as many staffers to draft bills - so many of which just spend money we don't have or add bureaucracy that costs everyone money.

No compromise! Just stop the profligate spending!

Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.

feels like a depression to me .has for a long time

lol This is the second great depression!!!!!!

The "sensationalized" media is at it again. Ya know, through ALL of this mess, nobody seems to have really done any "Root Cause Analysis".....that is, finding out the True Cause of all this economic strife and disaster. So, I did my own Root Cause Analysis.....

I won't burden you with the process or the details, but the Crux of the Whole Problem is GREED, compounded with Mismanagement on a Grand Scale. Figure it out for yourself, and you will see it Perfectly....

Deregulation allowed the Wall Street and Big Bank shysters to run wild. They bought off anybody they needed in the "government" in order to get their way (more money at the expense of the Common Citizen), and with only millionaires in positions of authority, Reality for the situation is not even in the picture for any of them. The motto for these low-life scabs is "I've Got Mine and Up Yours!"

They don't need to worry about whether they can afford the day-to-day costs of managing a household, gasoline, food, utilities, vehicle operational costs, mortgage payments, or anything else - like the rest of us One-Feather Indians in this Tribe. They just continue to line their own pockets and play the game of "who can get the most digits in their bank account balance".....

Oh, they are quick to point out that we have "choices"....we can Vote Them Out! Well, La-Dee-DAH.....!!! And what purpose does THAT serve? All we have to choose from to replace them is the next batch of perfectly-coiffed, tie-wearing, double-talking, self-serving millionaires who don't give a happy damm for anyone but themselves, either.....

So, it is Never-Ending.....or so it would seem. They think they "Got It Made".....but so many millions of others who struggle daily to put food on the dining room table and meet the payments on a home that is no longer worth anything are beginning to have other ideas....

And someday, somebody out here in the "masses" is going to SNAP and all heII will break loose.....Be Ready, America.....!!!

So much talk of crisis. The whole deal in congress now is about reducing the overspending on a ten year basis from 15 trillion to maybe 11 trillion. We will continue to overspend like a drunken sailor.

Those of you that say Obama should put a shovel in our hands to make us work(the laid off, unemployed, disabled?) wold love to have a shovel in our hands. I for one have spent many a day at work shoveling and am not afraid of hard work-something that many in Washington know nothing about. What most people fail to realize or don't care to, is that, unless you are going to pay a good wage I will still qualify for food stamps and medicaid. Or I will be out in the street because I cannot afford to buy food, pay the electric, and rent on minimum wage. If I need to travel for work, I need gas for the car(on top of the insurance and registration which Florida loves to raise) and yes I do have an old used car-and no delusions of getting a new one. And yes, I do have all of my taxes taken out of my checks.

Mr. Lenzner is out of his mind. Nobody, individuals, businesses, cities, counties, states, or a nation can borrow money to pay it's bills in perpituity - Nobody! A recent stat on these pages said that $2 out of every $10 in personal spending comes directly from the government. Pain is coming. Congress can cut decide which expenses and handouts to cut now, or within a few years China and their allies will decide for us. Either way this will not end well as too many Americans are wholly dependent on Washington D.C. handouts and don't know any other way of life. We started down this road with the 16th amendment (Income tax and the Fed), followed by FDR, LBJ, and alot of squishy politicians from both parties

I have been in a "depression" for a very long time. I have watched millions of jobs leave our country, watched home values drop like a rock, watched retirement account values drop too. All of this at the hands of a corrupt government and both of these parties have done more than their part. But the worst thing is that my neighbors continue to vote for these parties eventhough they suffer as much as I do...

It's not a one trick pony and you have to understand the CFR has its own agenda when they come out with this bull roar. Sure you have to cut the budget, but you also have to cut the throats of the 2B2Fail Banksters, get rid of the current private central bank, but back to a 'Classic Gold Standard', NOT the Phony Gold Standard the world was in that crashed and burned in 1931 dragging down trade like the crashing dollar threatens to do today.
First off, there was no 'balanced budget' movement in 1931-1932, nor in 1937. That's a like, but Yahoo prints it like its the truth. Everything crashed because the equivilant of Quantitative Easing didn't work, the same as it doesn't today, because it was 1) directed at bailing out the ruling rich, and 2) because it tied up capital via a government planning and was not efficiently utilized.
What the world and America needed in the 1930's was a Revolution. We got it, but it was FDR's 'New (s)Deal'. America all ready has that, so the Revolution we're getting this time is the real deal, but Revolutions are very dangerous, and if your going to have one, you'd better be prepared. Prepared with a plan to front run it before it occurs because its a process that has all ready started. Get ready for the New American Revolution my friends, because its on its way.

According to the quarterly "flow of funds" reports, the only thing keeping the U.S. GDP growing is federal debt increases. Once this is reigned in, we will see a negative GDP number. That will be the official start of the Depression whether it is a "Great" one or just a mini--nobody knows. It doesn't have to be the end game. The U.S. has experienced numerous depressions. It's not the end of the world.

So we are going to have a balanced budget?? Price controls played a greater part in the depression. No mention of that.

jk

jk

Forbes are Keynesians too !

Forbes' usual rant is Reagan supply-side hooey - where you cut taxes on billionaires, who then create jobs for all. (For all living in Mexico, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc - thats the fine print.)

Advocating for deficit spending to grease the wheels of the economy went out of fashion among millionaires decades ago. There has been an historic trade-off between (monetary/fiscal) policies that control inflation, and those that promote employment. Deficit spending tends to cause inflation, but also creates jobs.

Millionaires prefer to control inflation - because inflation (and currency flux) makes it harder to manage an investment portfolio. The poor and middle class - to the extent that they understand what's in their own interest (a rarity) - prefer to maximize employment, and should be glad for deficit spending.

Thus for Forbes to come out in a pro-labor, anti-millionaire position underscores just how wacky-coconuty-bonkers the GOP has become.

Keynes is dead - long live Keynes.

Tea Partiers and Republicans are traitors working for their own power and interests. They will sink this economy like a stone and then blame it on Obama. Are you all blind?!

Yep, that's what we want to do. Save Wall Street again. Let's just take more from Main street to save the morality-deprived bankers. Funny how they argue that to get out of debt, we should go into more debt.

I create my OWN economy. Identify what I do well. Find people who need what I do. Create a win / win situation. Do a good job. I don't eat caviar and drive a Cadillac. Works for ME!

Fiscal contraction in a recession is pro-cyclical. But the analyses I've seen indicate that increasing government spending has a smaller boost effect than does cutting taxes; roughly x2.5 vs x3 ratio on spending to GDP growth. There is a possible exception for infrastructure development (roads, dams) that itself encourages further economic development.

Where are all the big-mouthed Republicans that thought squandering a TRILLION DOLLARS in Iraq was such a darn good idea? Talk about hurting the country! Traitors...