Posted on 09/30/2010 11:57:13 PM PDT by iowamark
As in the 1930s, policy uncertainty and hostility to business have retarded recovery. At least this time around the political price for economic failure promises to be swift.
This may not be your grandfather's Great Depression, but many aspects of today's situation would remind him of the 1930s. If the recession that officially ended a year ago feels uncomfortably surreal to you yet familiar to him, it's probably because the recovery went missing.
During the average recovery since World War II, gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed the pre-recession high five quarters after the recession began. It has never taken longer than seven quarters. Yet today, after 11 quarters, GDP is still below what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007. The economy is growing at only about a third of the rate of previous postwar recoveries from major recessions.
Obama administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have argued that without their policies the economy would be worse, and we might have fallen "off a cliff." While this assertion cannot be tested, we can compare the recent experience of other countries to our own.
The chart nearby compares total 2007 employment levels in the United States, the United Kingdom, the 16 euro zone countries, the G-7 countries and all OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries with those of the second quarter of 2010. There are 4.6% fewer people employed in the U.S. today than at the start of the recession. Euro zone countries have lost 1.7% of their jobs. Total employment in the U.K. is down 0.6%, G-7 average employment is down 2.4%, and OECD employment has fallen 1.9%.
This simple comparison suggests two things. First, that American economic policy has been less effective in increasing employment than the policies of other developed nations...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“This may not be your grandfather’s Great Depression...”
This ain’t my grandfather’s America either.
Permit me to add Patton’s words “We’re fighting the wrong army”.
Amen to that!
The “stimulus” really had NOTHING to do with jobs.
It was all about liquidity for the banks. Period.
It wasn’t supposed to work for us, the little people. Nope. Not. Nada.
Wanna bet?
I agree. Former senator Grammm somehow believes that changing congress will reverse the damage of Obamalism. Isn’t going to happen until we have a complete shakedown of the econonomic system, where the government and the people learn to live within their means.
A real lot of what has happened seems to have been about making sure that most of the upper echelons who lost money or caused the horrific losses were kept rich. Even the stimulus....the big monies aren't trickling down and it isn't about permanent job security that will enhance worker's lives.
Since the takers have been growing historically regardless of the political party in power I've come to believe that the downward spiral of the US economy can only be slowed, but not halted.
Ultimately this must lead to bloodshed in the streets - just as happened in Ecuador yesterday when the police violently opposed 'austerity'.
We'd all better be ready.
...”Isn’t going to happen until we have a complete shakedown of the econonomic system, where the government and the people learn to live within their means”...
YES! Personal responsibility is one of the foundational columns of freedom and living within our means is crucial to our restoration. All of us are way too addicted to entertainment of all kinds, our kids want the latest fad clothing, tennis shoes or whatever and we do not want to wait to earn the money for those things. Going in debt should not be as easy as flashing a credit card unless you truly qualify for one. The road to back to financial sanity will be a long one..
...”Personally I think the difference between this period and the Great Depression is that the ‘takers’ have now come to outnumber the ‘makers’. When this happens expect the takers to vote themselves a bigger and bigger share of the possessions of the ever-decreasing pool of makers.
Since the takers have been growing historically regardless of the political party in power I’ve come to believe that the downward spiral of the US economy can only be slowed, but not halted. Ultimately this must lead to bloodshed in the streets - just as happened in Ecuador yesterday when the police violently opposed ‘austerity’. We’d all better be ready”...
I am afraid you are right..And, counted among those “takers” should be those who work for bloated government. Many of them have jobs which are purely political without any benefit to the people. It is simply a looting of our treasury and we have already scraped the bottom of that barrel. According to Dinesh D’Souza’s new book, Obama’s father believed in 100% taxation by the government. We have to think that Obama may be envisioning that, as well. It will not work in America. Blood in the streets? After the big socialist/communist gathering on the Mall in D.C. this weekend, we may have a better clue as to all that.
It was a social stigma to be in debt then.
I’m only 43 and I remember layaway.
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
A phenomenon commonly referred to as "slavery". A concept that is obviously wholly supported by Obama and the Progressive movement. DemocRats and Republicans alike. One need not look any farther than the policies they have enacted over the past 50 years to see clear evidence of this fact.
I still don’t believe there is any “real growth” in the GDP. For many years the government has been tinkering with the figures to keep from having to raise Social Security by as much as the law requires. This results in understated inflation which results in OVERSTATED GDP.
The general rule is that figures will be adjusted to make things look better for Washington than reality would permit.
GDP is shrinking in the real world.
“We’d all better be ready.”
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Yep, regardless of official numbers or propaganda, when there ain’t no mo’ taters in the bin an’ the hens ain’t layin’ all will learn what every sharecropper knew a hundred years ago...well, they will learn some of it and starve wishing they knew the rest.
Henry Morgenthau summarized the policy failure to the House Ways and Means Committee in April 1939: “Now, gentleman, we have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . and an enormous debt, to boot.”
I was thinking about posting this article - and that chart was the reason.
EPIC FAIL. obummer.
11/2010.
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