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Re: We're Number......LAST
The economy meanwhile happens at the margins. People are spending more, but not quite enough more for businesses to go on some hiring binge. Job losses have declined and what's called household deleveraging has advanced, but not quite enough to prompt consumers to go on some spending spree. We're close, but nobody is likely to feel at ease as long as the Republicans insist on promoting one freaking hostage-taking showdown after another. The relative prosperity of the late 1990's resulted in part from Republicans "getting" the message of the 1996 elections and abandoning at least the economic side of their Clinton hatred. That's a lesson that today's haters need to absorb as well. Especially if they intend their party to have an actual future.
We could certainly do that. We could also eliminate all taxes and borrow all the money we need. After all, taxes and borrowing both take money out of the private sector and then put it right back in again. What's the big deal?If all that growing debt really doesn't matter, why pay taxes at all? Why not just print more money as needed?
Even at 10% unemployment, 90% of the workforce is employed, most at the same jobs they've had for a while. That's the thing about unemployment -- unlike inflation, it's very unevenly distributed and experienced across the economy. Large numbers are barely affected by it at all. And of course, you can't count the numbers of people who are not at the mall. You think it's crowded today without thinking how much more crowded it might have been if the economy were booming.Now, back to the gloomy economic news vs crowded shopping malls, what is your take on that? Are people spending money that they don't have, or is the economy really better than we've been led to believe?
The economy meanwhile happens at the margins. People are spending more, but not quite enough more for businesses to go on some hiring binge. Job losses have declined and what's called household deleveraging has advanced, but not quite enough to prompt consumers to go on some spending spree. We're close, but nobody is likely to feel at ease as long as the Republicans insist on promoting one freaking hostage-taking showdown after another. The relative prosperity of the late 1990's resulted in part from Republicans "getting" the message of the 1996 elections and abandoning at least the economic side of their Clinton hatred. That's a lesson that today's haters need to absorb as well. Especially if they intend their party to have an actual future.