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9 Reasons This Recession Will Be Good
U.S.News & World Report via yahoo ^ | Friday December 26, 1:59 pm ET | Rick Newman

Posted on 12/30/2008 5:29:13 PM PST by BenLurkin

...

There will be plenty of pain in 2009, as employers cut more jobs, the unemployment rate rises toward 8 percent or higher, and shellshocked consumers curtail spending even more. But beneath the dismal headlines will be some hopeful trends. Here are some of them:

1) More saving. If you haven't heard by now, the savings rate in America is alarmingly low - barely above zero. ...

For once, anxious Americans appear to be putting more of their paycheck in the bank. ...

2) Smarter spending. Most middle-class Americans could find ways to cut their spending by 10 percent without downgrading their lifestyles all that much. That kind of cutback would be a disaster for stores, but it ultimately benefits consumers because frugal spending forces retailers to offer the best possible products and add as much value as possible.

...

3) Great buying opportunities. Nearly everything is cheaper than it was a year or two ago - electronics, gasoline, cars, homes, and especially stocks. That's no excuse for impulse shopping. But it's a great chance to buy things you might need eventually, like a new computer server for your business, or a minivan for your family. Talk about "deflation" might leave the impression that we can now take low prices for granted. Don't count on it.

...

(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: editorial
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To: bronxboy

Warren Buffet is a democrat and an opportunist, what do you expect him to say? FDR didn’t pull us out of the depression, WWII put people to work and pulled us out.


21 posted on 12/30/2008 6:20:24 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: bronxboy

FDR made things worse. Almost every analysis says FDR added years to the depression. Plowing crops under, adding taxes, price controls. FDR took a depression the country was slowly climbing out and made it deeper longer and a bigger disaster.

As for Buffet’s idea, that’s the stupidest possible thing we could do. We’re already devaluing the dollar with stimulus bailouts. There’s only two things the government can do that actually help during a recession:
lower taxes
go on vacation

Everything else, every single thing, that government does to try to help makes things worse. They’re always either diverting money to unproductive sectors (like say failing auto companies) or devaluing the dollar.


22 posted on 12/30/2008 6:24:51 PM PST by dilvish
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To: BenLurkin

One benefit. The Enemy has had a major economic prop kicked out from under. This downturn is not (yet, at least) actually all that painful for us. It seems to be a real blow to the Moslem world and to Russia. China is not in very good shape now, either.


23 posted on 12/30/2008 6:41:19 PM PST by arthurus ( H.L. Mencken said, "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.")
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To: dilvish

We were not climbing out of the depression when FDR took office. He did some good. By the time FDR arrived, it was too late to do more than try to keep people going during the worst of it. I sincerely hope this is not the case now.


24 posted on 12/30/2008 7:31:00 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: Arizona Carolyn

I don’t know what his politics are, but the guy is a genius. If Buffet says we need stimulus then we need stimulus. They don’t call him the oracle from Omaha for nothing.


25 posted on 12/30/2008 7:32:38 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: dilvish

See when you suggest that the Auto industry should be allowed to fail, you lose me. I work for GM first of all, but even if I didn’t I can see the disaster that would follow allowing 3-5 million jobs go away. There is a reason why the market goes up every time there is good news for the Autos...it was manufacturing that got us out of the depression.


26 posted on 12/30/2008 7:34:30 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: bolobaby

I watch Fox News everyday! I also watch the Fox financial channel. However, Bloomberg is very good too.


27 posted on 12/30/2008 7:35:51 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: bronxboy

We were climbing out. He did no good. He did harm. FDR deepened and lengthened the depression. His “keeping people going” destroyed key building blocks the economy needed. FDR was hands down the worst thing that’s ever happened to this country, he was an incompetent boob with class envy problems that made it so we had to fight the largest war in the history of mankind to fix our economy.


28 posted on 12/30/2008 7:36:25 PM PST by dilvish
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To: dilvish

I don’t agree with you. I have studied the depression also-I believe FDR saved this country from revolution of some sort by keeping people going even if he was a Democrat.


29 posted on 12/30/2008 7:37:58 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: bronxboy

It’s not up for agreement. It’s a matter of simple fact. FDR lengthened the depression by at least 5 years. That is a simple fact, “believe” what you chose but your belief is 100% at odds with plain historical fact. By spiking corporate tax rates he killed corporate growth and job growth. By plowing crops under he destroyed the agricultural business. His programs made a bad situation much much worse. Those are FACTS, not beliefs.


30 posted on 12/30/2008 7:40:34 PM PST by dilvish
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To: bronxboy
~LOL~ Sorry to rain on your parade, but if Buffet wants stimulus it is for one reason only -- HE will benefit from it. He got rich buying companies from people who had to sell and then building them up. Trump may have written the Art of the Deal, but IMHO this applies much more to Buffet than Trump, Trump likes the perks of his wealth, Buffet lives a very simple life and it is investing and making lots and lots of money that drives him, not the perks that come from earning all that money.

This is the kind of market that made him very rich in the first place and he will be even richer when all is said and done. Obama's policies will make him richer and the taxes won't make a dent in him and others like him; it will hurt the small businesses in this country that employ a whole lot of Americans.

31 posted on 12/30/2008 7:41:37 PM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: bronxboy

Here, do some reading:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/FDR-s-Policies-Prolonged-Depression-5409.aspx
http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=258
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/3643
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/rbartley/?id=110004190


32 posted on 12/30/2008 7:43:28 PM PST by dilvish
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To: bronxboy

Poorly run businesses should be allowed to fail. The jobs really would go away, GM and Chrysler have plenty of market demand they just aren’t capable of meeting it profitably. Other companies, smarter companies, would take over that demand and in the process would hire a significant percentage of the workers. Ford would be the biggest winners because they’d no longer be splitting the “buy American” market with two other companies. And of course there are other smaller auto companies in America that would have a chance to grow.

People make the mistake of thinking companies that have been around a long time are supposed to be permanent. Nothing is permanent. The Detroit 3 were generally not the first car companies that existed in this country, and certainly weren’t the only ones for most of their career. They’re the ones that survived, many auto companies have gone under before, they were the three that rose to dominance. But now they’ve been grossly miss run for decades, GM can’t make money even shipping more autos than any other company on the planet. If they can’t fix themselves it’s time for them to go.

Sucks that you work for one of the losers but it happens. I’ve had two companies go out from under me in my life. You’ll get another job.


33 posted on 12/30/2008 7:49:12 PM PST by dilvish
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To: dilvish

Robert Lucas was the Father of Supply side economics. Of Course,he was against the Keynesian policies of FDR. I am not convinced that supply side works. It includes a policy of free trade in a world where other countries erect trade barriers. I believe such policies have killed our manufacturers and basically bankrupted this nation.


34 posted on 12/30/2008 7:53:41 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: dilvish

Foreign transplants should not receive one dime of state money from Southern states especially since the Southern states are subsidized by federal taxpayers in Northern states in the first place. As for GM, I predict GM will survive. GMAC got bank status today and will be making loans to those with FICO scores from 610-The Wall Street bankers have done enough damage without destroying the last manufacturer of any size left in this country.


35 posted on 12/30/2008 7:57:53 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: dilvish

Also, it America no longer has an Auto Industry, you lose too as does the entire country. It would be a very dark day for this country. Every civilized country in the world has an auto industry...all are bailing out their autos. Only in American do we destroy our own companies and risk becoming a pathetic, dependent nation that can’t even make the things it needs to survive...clothing,electronics, auto’s and more importantly weapons.


36 posted on 12/30/2008 8:00:40 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: bronxboy

There’s more than just Robert Lucas in there.

FDR ran into the same problem that Carter ran into and the current Dems are at least talking like they’re aiming for: he tried to tax us to wealth. Taxes are a drag on the economy. Any time you increase taxes you will put a drag on the economy. FDR increased. He dragged on the economy. He took money for the government that otherwise would have been profits used to increase the size of companies, which means new jobs.

Then of course there’s his production control. Pure Soviet style foolishness guaranteed to fail.

He screwed things up. Any time any president does things like he did the economy slows. It flies in the face of history to say that when FDR did these things they had the reverse effect they’ve had for every other president.


37 posted on 12/30/2008 8:01:50 PM PST by dilvish
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Well if a stimulus will benefit Buffet then it will probably benefit this country as well.


38 posted on 12/30/2008 8:01:56 PM PST by bronxboy
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To: bronxboy

Who said anything about anybody receiving any money from the state?!

GM is only surviving because of my tax dollars which were given to them against my wishes and which they did not earn. Left to their own devices, which is how it should have been, they were going down.


39 posted on 12/30/2008 8:03:51 PM PST by dilvish
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To: dilvish

I understand what you are saying, but I have to wonder if tax decreases for the wealthy really does anything right now. They seem to be investing in foreign countries and not this country. When Reagan called for tax cuts, people were still pro-American. This global business changes everything.


40 posted on 12/30/2008 8:04:36 PM PST by bronxboy
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