Posted on 01/19/2008 5:16:07 PM PST by Libloather
Will the check be in the mail?
Last Edited: Saturday, 19 Jan 2008, 1:47 PM EST
TAMPA - Cash can be like a jolt of caffeine to a national economy. In 2001, the federal government sent every income taxpayer a $300 rebate check. It ran up our debt, but also helped end our last recession.
Now President Bush and Congressional leaders want to try it again. This time they may send every income taxpayer a larger check. Economists say that could stimulate our economy again if recipients spend much of their rebates on products.
"Letting American people keep more of their own money should increase consumer spending," said President Bush. That could potentially pull us out of the credit and mortgage mess that's hurting the entire U.S. economy. For this to work, federal leaders need to act soon.
"A stimulus must be timely—if it comes too late, it can interfere with a recovery," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
President Bush also wants tax credits for small businesses that could entice them to expand and hire. Congress may also increase unemployment benefits, and increase food stamp allotments.
On the downside, big rebates can drive up debt and inflation over the long run, which takes money out of our pockets. But our government is focused on a temporary stimulus, to address the problems we have today.
Yes purposeful fiction at that. It’s not only US investors have taken notice and few really know how this will also multiply of economic woes.
It’s a great time for foreign invstors to buy lots of our hard assets and direct equity (and a time for them to be dumping our super de-valued paper. (which they are also doing). Their is no place in the short-term to avoid a Wall Street cash, it will keep going down bit by painful bit until it reaches the tipping point.
Zero global investor confidence in the US financial system (no accountability at the top, only ponzi-style greed) is what is going to ultimately be the biggest catalyst of the coming U.S. economic collapse. Government overspending on overseas wars (whether necessary or not) and unfunded entitlement programs will be remembered as another big factor.
To attempt to stop this, you must first restore investor confidence. That means fixing the problem by holding those accountable, showing all numbers (even if they are super ugly) and then hiring the best minds in the market with known integrity to step up.
Now, I believe this won’t happen because some of those responsible are in the US government at the top. Too many of THESE people and like ilks are now in charge of attempting to fix the problem. Will they hold themselves accountable and admit they caused the problem? Ummm of course not. So it is likely we will all be feeling the pain and by the time we are screaming for blood these people will be long gone. So what do we all do? We beging to prepare for a short-term collapse and then those with some brains, balls and integrity will take over.
I agree, suspending the gas tax would help also. In general, any decrease in taxes and letting the consumer decide how to spend their money is always infinitely better then letting government beaurocrats decide how to spend it.
This is GWB’s attempt to elect a Republican in 2008, nothing more.
This is an INSULT to thinking people. He may as well have said:
“We’re going to hand you a check for $800 for each member or your family. You are going to feel rich. Maybe you’ll be stupid enough to go out and spend it. Maybe you’ll pay off some debt, but what you don’t realize is that we just handed your own money back to you and YOU SIMPLE B@$T@RD$ are THANKFUL! Is this a great country or what? You are not going to realize that we just devalued every other dollar you’ve managed to save. You are going to think the Republican President “felt your pain” and responded. I love manipulating the stupid masses with meaningless symbolic gestures. Hey, now I understand why the masses keep electing Democrats. The Democrats are master manipulators, we here at Republican Headquarters are just a little slow on the uptake, but we’re catching on and are intent on making up for time lost while we were pandering to the limited-government conservatives who think the Constitution means something. Pfft. What simpletons we were. But trust us, we’re going to make up for lost time now. Hells bells. If this is good for the economy, we should do this monthly!”
God save us from idiotic gestures like this.
The problem is that we are trying to redo the wallpaper and it is the foundations that are crumbling. We have enormous structural problems based on the fact that everyone has been willing to take our paper in exchange for financing the "American way of life" which is not actually very American. As a consequence, we have a social / legal / regulatory system that is out of control and saps the life-blood out of whatever productivity is left. We have a financial system that profits the "elite" by sucking profits out of industry and to spend on private luxuries for corporate insiders rather than reinvesting in the means of production. (and the capital to fund this was created not through private savings, but through the creation of credit through a banking system in which the federal reserve has been all to complicit in expanding credit).
As near as I can see, the government has two effective choices to make. Choice 1 is just to hold tight and let the defaults and deflation happen. This is the fastest way to make the strucutural changes, but a lot of folks will suffer very deeply.
Choice 2 is to inflate the hell out of the economy to trivialize the impact of the debt that we have accumulated. The problem is that a government of financial elites will not like this tactic either, because in order to work you have to enrich the many debtors at the expense of the few creditors by inflating salaries and transfer payments while keeping interest rates substantially below the rate of inflation. At the same time you have to stop the expansion of credit through other means, and that will be hard. It will require folks to start living withing their means as we liquidate debt through monetization.
Either way it will not be easy, but $800 per person is only a couple of days interest on the national indebtedness.
The government giving people money...
...sounds a lot like the Roman Empire giving people bread and circuses.
How much longer until our government starts giving everyone a daily stipend? For an economic ‘boost’, of course.
(And can anyone remember what happened to Rome?)
At the corporate level, profits might be spent in the US. However, if the employees that receive a salary from that company for producing those products are not in the US, then that portion of the money spent on that product does not stimulate our economy one bit. A much smaller percentage for a product will be spent in our country when the product is produced elsewhere.
1.1 miles? That’s roughly a 20 minute walk.
(honestly, it is - if you walk at 3 miles/hour)
:-P
$800...???..cool now I can buy 400 signs that say “Dump McCain” the liberal plant
In 2006, "the Government paid the public around $237 billion of interest on this debt"
$120 billion in "stimulus" would be about 6 months of interest on the public debt.
Now you're talking my language. :-)
It's probably a good time to buy. November could bring a gun grabber into office.
Bullshit. At best, only half the equation.
Give Glenn a call. Perhaps he will double book you with his government expert to debunk his comments.
Thanks for the info.
Sure. But at that pace, you are a sweaty mess when you arrive at work. That's not a good way to start a 10 hour shift in what should be a freshly laundered uniform. There's also the matter of when the shift occurs. My wife had to cover for a sick co-worker two days last week. Her shift started at 3 AM and the weather was +3 F with high winds and snow. Not a great situation for walking. If economic situations or gasoline shortages became a factor, the short distance would be traversed on foot or bicycle...conditions permitting. The officers run bicycle patrols in shorts from June to August. It's great biking weather.
We have a 60% chance of snow today, tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow night the ambient temperature will drop to zero with wind chills at -6 to -11. Tuesday night warms all the way up to +3 F. Heat wave!
So if they do hand out $800 per individual and the money is taxable (how silly is that?), then the smart move might be to add $800 to your 401k, if you’re not full up for they year. Wouldn’t that make the $800 non-taxable for this year?
Yeah, and from either party..............
Maybe
IIRC, last time we rec’d the entire amount, no withholding.
Take a look at www.jsmineset.com and read the last two or three posts. Heavyduty crap coming down. Sorry about problems at your job. Protect yourself and your family as best you can. It is going to get very ugly.
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