Posted on 09/26/2009 12:11:59 AM PDT by underthestreetlite
Hasn’t anyone on this thread bothered to check out the auther?
Author...dang it.
You are discussing luxuries, items and services that exist only due to the ability of civilization to produce beyond the basic human needs (those being food, clothing, and shelter).
You'll have ample time to ponder such things when the communists finish destroying the nation.
With all due respect to your husband, did you read the article, and can you refute any of the points made by the author?
Or do you prefer that ad hominem attacks become a standard substitution for reasoned discussion and debate?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Craig Roberts is an economist who served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of Reaganomics". He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution: An Insider's Account of Policymaking in Washington; Alienation and the Soviet Economy: The Collapse of the Socialist Era and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Law Enforcement Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Have you?
Only long enough to reduce us to slavery, and that set of conditions is drawing ever nearer.
a lie for sure..... don’t participate and go into the grey economy if you can. Not all can of course and if you are reeling in good pay then stay on course
Unfortunately, due to the “free” trade movement of the last 20 years, this nation no longer has the capability to produce its basic needs. Food — environmentalists are destroying the ability of farmers in the central valley of California and other farming regions to produce food. Over 15% of the food we eat is imported today and the share of imports is rising rapidly. Plus many household items associated with the production of food (appliances, utensils, cookware, dishes) are dominated by imports. Finally, we import most of the fossil fuels providing energy to transport and prepare the food we eat.
Clothing — We gave the textile and apparel industry to the Chinese and other Asian countries in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. This nation no longer has the textile manufacturing infrastructure to make the cloth to produce the clothing for its people.
Shelter — While there is currently enough domestically produced shelter in this country’s infrastructure to house its people, imports of building materials have been on the rise. The US runs a significant trade deficit in steel, a critical material for infrastructure projects. Significant imports of Chinese drywall during the recent residential building boom are being tied to illness and rapid deterioration of homes in Florida and other parts of the country. Other building materials used for residential construction are increasingly imported. Finally, the fossil fuels required to transport and assemble buildings are primarily imported.
The fourth necessity of the modern world — transporation, is reliant on imported oil. Today over 50% of US oil consumption is derived from imported oil.
This country is dependent on imports to support basic human needs — food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. The unfortunate consequence of our “free” trade policies is our country moving from self reliance to dependency for the basic needs of its population.
Nice to hear from Paul Craig Roberts again. He has always been a voice of sanity.
... then from dependency to bondage ...
Haven't we seen this sequence posted before?
We're moving toward another World War, except this time we are in the role of the Weimar Republic. The folks that read some history just might get a picture of what is coming our way.
I'm also amazed at how brazenly the MSM is pushing the notion that the real estate market is stabilizing, that prices have hit or are near the bottom and will be heading up soon.
If a Republican was in office, the MSM would be preaching woe with regard to the RE market. Since a Democrat is in office, they're lying to readers/listeners and spraying a lot of perfume on a stinkbomb.
Yes. I labored with quite a few foreign nationals last winter. They said that the USA is becoming an international slave nation like their own countries. The employers are untouchable scofflaws, having taken control of every institution of authority. They rationalize their crimes with their excuse that the world population needs to be reduced to the approximate population count of their favorite period of leadership: the filthy Renaissance.
Good post.
I'd also say that vote fraud has played a big part -- it pains me everytime I read or hear "The majority of Americans were stupid enough to put Obama in office." No, the majority of Americans REJECTED the guy and have rejected liberalism and Liberal politicians for decades. It's why Liberals have to cheat to win. If they didn't cheat, gin the votes, and get judges and legislators to make liberal laws that people would never have voted for left to their own devices, Liberals would never get in office. They have to cheat to win because Americans on the whole reject them. But the MSM has created the illusion that Obama and other Liberals are popular, leading folks to think all those ginned votes are legitimate.
We've been led to believe we're in the minority, when the truth is WE ARE THE MAJORITY.
they morph into a career politician clone as soon as they sip that inside the beltway Koolaid
and this is why term limits must become the law but there is a snowball’s chance of that ever happening!
I only read the first 2 paragraphs but they are basically correct in theory if not entirely fact (1 million homeless children?).
The reason they are printing trillions of dollars is because we have been in a liquidity trap. This means deflation.
It is kind of ironic because for 20 year the Fed has pursued a cheap money policy. Banks could borrow cheap, and over time there was so much money in the system that it drove all kinds of asset bubble including the stock market (1990-2000, 2001-2007), housing bubble (1997-2007), and eventually a commodities bubble (2007-2008). Oil, and all other commodities were driven SKY HIGH by early 2008. $150 oil! This drove producer costs through the roof. However, producers could borrow cheaply, and were able to defer temporarily that inflation and not have to pass much of it on to consumers. They profited from cheap debt and equity financing and by purchasing growth and also because consumers kept buying and buying.
Then the bubbles all burst at once! Houses, commodities, stocks. Producer costs fell, and while consumption dropped no producer could raise prices. They made up some of the lost profits by reducing costs of goods sold. But consumption is much much lower too. And so prices will come down. And they have. Houses, cars, household goods all cheaper. The government has to give you money to entice you to buy cars (cash for clunkers) and homes ($8000 tax credit). This is all because the velocity of money is very low. People are saving more than ever. They are hoarding cash.
Talking heads on TV say inflation is going to get us as a result of all this printing of money. Maybe, eventually, someday. Or not. Right now we are still, imho, in a liquidity trap. They are giving out money, and the more they give the more is hoarded. Sure banks are taking government money, but they are not lending it out very often or very easily. And so the government can print $100 trillion, but, if nobody wants to spend it, it will do nothing to help the economy and won’t cause any inflation at all.
Right now Chinese can take dollars and buy copper mines in Africa. Banks take the money and sit on it (not lend it) to shore up their balance sheets to “balance” their bad loans. Consumers fear that the recovery isn’t a sure bet and they put their money in the bank even at 0 interest. That kind of stuff sops up the liquidity and puts a damper on inflation. The government is trying hard to monetize the national debt (inflate our way out of debt such that the money we own now will be relatively small in the future as inflation erodes the value of money, and thus the value of debts) but it isn’t working if the money doesn’t circulate around.
Very strange circumstances we are in. Possible a sea change in attitudes. And if so, there will be no “recovery” just a dramatic shift in the way Americans view wealth, money, savings and the need for “things”. Sorry if this post seems rudimentary but I wanted to spell it out for those who may not know economics. And I could be wrong - most people think inflation will come roaring very soon. But I don’t. At least not in the near term. I think people want to hold cash for now because, well, we just aren’t that far from the crisis that we forgot how important it is to have ample reserves. DOW 10,000 in just 6 months from DOW 6500? Who are they kidding? That is purely fed driven, targeted “bubble” and watch how fast the average guy takes the profits. DOW 8500 is a very distinct possibility just a few weeks from now.
I’m 52, and there has been a shortage all my life. Even now. Half the people I see ‘working’ are oxygen thieves, at best.
If we lived in the era of small farms, these people would starve and or freeze to death in a year.
Will? Can? 'taint no will or can, it is 'does and do'. They are called Democrats, socialists or just 'government'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.