Posted on 04/14/2008 1:02:48 PM PDT by NYC Republican
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Monday that he believes the country is in a recession, adding that “these are very, very tough times in America.”
“Americans are hurting today,” McCain said at an Associated Press forum in Washington, D.C. “They’re hurting in the towns and cities across America. They’re sitting around the kitchen table, saying, ‘Are we going to be able to make our home loan mortgage payments? Are we going to be able to -- do I have to try to get a second job? Can I keep my job? Why was I laid off?’”
While McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he thinks the country is in a recession, he noted that he is more worried about helping people who are facing “enormous challenges,” rather than figuring out what the technical definition of a recession is.
The senator indicated that both Congress and President Bush are partly responsible for the situation, but argued that others are also playing a role.
“I think that there’s plenty of that blame to go around, including very greedy people that happen to be in Wall Street today ... like the CEO of Bear Stearns who decided the day before he was bailed out by the federal government to cash in millions of dollar's worth of stock,” he stated, adding that there needs to be “a lot more accountability” on Wall Street.
You’re the moron stating that as being factual
W pushed for the dividends tax cut. He has always been against a capital gains tax cut. That was put in the tax bill by Bill Thomas.
This is one of the main factors that has caused the economy to perform strongly.
A capital gains tax cut is the only type of tax cut that has been proved to pay for itself, which makes W look bad always be against it.
Incidentally, anyone truly interested in understanding the recent maladroit efforts of the Federal Reserve should read this: HERE.
“Inflation is in check”
Too bad you haven’t visited a grocery or service station in the last three months otherwise you would not be making this totally ridiculous statement.
I have... and the fact that fuel prices have risen so much means other items have dropped slightly... Inflation is, by any historical measures, low... Do your fact-checking, and stop your knee-jerk reactions, just cause you hear the 30-second MSM soundbites talking down the economy.
The inflation rate is 4.12% annually... Not exactly catestrophic... It’s a damn decent rate.
“You’re the dolt if you don’t even know the definition of a recession... Idiot”
Bob Brinker? Actually you are mistaken regarding the definition of a recession.
The NBER determines US recessions, and their definition isn’t the “two quarters of decline” that often gets repeated.
http://www.nber.org/cycles.html
“The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. For more information, see the latest announcement on how the NBER’s Business Cycle Dating Committee chooses turning points in the Economy and its latest memo, dated 07/17/03.
http://www.nber.org/cycles/recessions.html
Q: The financial press often states the definition of a recession as two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. How does that relate to the NBER’s recession dating procedure?
A:: Most of the recessions identified by our procedures do consist of two or more quarters of declining real GDP, but not all of them. According to current data for 2001, the present recession falls into the general pattern, with three consecutive quarters of decline. Our procedure differs from the two-quarter rule in a number of ways. First, we consider the depth as well as the duration of the decline in economic activity. Recall that our definition includes the phrase, “a significant decline in economic activity.” Second, we use a broader array of indicators than just real GDP. One reason for this is that the GDP data are subject to considerable revision. Third, we use monthly indicators to arrive at a monthly chronology.
Anybody that believes government statistics over what they actually experience in the real world needs their head examined.
Got a link to prove that?
President Bush has always pushed for tax cuts.
Yes, but not the right kind of tax cuts or for the right reasons. He's always pushed the demand side of the economy, and done tax cuts for political reasons. That's why we're getting another round of tax rebates, which will do nothing medium or long term for the economy.
It's sad to see so many threads on FR about food shortages and high prices. There's even a long thread about growing your own food. It's obvious that something is wrong, but does W think about rolling back his ghastly ethanol program? No. Instead he wants to send $200 million in food aid to non-Americans. There's another thread about him coming up with a global warming initiative within days. Sad, very sad, especially for a Republican president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/15retail.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
“Retailing Chains Caught in a Wave of Bankruptcies”
Seems the big boyz can’t get it done either. This kind of downturn will change the face of strip malls and malls across this country, but hey let’s all be happy and dumb and not see what is really going on. What kind of message will this all be sending. People oughta wake up and smell the coffee, some coffee, any coffee.
inflation?
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap//inflation_squeeze.html?.v=4
“Food Costs Rising at Fast Clip, Squeezing Poor, Forcing Food Vendors to Explain Higher Prices”
The rose colored political spin glasses aren’t working anymore.
It's obvious that something is wrong
No, actually...it's obvious that many are buying the Dems' typical election year strategies.
Are bubbles popping? Yes, corrections are underway...but when we haven't yet had a quarter of negative growth, I think many are over-reacting in knee-jerk fashion.
Because it takes work and I'm too busy growing my own food that I can afford under the Bush economy.
Here's an excerpt from a pretty good article describing the battle of the 2003 tax cuts and Bill Thomas's role, and how W had opposed capital gains cuts for years:
Where he actually went was a place where House conservatives, unsuccessfully, had tried to push the president: the supply-side standby of lower capital gains rates. Rep. David Dreier of California, the powerful House Rules Committee chairman, in early January introduced a modified tax cut. "I love it," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told me. Joining the capital gains cabal was none other than Bill Thomas.The whole article is worth reading and can be found here.Thomas tried to explain to the White House that so many more taxpayers were touched by capital gains than dividends that it will be much easier to sell. No success. Thomas got the same blank stares from the administration that Dreier had been receiving from Bush economic advisers going back to the 2000 campaign.
Are bubbles popping? Yes, corrections are underway...but when we haven't yet had a quarter of negative growth, I think many are over-reacting in knee-jerk fashion.
A recession is arbitrarily defined by the NBER, and they won't tell us until months after the fact that we had one. There is neutral evidence that the economy has stopped growing, and that is just as bad in an election year. Cheerleading Republicans can continue in denial and pretend that W is a good economic president, but you're setting yourself up for a slaughter this November.
At least McCain got that part right, and it's significant that he's willing to criticize W.
That is the technical macroeconomic definition and is based on government numbers, which are unreliable propaganda statistics in my opinion. In a broader sense, there clearly is a economic slowdown, due to the bear market, real estate mess, Fed cutting rates like crazy, rising unemployment, falling earnings and reduced consumer discretionary spending dollars.
There's the actual definition and then there's your opinion. I'll stick with the actual definition.
"a broader sense, there clearly is a economic slowdown, due to the bear market, real estate mess, Fed cutting rates like crazy, rising unemployment, falling earnings and reduced consumer discretionary spending dollars."
Here in Texas and especially in Houston we have extremely low unemployment (3.9% in Houston) and the housing market is appreciating. I guess if you average in a state like Michigan that would bring us down, but were just fine in Texas.
When there are two quarters of negative GDP growth, the USA will be in a recession, until then the economy has simply slowed down.
He spent every penny of it. And more.
Congress does the spending.
No. You’re not getting away with that. The President signs every spending bill. If the President had used his recently recovered veto pen to take a stand for fiscally prudent government, and had those vetos overridden by Congress, then you’d have a case. But, alas, he didn’t, so you don’t get to pin this mess solely on Congress.
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