Europe is falling apart---close to bringing the whole world down.

This may be the first thing you've ever written that is unequivocally correct.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong hightop, but I swear the whole point of austerity is to cut public spending not expand the government (although taxes may be part of that).

 

Unless I'm getting trolled, who has that kind of misguided trust?

 

greeks don't make ****. they can never pay off their debt

 

Let me state this very clearly – Greece’s problems were brought about by budget deficits. When their borrowing costs went up, it was game over. They will likely leave the Euro so that they can devalue their currency, and the banking sector in Europe will be in an even deeper crisis. You don't even want to know what happens if Spain gets to a similar spot. Their 10 year bonds are currently yielding over 6% which is already in the danger zone.

Greece's budget deficits were brought about primarily by out-of-control entitlement spending, a union labor force that is not cost/productivity competitive globally, and a lack of political will to balance the budget. Sounds like the Democratic Party platform, huh? These problems plague the United States today (of course we are the global reserve currency, so we have more flexibility – for now at least…until our creditors decide otherwise… read Currency Wars?). Our current administration is dodging the problem. They are acting like cowardly politicians instead of responsible leaders. If this administration does not have the political courage to pass a budget, how can we trust them with the economy? We can’t, and the record deficits speak for themselves. It’s reckless disregard for the future health of our great nation. Obama took his eye of the ball and focused on pent-up liberal social priorities instead of the economy. And now he pays.

It’s not the job of politicians to create jobs – their job is to create a climate that will encourage job growth. High labor costs, high energy costs, regulations that have proven themselves to be failure (cough, Dodd-Frank/JPM), continued threats of higher taxes – all of these policies discourage job growth. Despite the most accommodating monetary policy IN HISTORY for the last three years by the Federal Reserve (0% interest rates and QE1, QE2 and Twist), the economy still is very bad. That is proof that this administration has created a hostile environment for businesses. Business executives are beyond fed up with Obama – they may not voice their concerns publicly, but in private it’s pure hatred for The Amateur (props to you Ed Klein). Pure hatred.

I’ll repeat what I said recently -- Obama's #1 goal during the debt ceiling talks last year was not to restore fiscal order, but rather to defer the problem until after the election. You had Axelrod on MTP leading with this point. Plouffe was doing the same. Now it appears that the government's estimates on deficit spending were understated, and we could breach the debt ceiling in October. (October) Surprise!

 

Strong post.

You're dealing with a set from the left that doesn't understand economic theory or fiscal matters -- you're kind to take the time to educate them.

Nevermind the dangerous second order effects of obama's cowardly solutions to our fiscal issues -- he's driving up the price of food and energy for the most vulnerable Americans -- the lowest wage earners.

 

Let me state this very clearly - FV Santiago suffers from chronic diarrhea squirts.

 

He just **** on a bunch of dems, if that's what you mean....

 

Agree.

Also agree on this. If anyone had spent time in Greece before the **** hit the fan, it wouldn't have been hard to see. Public sector employees were hired and paid well beyond the means of the government, even during good times. I'd probably be making more money as a bus driver a few years ago in Athens than my fledgling little business is doing now. It was great while it lasted


But I wouldn't compare it to the Democratic Party, which is well right of most Europeans, especially Greeks. I don't see it as a failure of one ideology or another. Taxing people high and paying incredible entitlements seems to work fine in rich, no-way-we-want-the-Euro Norway, where there are only 5 million people and lots of oil. I was offered 80k a year to go there and get my PhD. They were going to pay that, for doing research. In literature. Which was cool with me.

It's their society, and they run it they way they want to, and most people there are cool with it. Even if Democrats won every seat in Congress, you'd never see them advocating Scandinavian economics. The US Democratic Party might be socially left of you, and your political rivals, but they are still very much capitalist in orientation, and have no shortage of funding from the banks and insurance companies that want to keep it that way.

Greece was simply bad governance. All those rich northern Europeans who flocked there to retire and invest and eat Mezés and drink ouzo in the tavernas didn't necessarily have to have created a bubble -- it could have fueled a great future, but the government was way too optimistic when the money started rolling in and was definitely too generous in entitlements.

 

My father, and presumably most of Corpus Christi, thinks if Obama gets re-elected the US will see a similar fate.

Now, if you are as conservative as my dad is, you're going to vote Republican anyway, and that's cool, but I think it's irresponsible to let those things by you without a comment. I don't get the whole "Obama is a Maoist" or "Obama is a Mao Mao" thing. It's cool if you don't like him, there's lots of reasons not to.

I'd just prefer the arguments were centered in reality.

To be fair I also wasn't down with the "Bush is a fascist dictator that want to outlaw Phish and make it illegal for white guys to grow dreadlocks", either. I actually heard that once.

 

Let me state this very clearly. Number one, no one is buying the neo-con BS anymore.

It's Romney who is vulnerable on taxing the richest one percent.

It's Romney who is vulnerable on regulating the wall street vampires.

It's Romney who is vulnerable on our never ending wars.

Number two, the GOP blocked any attempt by Obama to improve the economy. They'd rather Americans suffer in a bad economy than do anything which might boost Obama's numbers. The GOP is so rotten they even block legislation which will offer incentives to keep American jobs from being off shored. The GOP doesn't give a damn about American jobs. All they care about is serving the interest of wall street, period.

The problem with Obama is that he's not progressive enough, but hopefully he'll unleash his inner socialist once he's reelected, because a pro growth socialist platform is exactly what America needs.

PS, America has no chance of real economic recovery until we reverse the GOP tax cuts for the rich, and that is an opinion held by a majority of Americans.

 

Tax the rich to pay for more drones, the largest prison population in the world, the war on drugs, never-ending spending and this



You can not tax your way to prosperity.

 

Lol shutup Hightop, what are you doing to stop the drone attacks besides crying on the internets? Kill the socialists! Amirite?