How do we get out of this mess?

Wow, how high are gas prices where you live? Only $300,000 a gallon here.

 

Not that high. :

But behind rent, I spend more on gas annually than I do anything else. About 10 years ago, I bought gas for 87 cents. It's tough to swallow that prices could soar that high so quickly, especially when the "cost of living" raise I get from work -- which would have been fine 10 years ago -- doesn't keep pace with the cost of gas, among other things. Like say, groceries, which are going up to compensate for the price of gas spent to get it there.

 

It rolled over again. It's up to $200 million. I'm buying one or two tomorrow...

 

Does George Bush have an economics degree?

Does he?

I didn't think so.

Guess that means we'd better disqualify anything he has to say about the economy, too. Conveniently for those of us possessed of the ability to think independently, ignoring his bloviations has become as second-nature as breathing.

 

Recession? What recession?

Halliburton's hiring!

http://www.halliburton.com/careers/

 

FDR jawboned it, and played for time, until getting the beat-Hitler mechanism into gear bailed us out.

How it's going to happen this time, God knows.

 

Without mentioning Any Names, I can say that this argument is just asking for it.

 

Economists are the sportswriters of money. Analysis of what's already happened, they do fine. Coming up with what should be done, not so well (see Marx, Karl).
Long story short, the U.S. needs to pay back all the money we have borrowed. This will take time. Also pain.

 

henry, i'm not an economist, but these two guys quoted in the wall street journal are:

and

from the ny times story:

now, i'll let the economists determine if there's a recession. but as m_gee pointed out, economists usually don't determine whether there's a recession until the recession is over. regardless, the numbers aren't pretty or encouraging.

 

What do you know about economics? You're degree is in journalism, so stop flapping your mouth about something you know nothing about! Oh, and did you ever play college basketball? Yeah, didn't think so.

On a serious note ... milk dopped 20 cents a gallon here this week! But gas went up 16 cents. Overnight, of course. :'(

 

These sort of downturns are fairly natural and they end up working themselves out. It's painful while it happens, but in a few years, things will get better. Once the housing market reaches the bottom and people start buying property again, that will help out. And the subprime mess will work itself out in a few months.
Fundamentally, the U.S. economy is very strong. Unemployment is extremely low, there's a lot of construction going on and interest rates are about as low as they can get. It's just with all that debt people are carrying right now, and with wages not really going up, some folks are in a bind. There's a lack of confidence in the situation now (this is even happening on Wall Street...W. announces a plan to stimulate the economy and the market dips a little more.) I think getting a new president in 2009 will also help a little bit.

 

time for the new deal part deux