Rolling US Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

ever *have a hunch* you shouldn't press play?

It's on YouTube, how bad can it be?

offensive - but not in a NSFW kind of way...

i'm just saying i can always do without gothy fishnets

It's on YouTube, how bad can it be?

Lord Jesus, help me resist this temptation

It's on the buffet table, go ahead and take some!

The salad bar has a sneeze guard, what are you worried about?

Long, interesting article on the hollowing out of the US middle class:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/can-the-middle-class-be-saved/8600/?single_page=true

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/13/business/financial-aftershocks-with-precedent-in-history.html

this is a good article, why the hell is it internet-only?

warren buffet says TAX US

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

yay warren

It appears that Buffet actually gives a damn about the future well-being of the USA, not just about the size of the fortune he can amass.

at one point, Buffett actually had Obama's ear (which is more than can be said about Krugman, alas). if Obama is still taking Buffett's calls, maybe some real good can come out of this.

haha

eh buffet's always seemed like a good guy - he's teaming up with bill gates to give away all his money iirc

Might I suggest he donate it to the UN?

he could toss all of us ILXors a few shekels and still have plenty for whatever do-gooder outfits he fancies.

I read that as literal do-gooder outfit.

Like, a uniform.

http://www.costumesofnashua.com/CNWebSite105/Active905/Pages/CostumeRental/MilitaryUniform/Pics%20Military/MilitaR90985SA.jpg

Buffett 2012

Never will happen. The profile for billionaire prez candidates runs more along the lines of Perot or Trump type egocentrics. Buffett is just too even-tempered to be tempted.

no, Morbius, no.

http://sharkysoceanisle.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/50255_2211687417_315_n.jpg

getting all riled up reading this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51jSX6nyxKL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

am i crazy for thinking marxist/anarchist thought and praxis is way less crazy than anything else out there right now?

whatever that means. it's a good book imo, at least so far.

i can't believe they [ain't] takin warren's wealth

Fox News (the gift that keeps on giving) on Mr. Buffett:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201108150031

Can't believe how hard this story about an unemployed dad abandoning his 11-year-old is hitting me.

"There are no jobs for architects..."

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/128464413.html

that is depressing but that guy, assuming he is an architect, probably could have found work somewhere in the country; he sounds like he has some other very serious mental health issues going on.

Oh yeah, totally. It's not strictly economy-related, it's being a single caregiver, unemployed, home repossessed. Sending the son to the neighbor is the craziest part; he's either so depressed he's not thinking clearly -- or he's a complete asshole.

Morro Bay and Carmel? I note this guy is ending up in some reasonably high-flying areas.

he's either so depressed he's not thinking clearly -- or he's a complete asshole

i had typed a nearly identical post, so i'll just say otm

posted a link to dean baker's free (!) new book 'the end of loser liberalism: making markets progressive' already on the rolling US politics thread, and here's a repost

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/books/the-end-of-loser-liberalism?utm_source=CEPR+feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cepr+%28CEPR%29

since it's fundamentally an economics polemic about things like hiking inflation from 2% to 4%, weakening the dollar to boost exports (and job growth) and instituting more euro-style work sharing programs. since he called the housing bubble way back in 2002, he has credibility to burn. it reads like an econ 101 textbook/greatest hits of all the bad policy decisions by the federal reserve since the republican revolution of '94, without sparing democratic sins, either. a nice refresher for fans of our sweet and steady financial slide and a decent primer for anyone curious about why congress is arguing about deficits like a bunch of dumbshits instead of stimulating us back to decent employment rates. and it's free (!)

and it's free (!)

liberal academic elites don't know shit about making money

Maybe they have bigger fish to fry.

those goddamn hippies wouldn't fry a fish

Heed the old wise saying: Give a man a fish and he will have a raw fish. Teach a man to fry a fish and he will eat some fried fish.

Jimmy Buffet for Corpse

lately I been thinkin - I think I got it sorted - too much technology and iLife is making there not be the need to make products anymore like newspapers and batteries that arent rechargable and working from home - thats why the economy is in the badgerbox!

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/05/the-fallacy-behind-tax-holidays/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html

The recession continued to push Americans to double up in households with friends and relatives, especially those ages 25 to 34, a group that experienced a 25 percent increase in the period between 2007, when the recession began, and 2011. Of that group, 45.3 percent were living below the poverty line, when their parents’ incomes were not taken into account.

“We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless.”

According to Republican talking points, some of these folks are deliberately staying poor to avoid paying income taxes.

So Bank of America is getting ready to shed 30,000+ jobs. Looks like the primary reason is the mortgage mess they got into. I wonder how many of those jobs will be replaced by more robosigners?

awful for the people that are losing their jobs, but would be kind of awesome to interface with a robot to renegotiate a mortgage. or do anything. coz robots are awesome.

According to Republican talking points, some of these folks are deliberately staying poor to avoid paying income taxes.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:59 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The thing is Republicans have such a strong, irrational hatred of taxes that they can actually believe this.

That article is depressing.

If mo money equals mo problems, then less money surely equals less problems. Q.E.D., Republicans.

Some of the practicalities of unemployment never hit me until I heard an NPR interview with a I want to say Greek guy, in Greece, who talked about how he literally couldn't afford to marry his longterm girlfriend, because that would mean living together, expectations of starting a family, someone staying home with a kid, etc., all of which was beyond his financial means. It was kind of sad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/us/politics/in-granholm-book-cautionary-economic-lessons-from-michigan.html

“Everything that is hitting the country hit Michigan first,” Ms. Granholm said in an interview, reflecting on eight years in office in which the state’s economic crisis overshadowed all else. Her response to the crisis, she said, was to cut spending, cut government jobs, cut taxes — the very approach now being promoted elsewhere, particularly after Republican victories in statehouses around the country in 2010.

“We tried all of those prescriptions, too,” said Ms. Granholm, whose final term ended with the start of this year. “We did everything that people would want us to do, and yet it didn’t work.”

She added: “Laissez-faire, passivity, tax cuts, hands-off does not work. And, really, that’s the lesson from this laboratory of democracy which is Michigan.”

So Bank of America is getting ready to shed 30,000+ jobs. Looks like the primary reason is the mortgage mess they got into. I wonder how many of those jobs will be replaced by more robosigners?

exacerbated by the fact that they bought out Countrywide in early 2008.

Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless.

The more usual formulation of this sentence in the past replaced the word "jobless" with "landless". This shows how much times have changed. But, never fear; this situation will ensure an oversupply of cannon fodder for the Imperial stormtroopers, so what we lose in terms of a productive economy we gain in the ability to grab booty from less powerful nations.