The Obama Era

[sore+old]

LOL! Nobody died because of Obama's stimulus package.

But they would if his "Public Option" goes through.

[Jim Malone]

LOL! Nobody died because of Obama's stimulus package. Besides, Bush pushed through three such ''packages'' and claimed success as well. Where was the Republican objection to that??

Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win. The Brits in NATO forces call us "borrowers"! F'n people "are" dying as we concentrate on domestic matters and put off devotion of proper resources to our men and women who need them most - and they aint f'n stateside!

[Go Team]

Stop comparing Obama to Hitler. At least Hitler got the olympics to come to Berlin

[Strannywastheman]

Stop comparing Obama to Hitler. At least Hitler got the olympics to come to Berlin

You're a beauty.

[Brooklyn]

LOL! Nobody died because of Obama's stimulus package.

But they would if his "Public Option" goes through.

Only if that package contains some of Saddam's yet-to-be-found WMD.

[Brooklyn]

''Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win.''


http://costofwar.com/


A trillion dollars and the use of hundreds of thousands of troops weren't enough?

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

The only solution available is to withdraw the troops and to send the bill for the cost of the wars to Bush.

[sore+old]

''Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win.''


http://costofwar.com/


A trillion dollars and the use of hundreds of thousands of troops weren't enough?

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

The only solution available is to withdraw the troops and to send the bill for the cost of the wars to Bush.

Obama campaigned that he had the answers to the wars, economy, health care, etc... Being President is a tough job. You don't get to blame problems on someone else. If you are president and there is a problem, it's your problem. He asked for the job with a whole lot of arrogance and boast. He got it. There are no valid excuses. Fix the problems like you promised or get out of the way and let someone more qualified do it.
There is more than one way to waste a trillion dollars. What about a $900,000,000,000 "Stimulus Pkg. that was passed on the premise unemployment wouldn't go above 8% and it's at 10% and climbing along with 0% private sector growth. There is no way to show the Stimulus Pkg. was in any way effective other than expanding government. We could go down the list with Cash for Clunkers and all the other miserable failure programs he's attempted. Rather than raising taxes to support these failure public programs, just cut small business taxes and get out of the way. The economy would start to rebound immediately.

[jhu72]

''Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win.''


http://costofwar.com/


A trillion dollars and the use of hundreds of thousands of troops weren't enough?

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

The only solution available is to withdraw the troops and to send the bill for the cost of the wars to Bush.

Obama campaigned that he had the answers to the wars, economy, health care, etc... Being President is a tough job. You don't get to blame problems on someone else. If you are president and there is a problem, it's your problem. He asked for the job with a whole lot of arrogance and boast. He got it. There are no valid excuses. Fix the problems like you promised or get out of the way and let someone more qualified do it.
There is more than one way to waste a trillion dollars. What about a $900,000,000,000 "Stimulus Pkg. that was passed on the premise unemployment wouldn't go above 8% and it's at 10% and climbing along with 0% private sector growth. There is no way to show the Stimulus Pkg. was in any way effective other than expanding government. We could go down the list with Cash for Clunkers and all the other miserable failure programs he's attempted. Rather than raising taxes to support these failure public programs, just cut small business taxes and get out of the way. The economy would start to rebound immediately.

You are out of your mind. You have to make money to pay taxes. The current economic problems are not being caused because taxes are too high. The biggest problem is not enough customers. In my industry, you could reduce all taxes to zero, for both the big and small companies and it would not make one bit of difference! If you aren't making money, you don't have to worry about paying taxes. It is a feeding frenzy for every deal. Prices are down as a result. Nobody is making money. The few customers that there are love it.

[a fan]

I can only speak for my sector, S&O, but jhu72 is right about taxes. Taxes aren't the problem with the people I deal with. For those who are struggling, It's simply an issue of sales volume. Most, but certainly not all, of the taxes out there are linked to sales. Property taxes, or personal property taxes, are totally unrelated to sale volume, but those aren't Federal taxes.

[sore+old]

''Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win.''


http://costofwar.com/


A trillion dollars and the use of hundreds of thousands of troops weren't enough?

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

The only solution available is to withdraw the troops and to send the bill for the cost of the wars to Bush.

Obama campaigned that he had the answers to the wars, economy, health care, etc... Being President is a tough job. You don't get to blame problems on someone else. If you are president and there is a problem, it's your problem. He asked for the job with a whole lot of arrogance and boast. He got it. There are no valid excuses. Fix the problems like you promised or get out of the way and let someone more qualified do it.
There is more than one way to waste a trillion dollars. What about a $900,000,000,000 "Stimulus Pkg. that was passed on the premise unemployment wouldn't go above 8% and it's at 10% and climbing along with 0% private sector growth. There is no way to show the Stimulus Pkg. was in any way effective other than expanding government. We could go down the list with Cash for Clunkers and all the other miserable failure programs he's attempted. Rather than raising taxes to support these failure public programs, just cut small business taxes and get out of the way. The economy would start to rebound immediately.

You are out of your mind. You have to make money to pay taxes. The current economic problems are not being caused because taxes are too high. The biggest problem is not enough customers. In my industry, you could reduce all taxes to zero, for both the big and small companies and it would not make one bit of difference! If you aren't making money, you don't have to worry about paying taxes. It is a feeding frenzy for every deal. Prices are down as a result. Nobody is making money. The few customers that there are love it.

During every recession and depression, there are some people making money. I didn't say that it caused the recession, I'm saying that levying additional taxes (which includes letting the Bush cuts expire) is a very unnecessary burden on small business owners who are fighting to keep the doors open. If you give these folks relief, they have the opportunity to add production lines, hire more help and get the economy moving again. We don't need the gov't taking our money and deciding where it's best spent. Our small businessmen are pretty smart and creative when not interfered with They know what's best for their business.
No question that the climate of business has vastly changed. I know in my own field, I sell warehouse supplies, automated packaging equipment, etc..., 6 or 7 years ago, people would order a couple of months worth of supplies at a time to not be bothered all the time. People today in most manufacturing places I see order enough for this week. We always had a very busy season from beginning of September until mid November shipping for the holidays. It just is no longer the case. I do see some fields that are still doing fine like, as an example, medical devices. Ford was a billion dollars in the black this quarter WITHOUT bail out money. Warren Buffet just pain 34Billion for a major rail freight company. There are things that could happen if gov't would just get out of the way.

[Baldo]

sorry sore but we are in this MESS because the banks and Wall Street got to run rampant WITHOUT regulation of government in the way for the most part.

It is WAAAY too simplistic to blame everything on the government. But I am sure it makes you feel better - How come you weren't complaining as the Bushies ran up the size and scope of government for 8 years, cut your taxes and mortgaged your children's future to pay for it all.

Your view is akin to starting a fire, pulling the alarm and then blaming it all on the firefighters who show up to fight the fire.

[randyrad]

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

...& how exactly would you have done that in Taliban/AlQaeda controlled Afghanastan of 9-12-01 ?

[Hot Air]

sorry sore but we are in this MESS because the banks and Wall Street got to run rampant WITHOUT regulation of gevernment in the way for th emost part.

It is WAAAY too simplistic to blame everything on the government. But I am sure it makes you feel better - How come you weren't complaining as the Bushies ran up the size and scope of government for 8 years, cut your taxes and mortgaged your children's future to pay for it all.

Your view is akin to starting a fire, pulling the alrm and then blaming it all on the firefighters who show up to fight the fire.

Part of the problem was that Government encouraged and threatened lending Institutions that unless their loans matched political Government's ideal that they would be taken to negative monetary task. So Government was a large part of the latest fiscal mess, and it is also a reason why Government has not prosecuted obvious Wall Street criminal fraud cases beyond Madoff and a few others. Our elected Government is up to their inflated a**e* in this mess, but as proficient politicians they continue to deflect blame to the politically unpopular. That is the same road that other Governments have followed to Fascist Regimes.

[Go Team]

A discussion of the bank and wall street failure must start with congressman Bawney Fwank.

I still remember his speech that Fannie Mae was a good buy at 90. It closed up .12 today at $1.15.

[jhu72]

''Our troops overseas have few of the resources needed to win.''


http://costofwar.com/


A trillion dollars and the use of hundreds of thousands of troops weren't enough?

We had no business sending troops and money overseas in the first place. You don't win foreign wars by pouring more money or resources into the war. You win by getting the majority of the population on your side. This is where Bush and the Pentagon failed. And now Obama is taking the rap for the mess they created.

The only solution available is to withdraw the troops and to send the bill for the cost of the wars to Bush.

Obama campaigned that he had the answers to the wars, economy, health care, etc... Being President is a tough job. You don't get to blame problems on someone else. If you are president and there is a problem, it's your problem. He asked for the job with a whole lot of arrogance and boast. He got it. There are no valid excuses. Fix the problems like you promised or get out of the way and let someone more qualified do it.
There is more than one way to waste a trillion dollars. What about a $900,000,000,000 "Stimulus Pkg. that was passed on the premise unemployment wouldn't go above 8% and it's at 10% and climbing along with 0% private sector growth. There is no way to show the Stimulus Pkg. was in any way effective other than expanding government. We could go down the list with Cash for Clunkers and all the other miserable failure programs he's attempted. Rather than raising taxes to support these failure public programs, just cut small business taxes and get out of the way. The economy would start to rebound immediately.

You are out of your mind. You have to make money to pay taxes. The current economic problems are not being caused because taxes are too high. The biggest problem is not enough customers. In my industry, you could reduce all taxes to zero, for both the big and small companies and it would not make one bit of difference! If you aren't making money, you don't have to worry about paying taxes. It is a feeding frenzy for every deal. Prices are down as a result. Nobody is making money. The few customers that there are love it.

During every recession and depression, there are some people making money. I didn't say that it caused the recession, I'm saying that levying additional taxes (which includes letting the Bush cuts expire) is a very unnecessary burden on small business owners who are fighting to keep the doors open. If you give these folks relief, they have the opportunity to add production lines, hire more help and get the economy moving again. We don't need the gov't taking our money and deciding where it's best spent. Our small businessmen are pretty smart and creative when not interfered with They know what's best for their business.
No question that the climate of business has vastly changed. I know in my own field, I sell warehouse supplies, automated packaging equipment, etc..., 6 or 7 years ago, people would order a couple of months worth of supplies at a time to not be bothered all the time. People today in most manufacturing places I see order enough for this week. We always had a very busy season from beginning of September until mid November shipping for the holidays. It just is no longer the case. I do see some fields that are still doing fine like, as an example, medical devices. Ford was a billion dollars in the black this quarter WITHOUT bail out money. Warren Buffet just pain 34Billion for a major rail freight company. There are things that could happen if gov't would just get out of the way.

My business is medical imaging - including devices. It has not been as strong a sector as you think this year. Next year looks really good in the imaging informatics business, which is our core business and only a part of the medical imaging/device market. Buyers totally disappeared during the second and third quarters this year. Only now are we starting to see a rebound. The large OEMs that we sell our technology to, many of them tell us that it will take them 4 to 6 years to get back to where they were before the economy crashed. GE the largest of these device manufacturers was days away from going belly up (mostly because 60% of their business is finance and they held a lot of bad paper). Ford was the biggest beneficary of the cash for clunkers. While I generally agree that lower taxes on business is a good thing, over the past year, lowering taxes on business would have accomplished nothing. The stimulus package did and will continue to create some additional customer demand. Ford would not have done nearly as well without it. I would naturally have preferred that no stimulus package was necessary, but don't make the mistake in thinking that the stimulus has not had some positive impact. It has. Now, what the stimulus package should have done is provide small business with significant investment dollars. Long run I think this would have been better for the economy, and would have resulted in less job loss and probably real job creation. We gave the money to the wrong people, the same bozos that caused the mess.

[Go Team]

Camelot only lasted a year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... QD9BOD47O0

Now we will see if Obama moves more to the center from the far left or is he an ideologue?

[Hot Air]

If the Wall Street blamers that are blind to Government's role in this recent mess and continued Government directed fiscal budget busting policies, then we should be able to obtain broad approval for a political office/appointee ban for those that worked or were associated with Goldman Sachs? No? If you don't agree, but want to continue to blame it on Wall Street phantoms, then speak up!

[a fan]

Ok, I'll speak up.

I have a simple question that shows that yes, while Fannie, Freddie, and the egregiously careless behavior of Frank played a role, the market is what got us where we are:

Would this have happened if Freddie and Fannie didn't exist?

Pretty clear answer, don't you think?

[Go Team]

Ok, I'll speak up.

I have a simple question that shows that yes, while Fannie, Freddie, and the egregiously careless behavior of Frank played a role, the market is what got us where we are:

Would this have happened if Freddie and Fannie didn't exist?

Pretty clear answer, don't you think?

I would say no. Without those GSE's we would still be putting 33 1/3% down when we buy a house. More money down, less risk. Do you think 110% loans are risky?

[a fan]

Really? What percentage of subprime loans were FM and FMc?

Absolutely, I think that, on its face, if you had to personally lend money to a person so that they could buy a home, yep, that's risky.

But that's not how the free market works anymore. The free market takes thousands of loans, puts a fake credit rating the bundle, and sells the bundle many times over. They didn't care about the risk of a single loan. The free market, in their opinion, diluted risk. How'd that work out?

if people like you and I know that getting a 110% mortgage is inherently risky, then explain why so many people and firms invested in subprime loans? They did it all by themselves. If they knew the FM and FMc was bad news, then wouldn't the "free market" recognize this, and avoid such investments?

The answer is no. And of course, the market didn't recognize their risks, and got burned. It's their own fault. No one had to buy or trade that paper. It wasn't the loans per se, it was the bundling, trading, and insurance paper on the bundles that precipitated the collapse. If that wasn't the case, all that we'd be hearing about would be FM and FMc's woes. No one else would've been effected so deeply.