I dont know if anyone has ever told him that heavy fiscal spending + sluggish, unresponsive economy = large deficit, heavy inflation, weak dollar, especially with the majority of leading economic indicators realizing less than spectacular figures as the monthly reports file in.
Sorry to jump on the 'Pound Don's Ass With Fiscal Cock' bandwagon, but...
This spending was the "oh shit let's not fall off the face of the earth" "stimulus" (hence, BAILOUT, not stimulative at all).
All Congressmen do is live to get reelected, and always act in their own best interest or in a manner that is popular, however dumb it may be.
What I think you're referring to is the TARP bill and spending, as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008
That's the one where we pump loads of cash into AIG and other banks, buy the hell out of their troubled assets - and hope the values of those assets rise and try to make a profit on them. Somehow. Considering the rapidity with which some banks have paid back these loans, it seems like the number of troubled assets may not have been as hellacious as originally suspected - at least from a banker's point of view. From a homeowner's point of view this bill didn't do diddly, and the situation still sucks.
What I was actually talking about is the stimulus bill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009
which does resemble New Deal spending. Admittedly it's been really fucking slow to come to fruition - I hear something like 10% will be spent in 2009. A lot of states are reluctant to use the money since it's not going to be renewable. I would like to see more focused spending in this bill - I think TARP was a waste of a lot of $$$. Especially the way it was implemented - it takes the banks entirely off the hook and puts the burden entirely on the taxpayer.
I'm not sure if you mixed up the bills or if you think the Recovery act was useless - or if you meant the TARP crap. Lemme know, I'm curious.
I would just plow most of that money into infrastructure, education, energy and science and not use as much on tax relief. The return on investment for education is insane and I don't understand why more money wasn't put aside.
Well, I actually do. And it has to do with another point you made:
You're absofuckinglutely correct on this one. Congressmen and Representatives have SO little interest in the long term health of our nation. It boggles my fucking mind. It's almost exactly like CEO's reaping temporary gains by making fiscally irresponsible decisions and then jumping ship. All they have to do is dither around and make it seem as if they're doing an okay, acceptable job. They're not willing to make any tough choices or actually change anything - their loyalty is to their own job and not to the United States, however much fucking flagwaving they do. I actually feel decent about the Rep for my area - you may have seen his ugly mug on TV, Barney Frank - but some of these guys are just huge dillweeds and if I could challenge them on in one-to-one combat to depose them, I would.
Don does have a point that doesn't make a lot of sense to me intuitively - in general, it seems that cutting tax rates on most companies actually increases tax revenue. It doesn't look like they've hit a point yet where tax revenue decreases when tax rates go down. I kind of want to look into this more, because it was relayed to me by a coworker - a very smart one, but I'm still not 100% convinced. In general though I'd say, fine, keep corporate taxes lower if that increases revenue, but I think that perhaps a higher capital gains tax for individuals - and not corporations - is in order. It's pretty obvious to me, after just a little bit of thought about the stock market, is that the only way to really make money in the United States is to already have a shit-ton of it. If I sit here today and put $1000 in some stock, and it goes up 2%, I get $20 (if I sell). If I plow 100k, I get 2k. If I had 100k to play with I could just sit here reaping profits all day long - buy the shit I like when it's down, sell it when it's high, repeat the cycle over and over. Chances are you'll make a lot in a hurry. Once you get past a certain tipping point of wealth, it's essentially self-generating. And those individuals who are past that point, I don't really have much problem with a higher tax rate for them. Sure, corporations want to re-invest in their infrastructure, but I just don't see individual capital gains as a right for the extremely wealthy.
Just my .02. I'm willing to re-evaluate my position on better info. :Smokin:
That's all I was trying to say, didn't mean to sound like a dick.
No worries donnyboy, you are an intelligent and well-spoken individuallllll. you did not come across as such.
As per the new health care proposal...I think it's actually likely to not increase debt as much as is the hysteria. A lot of people are all "OMG UNIVERSAL COVERAGE" but it looks like Obama is doing a lot of work with the more fiscally conservative Democrats (especially as of today) to do some sorts of cost-analysis of treatments (as in, are they effective? or are they just expensive bullshit, like the thousands of cancer screenings that actually seem to do more harm than good and MRIs and suchforth). also doctors are paid by procedure and not by outcome which is also gay, dontchaknow. noone gives my company money for attempting to make software that works. admittedly, people can die despite our best science but there is no point that we should pay for expensive treatments merely because they're expensive (useless otherwise).
maybe i'm a little off on my day-trading ideas. but if you pick a stock that has any kind of fluctuation and you dump enough cash into it, even if you can nail it with a .1 percent increase...momentarily..then you've got enoguh to cover your fees (with mad cash).
so...yeah...what's your routing number?
...So...
Any fans of Grave in here? I just listened to their latest and it was a real disappointment. Seems like the only olschool Swedm band doing anything good nowadays is Dismember. :'(