An interesting graphic on unemployment . . .

[Just_A_Guy]

Originally Posted by mightynancy

I'm going to guess that the graph in post #6 is the deficit (it's not labelled. You'd lose points in my class for that).

I am ashamed. Yes, it's the annual budget deficit.

Do the budget numbers include war spending?

Yes, they do. More here.

[lilered]

Am I the only one that finds it interesting that our Government made a very rapid decision to spend billions to bail out several large Banking/Investment systems just a short time ago. Now after only a few short months,Wallah, most of the Banks have paid these large sums of money back. Which to me begs the questions:
Did they really need the money to begin with?
What did they do in such a short period of time to warrant that kind of lucrative revenue?
Why hasn't any of the phenomenal revenue, been channeled to help anyone that I or you know?
Did they use this money just to buy out their competitors?
Do you know anyone who has received a fresh loan for a new house. I don't. I do know several who are capitalizing on foreclosed houses but still not able to find anyone who can qualify for a loan with reasonable interest. Our local Banks home mortgage rate is at 7 1/2 % at present.

[Just_A_Guy]

My understanding is that with most banks the issue was that they lacked short-term cash flow, but still had assets that would be valuable over the long haul.

But yes; the bank bailouts generally didn't result in consumer relief the way they should have. A lot of ink has been spilled as to why; and I don't pretend to understand it all.

[jadams_4040]

Originally Posted by Just_A_Guy

Speaks for itself, I think.

After the horrible mess bush left us in did you have visions of chocalate cakes and daisies springing forth immediately after obama took over? this economic mess we were in was the worst i,ve ever seen in my lifetime, {56} it doest just go "POOF" and disapear overnight.

[Palerider]

where is the kool aid.....

[Just_A_Guy]

After the horrible mess bush left us in did you have visions of chocalate cakes and daisies springing forth immediately after obama took over? this economic mess we were in was the worst i,ve ever seen in my lifetime, {56} it doest just go "POOF" and disapear overnight.

No; but judging by the election results a lot of people believed Obama when he said he understood the problem and had a workable plan to solve it.

This graph demonstrates that either a) the President's economic team has no idea what it's doing, or b) the President's economic team does know what it's doing, but doesn't give a rat's posterior as long as it has an excuse to fund pet projects.

Either way, Dubya has nothing to do with it.

[jadams_4040]

Originally Posted by lilered

It would seem to me that facts are facts and politics aside, where I live, folks are hurting. Haven't talked to anyone that is doing better the last couple of years. Some are the same, but most are worse off.
The thought keeps crossing my mind. If Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are in such dire straights, then why didn't our government just simply print more money and put them in the black years ago,. Wouldn't that have helped a lot more people than the present stimulus package? Printing money by our government without any financial backing will devalue the dollar. There is no free lunch. So be prepared to see inflation in the future.

It is true inflation follows a good economy; too bad we cant have a good economy and no inflation.

[talisyn]

So what were the numbers if Pres. Bush II hadn't signed off on the first stimulus bill? Remember that one? The one where the economy was tanking even before Pres. Obama ran for office? The economy did not magically crash when Obama took office, this had been going on for years.


My fellow workers and I did a lot of discussing when the economy started tanking (mostly, are people gonna be able to buy french fries?) and we figured if the stimulus bill, instead of giving money to banks and whatnot, gave $10,000 to every single US citizen the economy would have been back on track before January. People would have caught up on mortgages, they would have bought cars...Give money to people who don't make political contributions? Yeah, like that would ever happen

[Palerider]

Lets also not forget the money we had to give the Car Companies...and then to sit back and watch Chrysler send all those jobs to Mexico...

[lilered]

Back to my last question. If the Banks were indeed on the brink of going under and our entire financial community was in trouble of being insolvent. Then how did a short term loan of billions of dollars allow them to save themselves from this disaster and pay back the entire loan is such a short term.
Common Sense would dictate that; if they are in need of billions of dollars to pay debtors off to stay solvent, they do not then have the necessary cash flow to repay back such a huge debt loan in such a short time. If this is a true statement, then where did they raise the capital to repay the loan?
I suspect personally they didn't need it, but simply used it as a very short term loan and made money on the loan money by investing it. But of course that would be illegal, wouldn;t it?