Tuesday, January 25, 2011


Freeze the economy and demand will be nil. If areas like our massive defense budget aren't pared to realistic levels and the domestic pork barrel known as Homeland Security isn't trimmed then this is merely lip service to the issues of the budget. Normally when trimming a home budget one looks at the most costly areas first which aside from the roof overhead is usually the last stupid things purchased. A certain war, an unpaid for drug plan, and tax breaks for people who don't need it comes to mind.
I was out yesterday running errands looking at all the empty for lease spaces around town. Couldn't go one block without at least one empty space. Buildings that had been occupied for as long as I've been here sit empty. A quick stop at a store gave an image of a near ghost town. I could have rolled a bowling ball down a shopping aisle and been lucky to hit anyone. Many walked empty handed. No cart, no basket and no sales. Seems that people are buying only what's absolutely necessary like a part to repair the toilet or a pair of jeans to replace the worn out ones. Two women in front of me passed through the checkout and walked out with nothing. Unheard of just a few years ago.
People are still not spending. Business isn't spending and the government wants to cut back? The Carebear is about to speak but I have lost confidence. He's asked for bipartisanship for what two years now with not one finger lifted in that respect? He preached Hope and that's about all we have left but Hope doesn't pay the bills. Hey and since they're sitting together when Wilson opens his trap to holler "You Lie!" somebody can smack him upside the head. So this might just be a good thing.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's so full of shit.

S.W. Anderson said...

I see a lot more people shopping and buying, eating out, putting gas in the SUV, etc. But I know there are plenty on the sidelines too.

You're so right about this not being the time to freeze federal spending. I think Obama puts great stock in the effects of that nasty bit of compromise he agreed to during the lame-duck session. He shouldn't, because the helpful effects could easily be undone and then some as the year goes on because of all the drastic spending cuts state and local governments are having to make.

The economy needs a lot more stimulus, so it gets to a kind of critical mass where many more businesses feel that continuing to stonewall is going to cost them serious money — because if they're not ready to meet demand and satisfy customers right now, some guy down the street will. That's when things start opening up all over the place.

MRMacrum said...

The leadership of the Right has proven time and time again that what they want for all of us ends up being what they want for themselves and those who push their buttons. I am still amazed that so many of our citizens remained hoodwinked by their rhetoric. Trickle Down has not worked in the past, why do we think it will work in the future?

The leadership of the Left insists that our salvation is government help. The problem is they focus their help poorly. I don't think either party has an answer and all of them are shooting in the dark.

What angers me is both seem to draw their conclusions based on what is going on at the Wall Street level and not street level. What is good for Wall Street has already proven that it may not be good for Main Street.

Randal Graves said...

Arguably the worst superhero movie ever.

Demeur said...

The problem as I see it is that the Left is controlled as much by Wall Street as the right. And much like Ross Perot said they won't be completely satisfied until the last cent is sucked out of the economy and they are living behind gated communities with armed guards. Our jobs as Ross predicted went first to Mexico then to China.

The Blog Fodder said...

As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us". American people have voted solidly against their own best interests for years. Hard to blame corporations for that. It isn't Putin's Russia. Yet.
And Americans aren't the only ones that vote against their own best interests. It seems to be contagious.

S.W. Anderson said...

Blog Fodder is right. For starters, you've got, conservatively (literally) about 13 states where ongoing resentment over the successes of the civil rights movement, and gains made because of it, trump self-interest in most voters' decisions. Then, there's resentment over making things fairer for women, gays and immigrants.

I can't think of any successful country in history where resentment and its proactive component, spite, were pervasive.

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