you drew an incorrect inference. since i said that gov't policies worsened the depression it is likely i am in favor of free trade which is correct.
You are comparing present day USA to South American or Zimbabwae? There are so many differences I don't know where to start...
The ol' "inevitable bust" theory, unsupported by details again. When you look into your crystal ball, what does it tell you that has you so convinced that there will be this big huge inevitable bust?
Most people who argue aginst what the Fed is doing right now will say that they want the Fed to do nothing, and the government to do nothing. They want "market forces" to take their course. When you bring up the point that massive deleveraging and deflation would bring the economy into a depression, most of these people argue that that would be a good thing because it would "remove excesses" from the economy, so we can grow again. I would rather bounce along at the current standard of living than wait in a soup line any day.
41 million people on food stamps are your soup lines, but I digress... You epitomize the baby boomer generation of assholes. You'd rather live under a fantasy of propped up asset values and a make believe economy with crippling debt loads that will crush all future generations, just to eke out a few more years of the status quo. But therein is the rub. Things have progressively declined in the real economy in spite of all of these financial schemes and it very much is a silent depression, just not as visible as the 1930's. You are far too dense to see it though.
Tell us genius, what was 2008? Did it not occur immediately after the previous round of monetary hijinx? So, once again you are unable to connect the dots. Artificially depressed rates fueled massive misallocation of capital and resources, which in turned fueled the greatest housing bubble in human history. It unwound, the financial system collapsed.
hey sjfan, I've given you a list of costs that increased dramatically from 2003-07, I'll put gasoline prices into utility costs to make it easier for you to digest. btw, I love your Fed speak about the prices of computers and detergent going down (btw, laundry detergent went up significantly during that period as well), as a means of countering my argument. An individual buys a computer every couple of years, while the above are recurring expenses that have contributed largely towards the consumers insolvency at this point in 2010. Hey, but you and Kassz trust the central planners to "create a little inflation" to avoid deflation. Just a "little" and you'll trust their judgment because they are oh so ethical and transparent.