boy, I agree with that one, next worst fiscal president before reagan was fdr inventor of the acronym's use in modern life, he had an alphabet soup of acronmyms, each one a reason to put the govmts hand in your wallet without them, it would have been feasable to lower taxes without deficits - that said, it is still irresponsible to cut taxes without reducing spending, or deficits baloon, and create an interest paying tax hell govmt until that time was much, much smaller
The most dangerous thing about the US economy now is the attitude that "because we're America, historical lessons don't apply". No one in mainstream economic circles is even considering the idea that we will fall into a deflationary debt spiral (i.e. Japan). Greenspan mentions the word "deflation", but it is quickly challenged by Mainstreet. Or that we can lose our competitive edge. Or that foreigners won't rush out of dollar denominated assets. That kind of hubris("it can't happen to us"), I'm sure all great civilizations believed it at one time or another. And look where it left them. I wonder if alot of American prosperity today isn't really an illusion. Foreigners own trillions of dollars more worth of US assets, than the US owns of foreign assets. Most people don't even think about it. My long term predictions are: A very weak stock market until at least the end of the decade. Going nowhere, like what happened in the 30's and in Japan. A continued secular decline in real wages. There is more supply than demand in the unskilled labor markets (especially with illegal immigration in the southwest). The FED and Whitehouse that doesn't know how to handle deflation (i.e. Bank of Japan). A rise in China has an economic giant in the next 10-20+ years. As bleak as it sounds, realize, life still goes on. Even in the 30's, life moved on. In near bankrupt Japan after their massive bubble, people still get out and have fun. Not all gloom and doom.
few will believe it now, but in ten years no one will believe it'll ever get any better...the memory is short and the students are few, give it a couple of years and the Fed will f**k you besides, i personally enjoy gloom and doom - it is very entertaining. nothing like a church burning on sunday, a cop getting shot, a nascar accident, a 5000 point collapse in the market to cause general mayhem and destruction; and all of these things are, if nothing else, very entertaining
Despite its economy being in the dumper for 15 years, Japan has had a wonderfully volatile market even on the way down. No worries bro, keep trading.
When, in high school physics, I heard the theory of entropy I was attracted to it immediately. To think that in nature all systems are breaking down gave me great pleasure. I thought, "what a good idea...what Good idea, maybe I can contribute in some small way." Viva la Carlin, the greatest philosopher of our time. p.s. Guess where my signature came from.
After the Reagan revolution and it's disastrous experiment with supply-side economics it took 5 (FIVE) consecutive tax INCREASES and 15 (FIFTEEN) years to balance the federal budget. Supply side economics is simply mortgaging the future for short-term, unsustainable effect.
That'll be a great time to buy, when everyone has thrown in the towel on America. When you see the cover of Time magazine declaring "Will it ever get better?" or: When Jay Leno is making jokes about money fleeing the country. When the number of Mutual funds and hedge funds dramatically declines. When CNBC cuts its market coverage and ends at 4 pm, then they go to other programming. There isn't the same cynicism against the players of the late 90's as compared to the 80's. Ivan Bosky, Michael Milken, those guys embodied the greed is good 80's. Yet, Henry Blodget, Abby Cohen, that whole crowd, they haven't been as ridiculed. At least not yet. The level of pain isn't there for the public to completely turn against the Street. Time will tell.