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[wildflowersoul]

Robert Reich has called it: We’re in a depression. At this point, I honestly don’t know how the economy is going to right itself. How bad does it have to get before the government stops handing money over to companies and just starts making up jobs for people?

Meanwhile, there’s an interesting piece over at the New Yorker on potential international torture charges for some of the Bushies.

Comments

[alex-victory.livejournal.com]

...and just starts making up jobs for people?

Well in the Great Depression it took about five and a half years. (Counting from Black Tuesday to the day the WPA-funding bill was passed.)

Now the current crisis is a bit of a different animal than the Great Depression, but that's the only real comparison we've got.

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I don't think I can handle five years of this...

[alex-victory.livejournal.com]

How about an entire decade?

Read about Japan's Lost Decade after an asset valuation crash. Be afraid. Then consider the fact that the impact was diluted because of the strong work ethic and savings of the average Japanese consumer. Compare with average American consumer. Be even more afraid.

[alex-victory.livejournal.com]

Ah but she didn't ask, "When did the recovery start," she asked, "When will the government start making up jobs."

Anyways I agree with your worry. The Great Depression ended due to war-related massive deficit spending. The US was doing war-related massive deficit spending BEFORE the current crisis hit.

[thiswakingdream.livejournal.com]

strange, last week they said it was over....when the market hit over 8000.
We just need to be patient, it wont fix itself overnight. There is so much that needs to be done....most of the real experts are saying by end of the year is when we can really give a good evaluation if we will be in recovery mode. so we just have to wait and see...in the meantime, fasten your seat belt...

You should of see the Rachel Maddow show the other night when she interviewed Colin Powell....she asked him about torture and the conversation got really uncomfortable. i mean really uncomfortable.....I like Powell a lot, i think he got shafted by Cheney and Bush big time...But Maddow grilled him on who knew what was going on, and of course he had to deny everything....

Cheney should be in jail on war crimes, no doubt about it. and like the last year Bush and him were not on the same page. Cheney is pissed that Bush didnt pardon his friend Scooter Libby....Cheney ran the show for 7 of those 8 years....the last year Bush started to act on his own more, but it was too late by then, it was all a mess...

Im not saying Bush was by any means not to blame, he totally was, he let Cheney and all his cronies have too much power.

Its amazing how much legislation is being reversed right now by Obama administration...and hes done more in 2 months than Bush/Cheney did in 8 years....

its just going to take a while for everything to recover...im confident though. I think for 8 years everyone was just so lazy and we werent doing anything in the country, we hired other countries to do everything for us....Well, thats all got to change...Obama knows this....we finally have someone that wants to make our country better and not just be a bully. Its just they left him with so much to fix its just not going to be easy and its going to take a while....

ya and even though unemployment is bad right now, the percentages arent as bad compared to even the 1980s let alone the 1930s....i think to compare to our current population we would have to get to like 15%-20% to be compared to those era's.

it will be ok, we just have to see where we are by Dec 09/Jan 2010.

[wildflowersoul.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the whole 24-hour-news thing kind of makes it worse, at least psychologically, because every day it's "the Dow is up, the economy is getting better!" or "The Dow is down, we have no money!"

I really need to start tivoing Rachel Maddow, I haven't watched her show but I've heard great things about it.

[thiswakingdream.livejournal.com]

yah Maddow is awesome!!!

Shes by far the best commentator in the biz...not including Jon Stewart or Colbert. When she first was on during primary race, i was like "who is this?" she's my hero!!! She always spoke her mind and i was like finally, a real person that isnt afraid to speak what they believe and gets at the core of a lot of truths that no one would touch in mainstream media.

then i found out shes been doing it for years on Air America radio so i started listening to that...

and now her TV show, its the best there is as far as political news on TV. now if only they would give Stewart and Colbert an hour each night instead of 30 min

:)

[thiswakingdream.livejournal.com]

yup this whole recession/depression is all psychological....no doubt about it!!!!!

[thiswakingdream.livejournal.com]

and btw, its pretty remarkable that we are finally having real conversations with other countries on a regular basis....This is huge. I dont think the media has really given enough credit to what went on last week in the g-20 meetings. we lost so much credibility in 8 years with everyone, i think once we regain good stature again, especially in Europe, it will help the economy. Like hes in Turkey today, i saw a stat that said in 2000 52% muslim countries had a favorable rating of the USA back 8 years ago...according to now, only 10%. So all those countries who were our friends back then lost faith in us....especially muslim countries like Turkey, Indonesia, etc...the ones that are peaceful, strong and prosperous. We need to get back to 50%+ again with them and Obama is perfect for this. And its a huge effect on our countries Economy. import/exports etc...if we get back to being 50%+ favorable i think you will see huge turnaround in the economy.