Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gao seng who wrote (264605)	6/17/2002 1:05:51 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The reason the stock market is depressed is people lost money when that irrepressibly arrogant POS Alan Greenspan decided to put an end to irrational exuberance with his unabating interest rate increases. Long past the time when it was obvious to anyone with a brain that he had burst that bubble, he continued to increase the interest rates. After the market had headed south long enough and there was no recovery, he implemented his cuts. They didn't help and by 9/11 it was all over for the stock market. People have lost their jobs. Though numbers say unemployment is heading back down, how is that possible when more and more companies are laying folks off. In fact, though unemployment was extended people have run the course of that extension. Having lost money and faith in the market, why would anyone put his money back in? Wait a minute, what money? Corporations need money for expansion. Where are they going to get it now that the goose that laid the golden egg...we taxpayers have been trounced into fiscal oblivion. We're in a word in a recession. It is after all, the economy, stupid. The economy sucks and when and if it ever recovers, who's going back into the stock market? Are you? Do you feel heartened by the gains today, or are you afraid of being duped again?

To: gao seng who wrote (264605)	6/17/2002 1:54:36 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Excellent post. The article quite correctly points out the dangers we face as a nation by ignoring our long-term fiscal health for only short-term political gain: "...we should all care because, when the government wastes our money, we all suffer. The result is lower economic growth, more unemployment, lower incomes and greater pressures for destructive tax increases." "... When the Republicans took control of the Congress in 1994, they were able to checkmate President Clinton's spending proposals and vice versa. The result was that federal government spending dropped from 20.7 percent of gross domestic product in 1995 to 18.4 percent of GDP by 2001." >>> Correct. This is why the American public uniformly supports 'divided government'... not letting any one party control all the levers of power. The public believes - with good reason - that if any one group gets total control they will lard it all out to their backers and pet projects, and the nation will suffer. As Mark Twain once said: "When Congress is in session, no man's wallet is safe." "This reduction in the relative size of the federal government was a major cause of the economic and stock market boom. Now, however, a strong reversal in government spending is under way, and not just because of the additional costs of the war on terrorism. The Congress has been engaged in a wild, bipartisan, non-defense spending spree that has not, to date, been vetoed by the Bush administration." >>> Correct, both parties have engaged in a wild spending and special interest payback campaign to reward their backers... all with ZERO consideration to the long-term national interest. Bush has participated in this spending and protectionist spree... and has not had one single veto yet. (As a comparison, at a similar point in his Presidency, and in an effort to restrain spending, President Truman was averaging one veto a week!) "...As a result, private sector spending and investment are being crowded out...." >>> Crowded out by the rising national debt, that is. "... This means that for every additional tax dollar, the government gets to spend, our GDP growth is reduced by almost $3. Few government programs provide $3 worth of benefit for each dollar spent on them." >>> Correct. Investments in the private economy ALWAYS have a greater velocity than government spending. "... The solution is simple. Reduce the growth rate of government spending," >>> Oh, yes! "...reduce tariffs," >>> That's: protectionism, as in steel tariffs, lumber tariffs, textile tariffs, sugar price supports, sky-high agricultural price supports, etc., which must be SLASHED! "...cut taxes on productive economic activity, repeal foolish and expensive regulations, and stop driving away foreign investors who wish to invest in our economy." >>> A-man again! How about starting by ELIMINATING the world's most complicated tax code (ours), and starting fresh? "...We have met the enemy, and it is those we elected, because they told us they were our responsible friends. But true friends do not steal our economic future."