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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TopCat who wrote (350715)	9/16/2007 1:40:21 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572172

The first step along the way to getting wiser is to learn how to read for understanding. If you are wiser, why don't you see there are consequences for the misbehavior that has gone on in this country for the last seven years and for the misguided, totally inappropriate invasion of Iraq. You all have been claiming since Bush got elected that you're the brightest, the most competent, the most honest, the most religious, the most moral, the wisest, the most familial and you know what's best for this country. And every year since 2000, all you have done is set off one stink bomb after another for every one of those years. Nearly everything you all have touched has failed: our relationship with our allies is in the sewer, Iraq is a massive failure, two years later, a major American city is half its size before it was hit by a hurricane, the national debt has nearly doubled, congressional pork is at an all time high, your Republican leaders are filling up American prisons, Russia, China are in the ascendency while we decline, we are more dependent on oil than ever before even as the price goes up, the eco. recovery has been weak on jobs, esp. higher paying jobs, and now recession looms again, you've blown all the budget surpluses that Clinton had created, our military is close to collapse.....the list goes on and on. Any fool would ask himself what I am doing wrong but not you guys......you still think you piss perfume. Well dude, I've got news for you........we aren't listening to your crap any longer. Enough is enough. Your arrogance is only exceeding by your mendacity. You've had your 15 minutes of fame and you blew it. And worse, we have yet to pay for all your mistakes. That's right. The better half will pay right along with you all. Greenspan is calling for double digit interest rates in ten years. It would not surprise me. Most competent economists [read non Republican economists] are freaked out at the US's fiscal condition. And now we have your president who is more concerned with his legacy than the state of the nation. You know if that sucker dared to have dinner in any number of restaurants in this country he would be booed. I have never seen Americans talk so disparagely of a president like this one. He is a disgrace to this country. So please, save your wiser sh!t for your wife......I, for one, am not buying it. As for Harris, he's just smart enough to be dangerous, nothing more than that. When any of your start talking like reasonably intelligent human beings, I will be glad to discuss matters of import with you but while you spout the party line or your ideology, you will get nothing more than my amusement.

To: TopCat who wrote (350715)	9/16/2007 1:51:30 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572172

Off the Charts Double Warning That a Recession May Be on the Way By FLOYD NORRIS Published: September 15, 2007 THE employment statistics and the bond market are combining to send out a warning that has been heard only rarely in the past two decades: A recession is coming in the United States. Bonds and Employment The two charts show the double warning. Both charts warned of an economic downturn before the 1990 and 2001 recessions, and they are doing so again. While each has arguably registered false warnings, they have never done so together. The first chart shows the difference between the yield on two-year Treasuries and the Federal Reserve’s target rate for federal funds — the rate on loans between banks. In normal times, the Treasury rate is usually higher. In bond market jargon, the opposite condition is an inverted yield curve. And when it is very inverted, the recession warning is sent. At the widest spread this week, on Monday, the yield on two-year Treasuries was down to 3.854 percent, while the fed funds target rate was 5.25 percent. That difference, of 1.396 percentage points, is the largest since early January 2001. It was also in January 2001 that the Fed surprised the market with a 50-basis-point — or half a percentage point — reduction in the target rate for fed funds. That move briefly cheered the stock market, but did not prevent the recession that began in March. The second chart shows the six-month changes in the number of people with jobs, as reported by the Labor Department’s household survey. In a growing economy, with the labor age population rising, the number of jobs almost always increases. But not now. The August employment figures, reported last week, showed 145,794,000 people with jobs, or 125,000 fewer than in February. When that number goes into negative territory, it is a warning of a slowdown. As can be seen from the chart, the job warning was sent out in July 1990, the month in which the recession began. A warning of the 2001 recession arrived in July 2000, but few took it seriously. To be sure, there have been just two recessions in two decades, which is not enough to validate any set of forecast tools. But if one arrives, there will be criticism that the Federal Reserve was too slow to cut interest rates as it ignored the threat of an inverted yield curve, and that it focused on inflation for too long. “With the core inflation rate comfortably close to 2 percent, and the Treasury market begging for ease for over a year, if it turns out to be a recession, it will also be a policy error,” said Robert Barbera, chief economist of ITG. As the charts show, sometimes one indicator or the other has seemed weak when no recession followed. The job number looked bad in 1995, but there was no confirmation from the interest rate indicator. Similarly, in 1998 the interest rate indicator came close to sounding a warning amid the fears brought on by the rescue of a large hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management. But the difference between the rates never quite reached 1.3 percentage points, and in any case the employment figures remained strong. Now both look weak. That is no guarantee of a recession, but it may help to explain why the Fed is expected to change course and reduce the federal funds rate next week. nytimes.com