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

To: Road Walker who wrote (366338)	1/10/2008 5:58:59 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1586439

"You had the triple build out of cell phones, PCs and the Internet." I'd add to that, you had a government that was, for the first time in my adult lifetime, trying to show fiscal restraint and responsibility.

To: Road Walker who wrote (366338)	1/10/2008 6:42:50 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1586439

Bad mortgage debt is just the beginning. Bad credit card debt is following close behind... and if things break really bad then the governments twin deficits come into play. All that debt needs to be repaid, it never goes away. And the only way to pay back years and years of bad decisions is with years and years of extreme austerity and lower standard of living. The subprime debt is a small fraction of the mortgage debt in this country. Most mortgage debt is solidly secured. The bad stuff is a problem but its not the end of the world. I don't know how they evaluate credit debit but my experience is when you abuse it, you get cut off. As for gov't debt I see that as a separate issue.......it makes the country vulnerable and can't be addressed by the consumer or the FOMC but by Congress. If we put it off... when we finally pay the piper it will be even worse. Putting off what? If the interest rates are not lowered, the country will go into recession, more people will be out of work, more people will default on their loans, more people will lose their homes, more people will default on their credit cards, more banks will go under, and gov'ts will have less revenue with which to work. I don't see how that solves anything. The Clinton years were a fluke. You had the triple build out of cell phones, PCs and the Internet. Huge natural stimulus. Happens once or twice in a lifetime if you are lucky. Tech was a big part of the stock market but it was a small part of the overall economy. At the time, we had two primary tech centers, San Jose and Boston, and several smaller ones like Austin and Seattle. As a job creator it was small potatoes. What tech did do was improve productivity and that was a major reason why the economy did so well in the 90s......not because it generated a lot of jobs. Why do recessions have to happen? Human nature. Because of human mistakes.....because of greed....because of improprieties.....but ultimately because we believe they have to happen. The irony of recessions is that the unemployment rate only drops by a couple of percentage points.....however, its the fear that makes the recession enduring. Its the national psyche that makes it happen just as it was the national psyche that got us into Iraq. Fear is the main culprit with both events......fear of the unknown, fear of dying, fear of losing everything etc. People close down....they don't buy....everything slows. The only thing recessions do is reduce an overhang of inventory.....little else. And right now, inventories are at low levels in this country. I don't disagree that gov'ts need to go on an austerity diet......that gov't spending on the federal level is out of control. However, that's going to require a change in the presidency, not the maintaining of the fed rate at current levels.