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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robin Plunder who wrote (104397)	8/10/2009 9:08:17 PM
From: FreedomForAll	2 Recommendations Respond to of 110194

Of course the majority voted against Ron Paul. Majorities never cause significant change. Voting is worse than a waste of time; it's effectively placing one's approval on the perverted "choice" of the brainwashed majority. Politics maintains the powerful and wears away liberty. Change will come, but only after immense suffering. The American middle class is history as a result of their own comfortable cowardice. The "American Dream" consists of people raised to toil in the giant machine and as short-sighted consumers who enrich their masters while ensuring lifetime financial enslavement to banksters (via mortgages) and bureaucrats (via taxes.) Damn depressing.

To: Robin Plunder who wrote (104397)	8/10/2009 9:08:17 PM
From: Elroy Jetson	10 Recommendations Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 110194

Ronald Reagan's fiscal irresponsibility was an epic game changer. Eisenhower spent a lot of money on a new highway system but income tax revenues paid for it. LBJ spent a lot of money for Viet Nam and other projects, but it was paid for then with a 10% Income Tax Surcharge. Nixon spent even more, but it was paid for then with his creation of the Alternate Minimum Tax. All of these Presidents managed to pay for the spending of their era and also reduce the burden of government debt on the economy. During this entire multi-decade period of time, from 1945 to 1980 the Federal Government debt declined from 80% of GDP to 25% of GDP! Solid economic growth based on sound economic policies. Total Debt (including business, consumer and government debt) remained a stable percentage of GDP, around 130%. Interest rates remained higher than inflation, protecting savers against loss. The came Ronald Reagan unleashing a tidal wave of fiat money creation. He massively increased spending while also sharply reducing taxes. Contrary to his carnival barker's pitch that this combo would energize the economy, lower taxes combined with fiat debt stunted economic growth. Even worse, he created an easy-money policies which led to the collapse of the Savings & Loan industry as one asset bubble followed another. Yet Reagan's delusional followers howled when George Bush broke his "no new taxes" pledge as he attempted to stem the damage caused by Reagan's profligate policies. Government debt declined as a percentage of GDP under Clinton, but private debt continued to soar with the creation of a stock market bubble. George W. Bush followed this up by tripling the government debt and creating a real estate bubble he called "The Ownership Society". If those who received the unfunded Reagan tax-reductions repaid them with interest, at the very low rate the government paid to borrow the money, economic stability would be restored. After all, these taxpayers are private-sector, far more efficient than the government. So no doubt they've made vast fortunes on the money they didn't pay in taxes, right? The sad truth is these private sector individuals spent nearly all of their tax reductions like a drunken Senator with little to show for it. Much of it was spent on crap from China and wanton speculation. The money is lost and cannot be repaid. In short, the supply-side fantasy (a fiction invented out of whole cloth) has nearly destroyed the American economy. Some will be inclined to blame earlier generations, like President William Taft who presided over the years which obviously provided Reagan such a misguided value system during his formative years. But I think it's a mistake to blame society for the "supply side" liars. Personal responsibility is important to the individuals involved as it is for society. .