Deficit @ MindSay

The Economy—Busted Boon.

President Bust the elder , in a recent Dallas speech, lauded the success of the American economy. His justification? A raising stock market and lower unemployment.  John Glen recently made the same points in an interview on one of the nightly network news programs. And Republicans are planning to end the current campaign using the same numbers. Unfortunately, most Americans do not share their glee.

How a person measures something is a measure of his/her intellectual honesty. Presenting measurements of dubious value is a sign of a sinister mind.

Of course, many taut the market and unemployment numbers as measures of the economy’s health. Most of those who do it, however, have a pecuniary connection to the investment community. But neither market figures nor unemployment numbers measure anything objective. Market figures merely measure the guesses of investors, many of whom are professionals who have a huge stake in how the market goes. These people are much too involved to be objective.

On the other hand, unemployment numbers are calculated after an assumption is made of how many people in the workforce are no longer looking for employment. They may not be looking, but they certainly are unemployed; yet they are never counted.

No matter what these numbers claim to show, most people have a different measure—the amount of money in their pay envelopes and how much they can buy with it. In these terms, the American economy is clearly sinking into the pits. This coupled to the nation’s huge national debt, huge deficit, and  inbalance of payments paint a picture of an economy in serious trouble, so serious, in fact, recovery may be impossible.

Although many Americans have not yet taken notice of this decline, the financiers in other nations have. Today the Hong Kong Standard, Asia’s premier business newspaper, claims that the U.S. dollar is losing is preeminence as the world’s reserve currency and justifies its claim with numbers showing how various national bankers throughout the world have reduced their dollar holdings. It is a must read; it can be found at http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=9&art_id=30114&sid=10499881&con_type=3&d_str=20061025.

©2006 John Kozy, Jr.

On a lighter note: The Dumb ass (I'm sorry I mean George Bush) is at a all time lowest approval rating. The fourth year of the so called war starts today and no end is in sight. The Bush cronies are scrambling around trying to come up with something to take the heat off of the retard. I would not put it past them to set-off something on U.S. soil and blame it on Iraq just to get support back in favor of the Red Republicans and the war. They are the biggest load of GD fools I have ever seen and it makes me sick to see good guys getting blown up daily over there. When Bush took office Clinton left him with a Budget Surplus (yes the US income from Taxes was more than the government was spending when Clinton left office) Now Bush has created the largest deficit in all of history, and Our Air Pollution Grants are being cut 19% across the board meaning we will most likely have to let some people go.

Bush in red: Clinton in dark blue Source: Table 1.3 Budget of the United States Government: Fiscal Year 2005 Historical Tables

Bush Tax Cuts Cause Largest Deficit in Nation's History Mr. Speaker, in my home State of Arkansas, nearly 75,000 people are out of work today. Unemployment has increased by 19 percent in the last 3 1/2 years. However, our Nation's Treasury Secretary John Snow is visiting Arkansas today to talk about how President Bush's tax policy reforms are actually creating jobs in Arkansas. All the President's tax cuts for the wealthy have given us is the largest deficit ever in our Nation's history, tax cuts that our children will be forced to pay. For Secretary Snow to come to Arkansas today and tell Arkansans the administration's economic plan is creating jobs shows a blatant disregard for what Arkansas families are really facing. Working families do not need more rhetoric; they need jobs, they need affordable health care, they need a real Medicare prescription drug plan and, yes, they need lower gasoline prices, all things this administration has failed to do.

Lord help us.

Big Bob 

Despite the lies, the tax cuts and the deficit, there is one positive Iraqi strategem that I have harbored quietly for months. The need for quiet passed last night as Dubya spilled the beans. We have to deal with these people somewhere and somewhere else is better than American soil and cities. By taking it to them in Iraq, we have drawn a flood of nutcase real and wannabe terrorists to the area and created a target rich environment. Imagine the chaos of going after them at home or spread out randomly all over the planet. Still, I would like to see at least a 100:1 ratio of dead terrorists to dead American troops. And the effort to get OBL has been half hearted. Carpet bombing a few square miles at random would put a little on his mind. There is never a shortage of something to gripe about or suggest.