In his first news conference since Election Day, President-elect Barack Obama said the United States is ”facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetimes.”
“Obama Drama Ding Dong.” (Let’s see if that phrase catches on). For the next four years we are going to read and hear about crisis after challenge for Obama Drama Ding Dongs. (Inspired by the “Animal House” nightclub scene.)
And the “free press” in America fails to report that Jimmy Carter’s presidency was on an economic disaster with mortgage interest rates of 19 to 21 percent, gas lines, unemployment of over 8.5 percent and the highest tax rates ever seen in the United States since LBJ’s Great Society.
Today’s media is a propaganda machine for the Democratic party. This week the Washington Post in an editorial admitted they had an overwhelming bias to get Obma elected. Woopsie. But the LA Times was even worse. The editors there kept a tape of a toast to a Jew hater named Khalid.
We will see the tape eventually. But will it have been edited? What do you think?
There is no comparative, investigative reporting. Watch America transform into an Eastern European socialist nation with no future and the middle class transformed into a lower-class, mediocre society ruled by the rich, elite class.
Market Myth: Worst Economy Since The Great Depression?
by James K. Glassman (September 2, 2004)
To hear John Kerry tell it, America is mired today in the worst economy since the Great Depression. How dumb does he think voters are?
We just set a record for yearly production: a GDP of nearly $12 trillion, or $120,000 per family. As for what really counts, personal well-being: A record 69 percent of Americans own their own homes, and the account balance in the average 401(k) plan is $77,000, up 22 percent in three years.
On the eve of his nomination at the Republican Convention in New York, Bush can be proud of the U.S. economy and what he’s done to keep it growing.
He was dealt an extremely miserable hand by his predecessor. As Bill and Hillary Clinton were leaving the White House, the tech-stock bubble was deflating, and GDP and employment growth were slowing sharply. A recession began two months later.
The fraud at Enron, WorldCom and other companies, which would bloom into historic scandal in the fall of 2001, also occurred under Clinton’s watch. And, then, of course, there was 9/11.
It is, frankly, a miracle that the U.S. economy is as good as it is today. How good? The Economist magazine says the U.S. will grow more than twice as fast as Europe this year, and our unemployment rate is roughly half that of France and Germany.
Now hear Obama… Get it? It’s all propaganda. The worst economy was 25 years ago under Jimmy Carter. Ask your mom and dad.
“Watch America transform into an Eastern European socialist nation of no future and the middle class transformed into a lower-class, mediocre society ruled by the rich, elite class.”
When you are right, you are right. Viola! We’ve already got exactly what you describe as a result of our nation’s current reckless economic policies.
Like a socialist country, we have just socialized large portions of our financial system and, while their profits were theirs, their losses are now socialized for you and me to pay off.
And the middle class? Basically flat earnings over the past 20 years with only a brief uptick during the Clinton administration. The top 1 percent of wage-earners now make 50 percent of the income and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans control 90 percent of the wealth, levels that have not been seen since 1928. Talk about a wealthy elite ruling class.
Looking back at that time before the Great Depression, FDR’s Fed Chairman Mariner Eccles described the American economy this way:
“The United States economy is like a poker game where the chips have become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and where the other fellows can stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit runs out, the game will stop.”
The credit is running out. Major banks are frozen with all new capital now being raised going to reserves against expected future losses. Credit cards are defaulting at near-record rates. Home mortage are continuing to default at record rates. We’ve lost more than a million jobs in the past year.
You are correct that the economy during the Carter presidency was a disaster. But if the point of this post was to tell us that Bush’s economic legacy is better than Carter’s, isnt that kind of like telling us that being killed by lightning is better than being poisoned?
If you are interested, there is pretty clear evidence that the economy — by nearly every measure — does better in Democratic administrations than it does under Republicans. I’d post the links to numerous studies but your site won’t let me. Try Googling “economic performance Democrat Republican” if you’d like to see a sampling. They show that for the past century, even including Carter and Herbert Hoover, economic performance measured by all metrics has been better under Democratic administrations.
For all our sakes, let’s hope the trend continues under Obama. Our country can use a boost, lest we continue to descend into the economic obscurity you describe.
Pingback: Clinton On Best Political Blogs » Blog Archive » The greatest economic challenge of our lifetimes is not now, it was 25 years ago under Jimmy Carter
I remember Jimmy Carter’s years. I was a teen, my dad lost his job and my mom had to work two jobs.
We couldn’t afford the better universities I was dreaming of. I ended up going to a junior collage.
I’m afraid of what is coming.
I feel your anxiety, Mary. We can hunker down and work on our own finances, pay down our debt while the Democrats pay off their base with more “entitlements” passed on as more taxes on the middle class for generations to come.
Who has any respect for the old gray lady (NYT) and it’s wannabes — the Washington Post, SF Chronicle and LA Times?
Most of the Democrats that voted for Obama do not subscribe to newspapers. My guess is that 60-year=0ld white haired liberal, PBS listeners are the main stream media’s only followers.
2008 marks the year old American media killed themselves off.
Well, the one bit of encouragement I take from this is that, if we survived Carter, perhaps we’ll survive Obama. And after Carter, we got Reagan.
I hope historians are kinder to Bush than the mainstream media has been. He deserves so much better than he got.
It’s up to bloggers now to help historians record history. The mainstream media has shown they are not in the business of reporting objective news.
Отличный пост – слов нет. Спасибо.
Big thanks…)
Phmnoeenal breakdown of the topic, you should write for me too!