"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine." - - - William Blum

November 13, 2007

Economy on the edge: Are things stabilizing, or are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg (snippet):

".... Oil has exploded to nearly $100 a barrel, gold is near an all-time high, and the cost of food is soaring. It seems like high prices are breaking out all over, right? Yet the core rate of inflation is less than 2% a year, according to one widely followed measure. Confusion reigns right on up to the Federal Reserve, whose interest ratesetters are openly disagreeing about whether more cuts are needed.

Step back a little, though, and the situation becomes clearer. What we're observing, in all its bizarreness, is the ancient paradox of what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. The irresistible force in this case is the U.S. economy, which has managed to expand through all kinds of adversity for more than 15 years, aside from one brief recession in 2001. The immovable object is a wall of debt that accumulated during several years of profligate lending and now can't be paid back. The risk has increased for a generalized credit crunch that puts both borrowers and lenders in dire straits.

So, either the U.S. economy will overcome the debt crisis and keep growing, or it won't. It's that simple—and that important, with millions of indebted homeowners struggling to stay above water, the stock market seesawing uncertainly, and just a year to go before the next President is elected....

I know I've posted a lot about the economy lately, but, next to global warming, the upcoming economic depression will have the greatest effect on all of us non-wealthy Americans, more than another Republican in the White House, more than the continuation of the Iraq War. They are all bad things, and some are morally worse than others, but for the next several years, we are going to experience a strong recession if not outright depression. Oh, and you can legitimately blame most of it on Bush/Cheney foreign and domestic policies which have been advantageous strictly for the wealthy and the corporations.

Fasten your seatbelt. Everything is spinning out of control. LEFT is RIGHT.

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