Who's Right, McCain or Gramm?

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James, you obviously don't understand inflation, capital markets, the economy or job growth. In fact I'd say that a majority of what you are saying is borderline obnoxious.
Businesses have no incentive to create better jobs. What a bunch of malarkey.

Chris of AZ 12:49PM July 14, 2008

I love reading the comments of the conservatives. You can always trust them to fall back on the "stop whining, work harder, start saving" BS. Let's look at the facts:
1. Even if American were to actually start saving, the dollar is losing value faster than most people can accumulate them.
2. Get s better job? Good luck. The economy is losing jobs faster than it is creating them. 480,000 and counting. And wages are dropping. So, if you do find a new job, odds are it will pay you LESS.
3. GDP is a spurious number than doesn't account for many real factors in the economy. Unemployment is another one of those special numbers that look good on paper but doesn't tell the whole story. The employment figures don't include information showing if the "jobs" being produced offer livable wages... most of the jobs produced in Bush's economy have been of a significantly lower quality and even those are disappearing. Also, the figure doesn't include people who stop looking for work after employment benefits dry up. Unemployment has stayed low because many people have been out of work so long, they are no longer included in the figures. It's just creative mathematics.
4. Banks and corporations have benefitted tremendously from a friendly U.S. government. The markets have been vastly deregulated over the past 25 years. So government regulation isn't why this problem has occurred.
Conservatives want to blame "whiners" and the government for the situation and fall back on the GDP to "prove" that the economy is strong. Our government has been a friend to corporations for a long time and has deregulated most of our industries. As for those "newer, better" jobs that are always on the horizon? Labor costs are always among the highest business expenses and one of the easiest to control. In other words, businesses have NO INCENTIVE to create better jobs. In fact, it's in the interest of businesses to find ways to lower salaries. So when a conservative tells you a better job is a-comin', don't hold your breath.

James King of VA 11:12AM July 13, 2008

<i>The FDA does not even know where the contamination(s) is coming from, Florida or Mexico. We are hurting badly right now as individuals or as a nation. We need Barack Obama as President. We can not take four (4) more years of Bush, via John McCain.</i>
So true. Obama knows where the contamination has come from and as soon as he is President he will tell us.
We need to tax the rich. Until they are properly reduced. Then we can start in on the middle class.
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So which is better? A system that attracts big money? Or one that drives it away?
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And yes. The Bush economy is a disaster. What we need are Carter's economic policies. And most importantly his foreign policies. Carter was instrumental in the rise of fundamentalist Iran.
Hope and Change is only the beginning.

M. Simon of IL 8:09AM July 13, 2008

Capitalism has an answer for the problems of the poor. A growing economy. More capital. More powerful than any government program.
More capital means higher paying jobs.
Taxing capital accumulation lowers growth and also reduces what can be paid for a job.

M. Simon of IL 7:38AM July 13, 2008

"total reversion to the laissez-faire robber baron days of the early 20th century"
Is that why the previous post was about bailing out two quasi-governmental corporations? One of us better go back an re-read the history of the robber baron days.
"our free markets with no regulation have led to the worst of all worlds: Fascism"
So Fascism occurs when there is not enough government. Who knew?

The Dirty Mac of NJ 2:04PM July 12, 2008

Anyone who thinks we have some sort of free, laissez-faire market in the US that is now failing is completely insane.
Everywhere you turn, the government is hip-deep involved. Medicine, levels of taxation, college education, housing, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, mandates, guidelines, regulation, diversity initiatives, spending increases way higher than inflation YEAR AFTER YEAR AFTER YEAR. It goes on and on and on and on.
OF COURSE things are screwed up. This is why conservatives are so angry at the president over his handling of the economy.
If we cut the government about 50%, that would be a good start.
Anyone who thinks things will get better under Obama is NUTS, you might say.

Chester White of IL 8:23AM July 12, 2008

Where? Our markets here in the US can't seem to stumble along without the government propping it up or bailing it out every step of the way. This so-called "free" market hasn't managed too much on its own lately.

Jefe of NC 7:43AM July 12, 2008

"This is the third time in 100 years that support for taken-for-granted economic ideas has crumbled."
Hardly. The startling bubble in the technology markets under Bill Clinton shattered conventional economic wisdom. For almost five years, financial markets significantly choked off capital to traditional sectors investing instead in -- it might as well have been tulips -- "dot com" companies. Employment soared, but only on paper as worthless, a few years later, as the stock certificates of all the bankrupt start-ups. The educational and employment decisions of an entire generation were significantly skewed, and many still pay the price for the decisions taken back then.
The Clinton Crash of 2000 was the worst since the great depression, and set the stage for a massive transfer of the remaining wealth from equities to real estate. In this manner, the Clinton Crash ignited the very real estate bubble at the core of our current troubles.
It's remarkable Bush has kept our economy growing and, over the entire period since the crash, employment and productivity growing, even as the U.S. faced unprecedented domestic attack and a global war on terrorism.

Anil Petra of NY 3:03AM July 12, 2008

As a first generation of Asian immigrant, who is now an entrepreneur I want to add to Gramm's comment, that America is not only growing into a nation of "whiners" but also sissies.
They have gotten so used to the expectation of "American Dream" that they have forgotten the fine print that you need to work hard for it.
If you are a laid off auto worker in Michigan, move to Mississippi where Toyota is opening new plants; or learn computers and move to Seattle; or learn some other occupation that is in demand.
Millions risk their life to come here, they work under exploitative condition and still believe that they can build a better life. Why are you complaining?
All change must start from within.

ST of CT 12:28AM July 12, 2008

Whining, well yes we are. Times are a bit tough for some and with the price of oil driving up most prices, people are being hurt. But most Americans have never really had to sacrifice. Few remember the 1973 oil embargo and stagflation during Mr. Carter’s presidency. Expectations have overridden reality. But the media has played up expectations and then with BDS in full blossom, attacked the economy when it was decent and now that it’s not, we must be in a depression. I have heard second hand that people, who have never lived during a strong recession never mind a depression, believe we are in a depression; one of the mind I would say.
The home mortgage problem began, when during the attempt to make everyone a homeowner a reality, in the 1980’s congress pressured banks and mortgage companies to lower the bar. Greed then took over when congress allowed home sale’s profits for most to be tax free. All good ideas with unintended consequences; ones that I never remember congress investigating.
And the gas prices and resulting price inflation; anyone with a lick of sense could see where we were heading with the 1973 embargo, the increased used of energy worldwide with ever more OPEC and state owned oil companies controlling the market and the banning of US offshore oil exploration in the 1980’s. The only unknown was when not if. Well “when” is now and the Democrats and some Republicans are ignoring the obvious. We need an oil bridge until reasonable, inexpensive alternatives with a national support infrastructure is available. But what is new there. The Speaker promised policies to change the $2.91 per gallon price of gas after capturing the House in 2006 and it worked; gas is now over $4.00 per gallon.

Al Reasin of MD 11:47PM July 11, 2008