The Danger of a Global Double Dip Recession Is Real

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This may be this blog's best read yet!

dsquared dames schoenen bestellen of AL 3:31AM February 17, 2012

Mort,
I saw you on the McLaughlin Group the other night. Granted, puffs of air were blown across the table from all fronts in quick-time, but when it was your turn you said (paraphrasing): "...yeah i'd prefer the Fed...".
But, as if there were an endless supply of 1's and 0's in a fantastical computer entry, I ask:
How?
It's dying, it's being killed, it's weapon of debt is thrust upon the people as it falls.
And these same bankers want to replace it with a more global approach to the same formula.
How do you support this?

pdubya of FL 11:13PM December 27, 2010

Since 2008 my friends and I in our thirties went from good paying jobs to whatever we can find. I was paid $30 an our in the public schools now I buy and sell furniture on craigslist. But I have survived. I am no about to get a $10 an hour job as a P.A. For a disabled girl (rather than $30 teaching disable children) I will survive on an income of $15,000. But I look around all of my peers have massive amount of student debt and no jobs, houses they can no longer afford, and I will not have my student debt paid back for another ten twenty years. And what did we waste the money on? A war? Corporations that we subsidized with our tax dollars? Survielence? Europe and the rest of the world may have there own financial issues but at least they didn't screw themselves and provided an affordable education and health benefits. We will double dip, and we will all be picking up the prices for the next ten years.

Matthew of IL 2:25AM December 24, 2010

Well-writen and well argued. I suggest to Mort that he also look up the classic work of Arnold Toynbee on the rise and fall of civilizations. Oswald Spengler's views and Toynbee's align (and intersect) in many ways. Arnold insists, as you do, that "moral decadence" such as corruption can make a civilization incapable of rising to its challenge.

Dr. Sam of CA 1:42PM December 09, 2010

Just learned from Mort Zukerman on MSNBC that he is against extending the Bush Tax Cut for the rich. Now I can listen more to what he has to say about the deficit.
If Obama had invested as much time and zeal on taking a principled stand and fighting for the progressive agenda as he now invests attacking and blackmailing Democrats, he might have achieved more and gotten a better deal in Health Care Reform, tax give away to the rich and other major issues of interest to his base and the great majoriity of the American people. One blog on New York Times of today says it so well and summarizes what is lacking and what is at stake so wisely and eloquently as follows:
FROM A BOSTON BLOGGER (“GEMLI”) ON NEW YORK TIMES TODAY--FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION
"Republicans have no trouble drawing lines in the sand. They do it gleefully, heedless of whom it might hurt, and play the game for all it’s worth. They cannot disappoint their corporate masters, nor do they want to. The rest of us can starve, become homeless, and work until we die, which will be soon enough when they repeal Obamacare. It’s not that the Republicans are unwilling to serve, it’s just that they’re not willing to serve the people who elected them. I guess they don’t see any advantage to doing so. So Mr. Obama has to toe their line, and cave on an issue that gives temporary relief to the desperate jobless whose benefits are about to expire. But the price is to feed the very beast that caused the joblessness in the first place. No matter how important the immediate gain, the long term effect is to further increase the disparity between rich and poor, and funnel more money to people who have so much of it they don’t know what to do with it. Mr. Obama should have said No, and made the Republicans take a stand against desperate working people, and reveal what they are truly made of. Instead, he wants us to feel grateful for getting scraps, while the privileged few eat steak. Something is wrong with this picture."
Dr. Sam

Dr. Sam of CA 1:30PM December 09, 2010

Hegel pointed out that in the short term, the coming events are pretty well destined by historical forces set into motion in years past (Thesis-Antithesis-Synthethis).
So it looks like America's fate in the short term may well be pretty well set. And it doesn't look good: economic catastrophe, with soaring inflation/stagflation, or perhaps Japanese style lost decade(s) of no growth with some deflation.
The current short term pernicious bickering between the Republicans and Democrats, while our economic house is burning down, is symptomatic of the destructive historical forces bearing down on America--reaping what we sowed.
The short term looks bleak. But the long term may not be so bleak, because it is not yet determined. But we need to do things now, to set into motion the forces that will converge in the long term to create again a dynamic and prosperous economy.
During the coming years of economic stagnation or downturn, America's place in the world order will sharply diminish. Our current place as the sole world super power (military power, economic dominance, and cultural influence) capable of shaping world events is a direct result of our economic eminence.
Going through a time of economic malaise will be a humbling experience for Americans... but there may be a silver lining to being forced to learn to be less arrogant and more humble (not always bragging about American "exceptionalism").

Steve of PA 5:07PM December 08, 2010

Spengler heard the footsteps of socialism in 1918. He generated followers that led to "democratic socialism". He was wrong then, and is wrong now. He did not envision the development of the United States,then a remote third world away, designed and controlled by monied self-serving interests. He saw Germany of the first Reich defeated again in WWar I and theorized that his Germany, a superior nation, had reached its crest, and was dethroned. He followed European historical logic, that so-called "democratic socialism" was the ultimate secure world. The period of adjustment started and continued until the socialist dictatorships caused such a debasement of human life, and WWar II was required to defeat that theory. Open, transparent Federally guided societies will survive and yes-even socialist China will fail because its Politburo requires control over the populace, or a War to determine its destiny.

RHWeisinger of NJ 2:05PM December 06, 2010

Might be good to review Econ -101. Productive jobs can not be created by government. Government can only transfer funds from the private sector to the public sector - with a large percentage of the wealth lost in the process through government graft, pork-pie and inefficiency.
Thinking of jobs as being "created" is the first mistake. Tomatoes in a garden don't simply appear - they grow only after a proper environment is prepared for them.
America has spent decades destroying manufacturing jobs through "out sourcing", regulation, crazy union demands/legacy benefits and taxation. We have become a nation of paper shufflers that imports much of its basic needs; energy, food and raw materials.
Environmentalist theology has made every human endeavor more time consuming and expensive. Industry and business have moved to countries where the Environmentalist religion hasn't yet taken full control - as it has here in the U.S..
For 40 years our schools have emphasized "white collar" jobs - "blue collar" jobs were referred to contemptuously by school counselors and administrators as, "dead end", "unfulfilling", "unskilled" and "going nowhere" jobs. I remember a high school counselor referring to my father's job as a machinist as a, "...meaningless job - a road to nowhere.".
Until 3 years ago everyone believed we could sit back and enjoy life - prospering on ever increasing home equity... forever.
Corporate greed, government regulation/taxation, lack of character and self discipline, legacy costs, Environmentalist dogma and educational/vocational bigotry have transformed America, in just 40 years, from the industrial giant of the world to a country that can't provide the basic necessities of life for its people or even control its borders.
I don't believe we are willing, or able, to put the train wreck back on the track and head it in the opposite direction.

R.L. Schaefer of CA 11:58AM December 06, 2010

Well said, Mr. Z. As a Tea Party guy I couldn't have said it better. When you add Buchanan's Death of the West to the reading list the future becomes event more bleak.

JimJinNJ of NJ 8:54AM December 06, 2010

You may have contributed to America's decline by being too self-centered--constantly demanding that you get your tax cut, that Obama's tax cut for the rich become permanent, don't you think?

Dr. Sam of CA 8:02AM December 06, 2010