14
Jan
The Obama recession continues
From Bloomberg:
Sales at U.S. retailers fell more than twice as much as forecast in December as job losses and the choking-off of credit led Americans to cut back on everything from eating out to car purchases.
The 2.7 percent decrease, the sixth consecutive drop, extended the longest string of declines in records going back to 1992, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Purchases excluding automobiles slumped 3.1 percent.
Today’s figures indicate that the hit to spending in the recession is even deeper than estimated, and spurred a slide in stock-index futures…
I’m not sure there’s a tax cut big enough to stave this one off. Maybe a six-month moratorium on all government regulation is the way forward here.
Zifnab
If Democrats hadn’t passed the Income Tax Amendment of 1914, we would never have suffered this massive downturn. I blame Jimmy Carter.
4tehlulz
You think you’re funny, but you’re not:
Punchy
OT:
Wha da fuck? Just how many times did Bush, Rice, Perino, MacClellan, Rumsfeld, and Cheney explicitly say we didn’t?
And why the fuck isn’t this front page news everywhere? Pretty damming shit.
Colonel Danite
Isn’t a suspension of the "Death Tax" the real solution. After all, as Wall Street big-wigs start jumping from windows, we want to make sure their families get to keep what’s left of their estates.
Xenos
@Punchy: The misinformation industry is scrambling around to find a compelling pretense for blanket pardons. It looks like the story is going to be that crazed liberal fascist prosecutors are going after Our Rough Men In The Night Heroes even though, per Pat Buchanan torture is moral, and per Joe Scarborough, texting Mika on air from vacation, ‘cold and music are not torture!’
MSNBC is unwatchable, even if they make some attempts to insert reality. I can just imagine what was going on this morning on Fox.
Comrade Darkness
Except the eight-year moratorium on regulation is what got is where we are now. Actually, technically, a 30 year moratorium, with a small breather of pretending otherwise under Clinton. If the regulations actually get enforced again, people will trust things enough to participate in the financial system, but until then, foobar is what it is going to be. Giving the thieves even more license to steal is not going to help.
jibeaux
I’m no econ genius, but there are people desperately looking for a good place to invest a little money, so desperate they’ll put it in bonds with almost no return; and at the same time my credit card just raised its rate, again—to 27.99%, which should probably be illegal if it isn’t already. I have a low balance on it, but I can’t quite pay it all off right now—bloody Christmas with kids—and it makes me insane to pay that kind of interest even for a month or two.
There seems to be a disconnect here. I know that people are looking for "safe" places to put their money, but why is credit still so damn tight?
r€nato
This terrible economic news clearly calls for a flag-burning amendment, an anti-gay marriage amendment, and the posting of the 10 Commandments in all schools and courthouses.
r€nato
CRA, Barney Fag, Chris Dodd, Carter and Clinton.
SATSQ.
thomas
We are so f’ed. Eight years of indolence and incompetence from the administration, congress and media elite (the unholy threesome screwing everyone else) has left us with in this quagmire of debt, recession and war.
Closing snark was great.
Michael
A National Day of Prayers to Jesus is just the ticket to get us out of this.
thomas
renato wins snark award at 8
r€nato
What are you talking about?
Clearly, retail sales tanked in December as a result of consumer panic due to the election victory of Barack Hussein Osama and the Dhimmicrats.
JGabriel
DougJ@Top:
Obviously, the only way to stimulate the economy is to get the middle class and lower middle class to start spending more.
And, just as obviously, the only way to do that is to get rid of the inheritance tax and capital gains taxes. Just getting rid of all gov’t regulation won’t possibly be enough.
.
JL
Doug what regulations would you like to do away with? I thought that Bush did a pretty good job of that personally. I really liked the fact that 5 investment banks were allowed to leverage 30 to one. That helped Wall Street. Oh yeah, those were the same investment banks that failed. Folks that preach tax cuts as the way out of the recession forget that most folks are stashing their money away in preparation for the next round of layoffs.
Ash Can
@JL: (Psst—I’m pretty sure he was being sarcastic.)
UncommonSense
I’m not sure there’s a tax cut big enough to stave this one off. Maybe a six-month moratorium on all government regulation is the way forward here.
Sorry, Doug. Not even close.
A problem this severe can be solved by nothing less than constitutional amendments banning abortion, same-sex marriage, and non-white immigration.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
As Perfesser Krugman noted in his blog, we’re in uncharted waters now. Too much stimulus is bad, too little stimulus is bad, so BO has to hit the bulls eye with his first shot. But why should he even bother? A prominent local wingnut had a letter in the paper this AM: one week before he’s sworn in, BO is already a fraud, a charlatan, and a complete failure.
Just the opposite, plz. We’re in the sixth month of this meltdown, and AFAIK credit default swaps are still unregulated. I’m sure that sales of swaps has plummeted, but still…... why are we not instituting some transparency and oversight?
SnarkIntern
Obama is not even an American citizen. Why are some people defending him?
Rick Taylor
It grieves me to discover that even the most talented spoofer cannot compete with the real thing. Via Digby, a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal:
Rosali
People have stopped eating out?
4tehlulz
Shorter Randroid: Herbert Hoover was right.
SnarkIntern
If the contest is between big government run amok (the "Atlas" view) or deregulation run amok …. why would anyone want to pick the big government solution?
At least in the deregulation model, the people still have some power. In the big gov model, the people are powerless.
Maybe more people should be reading Ayn Rand?
Andrew
I really hope Obama doesn’t fall for the tax cut crap. The only reason to include it is to get a few dozen Republicans to sign on to the bailout, so he can have some ammo for 2012. We can’t afford to give money to people who won’t spend it.
gbear
@Rosali:
Not really, they’ve just started ordering from the ‘value’ menu.
Zuzu's Petals
Oh great.
Osama Bin Laden Challenges Obama in Tape
Napoleon
OT, but the Oakland police finally arrested that BART officer who shot that unarmed guy in the back.
Zifnab
@jibeaux:
Specifically because no one trusts the American consumer anymore. You can’t invest in capital because no one thinks people are buying and you extend credit because no one thinks anyone will pay it back.
There is zero trust in the marketplace right now. Oh, oh, that’s not entirely true. There is one iota of trust – T-Bill – that rest on the assumption Uncle Sam will always pony up. Nice to see "Tax Cut" McConnell wants to piss that away too.
I would be horrified to know what our economic plans would be under a McCain administration.
Zifnab
Actually, the Nevada police arrested him. Apparently, he should have stayed in Oakland where he was safe.
Evinfuilt
At this point, I think the families should get whatever was left on the sidewalk, and everything else goes toward the bailouts they forced on the country.
Oh yeah, you were being snarky and I’m just being mean :)
4tehlulz
1. Bomb Iran.
2. Cause hyperinflation.
3. ????
4.
ProfitTax cut!jibeaux
Okay, but…
throw in child labor and a little extra melamine, lead, and phen-fen, and you have a recipe for unprecedented economic growth.
p.a.
Hey DJ, have your comments yet been posted on wingnut sites as if they were serious commentary? That is the gold standard of snark. Remember the christnut sites that quoted The Onion about "Gay groups surpass recruiting target for the year" ?(paraphrase from memory).
SnarkIntern
That’s making light of a serious problem.
ThymeZoneThePlumber
Uh, fellas, can we update the moderation queue on this thread please? It’s been an hour.
Keith
Solution: Obama + bullhorn = speech imploring the citizens to spend money at stores n restaurants.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
Because, why not?
TenguPhule
In what may be the crowning moment of Irony here, government is one of the few employers that was still hiring in any strength.
SnarkIntern
I’m a little miffed that more people are not taking the failures of Obama seriously.
Is the man going to get an indefinite honeymoon period?
Do we suddenly believe that the values and culture issues are no longer relevant? What else is there to make of the post at 17?
cyntax
@Zifnab:
Ouch… that’s gonna leave a mark.
Tim H.
If that includes guillotine and tar-and-feathering regulation, I’m all for it.
ChrisB
@jibeaux: I blame you for the
recessiondepression. Clearly, you did not spend enough to keep our economy humming if your credit card balance is low. You probably didn’t go shopping after 9/11 either.By the way, the maximum legal rate of interest in New Jersey (it varies state to state) for an individual to pay is 30%. It really is legal loan sharking to charge that much.
DougJ
Not any recent ones, no.
mr. whipple
snark? I sure hope so.
I want Obama to push for massive re-regulation in the finance sector, so that people will feel confident enough to invest.
Zifnab
@SnarkIntern:
Given that gays cause hurricanes and economic slumps while only Jesus prevents forest fires, you’d think this would be a top issue.
Xecky Gilchrist
@UncommonSense: A problem this severe can be solved by nothing less than constitutional amendments banning abortion, same-sex marriage, and non-white immigration.
Plus Reagan’s face on Mount Rushmore and every U.S. coin and bill, and not less than one monument to him in every U.S. county.
Ash Can
@Rick Taylor: Geez, that guy needs to lay off the paint chips.
Notorious P.A.T.
Haha )
SnarkIntern
Isn’t this the ideal time to move Social Security to a privatized model, as the president suggested?
Prices are never going to be lower, and that means a rare opportunity for gains in the years ahead.
Why isn’t Obama suggesting this? Does he want to keep the middle class down to puff up his liberal appeal?
Notorious P.A.T.
How many bailout plans have there been? 2?
Nicole
Only the restoration of the monarchy can save us now.
Glocksman
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Both the Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman true believers such as Moore and doctrinaire Marxists share an ‘ideology above all’ outlook and will ignore reality when it disproves the ideology.
What’s scary to me is that 10 years ago I’ve have read that piece and thought he was absolutely right instead of full of shit.