US Stock Market: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
After weeks of triple digit losses in the US stock market and after the overnight Asian markets tanked again, the Fed makes an "emergency rate cut" of a whopping (no irony, folks) 75 basis points.
Well, that's one way to prime the business pump; hope it doesn't spark another round of inflation. Another way to stimulate business would be to inject tens, or hundreds, of billions of dollars of "liquidity" into the market. That would definitely bring up the specter of inflation. Make existing tax cuts permanent? That's part of the problem, not part of the solution. Besides, even tax cut proponents admit it wouldn't help soon enough. Targeted tax rebates? "Experts" suggest that a stimulus of this kind should equal $145 billion or 1% of GDP to be effective. At best that equals $2000 per family of four. And it would probably be an advance on your tax refund, not cash out of the Federal Reserve. And it might spark more inflation. Lastly, wouldn't you just use it to pay off your credit card debt? Most people would, I suspect.
Bottom line: After 7 years of running the economy, after 7 years of supply side economics, after 7 years of the most business-friendly administration in several generations, after 7 years of tax cut after tax cut after tax cut, after a trillion dollars has been thrown down the rathole of the Iraq war, the Bushies have finally admitted they're out of ideas. Will the last one out of Fort Knox please turn the lights out?
I don't know about you, but I think it might be a good time to start getting paid in Euros.
You left out the root cause of our current crisis, the casus belli (beyond simple wealth transfer to elites) for the conservative movement: deregulation (the mortal enemy of democratic capitalism). "Creative destruction," anyone?
Who the fuck would buy that moronic propaganda, anyway? Oh, right.
The Times had a pretty good article about Clinton on that topic:
There's more to the article and I'm surprised to hear some of the things she says -- mostly because she's pretty detailed in the outlines of her solutions. It's worth the read.