You remind of the boy that lives 5 houses down my street. He also makes no sense but he's mentally handicapped. What's your excuse?
Damn....remind me never to piss you off, BB!!! :1orglaugh
Bush fucked up the economy. I was expecting Obama to start fixing it or at least try. Instead of running away like Bush.
Son....I don't blame you for being angry. If I was your age again (sure glad I'm not!) I'd be fucking pissed as hell. However, you can thank both political parties for the present deficit mess....Bush and his buddies for deciding to head off to the great Iraqi adventure with their gung-ho heads secured squarely up their asses and the dems who blindly went along with his request to do so. Obama was one of the very few who had the courage to vote against it. He was outvoted and overruled.
Simultaneously, a monster was being created by the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" attitude that took place by all concerned in the financial sector regarding very risky credit policies, especially as it applied to home mortgages. Everyone, including the President, Congress, Obama, McCain, Wall Street....was asleep at the wheel while all this was going on because everyone was making tons of cash. So....boom....last September, this "perfect storm" of economic factors collided with disastrous results and, well, here we are now.....in the midst of the most serious economic crisis since the 1930s.
The seemingly insane "spend-spend-spend-spend" mindset that you currently see from the government (above and beyond what just the everyday normal spend-spend-spend mindset) is a manifestation of an old economic theory from a British economist named John Keynes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes
This "Keynesian" philosophy basically states that governments can and should use monetary solutions (a.k.a. public spending) in order to help to ease the effects of economic down-cycles and, perhaps more importantly, to speed recovery. It was largely used for the first time during the great depression by FDR and has been a subject of great debate as it relates to its true effectiveness. Many believe that WWII was the only thing that spurred the global economy out of the depression but like I said it is highly debated.
Back in September, you may recall that it was the Bush administration who, endorsed by both John McCain and Barack Obama, asked for the first load of bailout money (some $700 billion as I recall). This was to prevent the financial system from failing and was nothing more than a knee-jerk attempt to stop the bleeding on Wall Street. It had nothing to do with the stimulus money that was later asked for by Obama and approved by Congress. Yes....it is a lot of money. Mind-boggling actually. Who will be forced to pay this back is obvious.....you and future generations. It would seem that there is not a very bright future for you and I understand your frustration. I have a 21 year old son who has the same questions you do.
Take heart for the future. All is not lost regarding the deficit. There were very high deficits in the past that were eliminated during the 1990s, so it can be done. We have to start somewhere however and simply allowing things to seek their own level while people end up in bread lines and soup kitchens needs to be avoided at all cost....which is exactly what we are paying for with all this money. It hurts a lot. Most of all, you and your contemporaries need to learn to avoid the mistakes of my generation that created this mess. Learn it well....please.
The good news is that the stock market had its largest percentage gain in history for the month of July. Housing prices are up slightly. These are very powerful indicators that the economy may be beginning to respond to this Keynesian approach. It's too early to tell for sure but if the market continues to trend upward (it was up 114 points again today!), we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Obama isn't running away from the problem at all....he and others who support his approach, including republicans, are staying the course through very tough times until we can come out of this. It might not seem that way to you but the ends will justify the means if the Keynesian approach works. We should all sure pray that it does because, if not, we're all royally fucked.
