Image of the day

Captured by
Terry Wood

Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

The fundamentals of our economy are ---

Started by AstroMart, 04/07/2018 10:51PM

Poll Results:


0 Total Votes
Posted 09/19/2008 04:00AM #10
Hugh Peck said:

[QUOTE]Richard Wright said:

I'd rather not get to the point where I wash out and re-use ziploc baggies like the folks I knew growing up who did the first great depression.QUOTE]

WOW! Time-travel, too! Ziploc baggies weren't even test marketed until 1968.

Heh- no. I was referring to Great Depression survivors, who, 50 years later, were so marked by the experience they were reusing anything they could. Including items most of us think of as single use.
Posted 09/19/2008 01:59PM #11
While I disagree with Joe's assessment that your reading was "sloppy" (the sentence means exactly what you interpreted it to mean; Joe's reinterpretation is rather less literal), I have to come to his defense. Joe is not a "moderator" anywhere but within the forum(s) he moderates; out here, in controversial-poll-comments land, he's just another one of the gang. It's unfair to cast aspersions on his performance as a moderator based on his expressions of personal opinion here.

Heck, I disagree with nearly every word that comes out of Joe's keyboard in these polls, but that would not and should not affect my perception of his job as a moderator in the forums.

Terry (astrotrf)

Posted 09/19/2008 03:12PM #12
As strong as the backs of the taxpayers that are paying the bill for these "free" markets. :C
Posted 09/19/2008 03:16PM | Edited 09/19/2008 03:17PM #13
You did read that I compared his comments/attitude to mine? If I "cast aspersions" on him then I was also did so on myself.

Yes.
Posted 09/19/2008 03:49PM #14
Consider the news just since the end of the Republican convention: 1. record federal deficit; 2. highest unemployment rate in recent memory; 3. downward revision of 1st and 2nd quarter GDP figures; 4. Taxpayer bailout of FannieMae/FreddieMac 5. Collapse of Leymann Bros.; 6. Distress sale of Merrill Lynch; 7. Govt. purchase of AIG; 8. Govt."rescue plan" of bank assets costing per Treasury Secret. Paulson "100s of Billions". Did I forget anything? There is this: 2 days ago NPR asked Business Week Bureau Chief why the feds bailed out FannieMae/FreddieMac but let Lehman Bros go to the wall. His answer: The Chinese govt owned billions of dollars of FannieMae/FreddieMac stock/assets. If the U.S. let the Chinese lose that money, the P.R.C. may not be inclined to keep purchasing U.S. Treasury bills. That, my friend, speaks loudest of all.
Posted 09/19/2008 05:04PM | Edited 09/19/2008 05:04PM #15
If Obama gets elected, the republicans will be saying all this bad news was precipitated by the imminent democratic party take over.
Posted 09/19/2008 05:40PM #16
My apologies for my needless snippiness.

Joe Bergeron

Moderator, Astro-Physics Forum
Posted 09/19/2008 05:45PM #17
Richard's sentence was a bit ambiguous, and at first I misinterpreted it as you all did.

"I'd rather not get to the point where I wash out and re-use ziploc baggies like the folks I knew growing up who did the first great depression. "

He says "who did the great depression" to mean "who experienced the great depression". If he'd said "who did during the great depression" then that clause would mean that's when they did the baggie-washing.

Joe Bergeron

Moderator, Astro-Physics Forum
Posted 09/21/2008 05:34AM #18
Each weekend comes with another back room deal to make the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. With this weekend's additional $700 billion rescue, now I am really wondering how they will top that, next week. I suppose I should steel myself for the announcement we are selling Alaska back to the Russians. wink
Posted 09/22/2008 03:52AM #19
1. record federal deficit;

not as a percentage of GDP it isn't

2. highest unemployment rate in recent memory;

Short memory.

3. downward revision of 1st and 2nd quarter GDP figures;

Still higher than any other countries GDP

4. Taxpayer bailout of FannieMae/FreddieMac

Annoys me a lot but not a fundamental weakness.

5. Collapse of Leymann Bros.;

Companies fail in good times too.

6. Distress sale of Merrill Lynch;

Ditto

7. Govt. purchase of AIG;

REALLY upsets me but I'm no economics expert... though they disagree too.

8. Govt."rescue plan" of bank assets costing per Treasury Secret. Paulson "100s of Billions".

Yep, causing harm to protect short term political power. Could sure doom us if we keep it up... are we going to do that? My crystal ball is fuzzy.



Did I forget anything?


I'm sure you did. Like what is a fundamental and what do you expect out of one? Fundamentals are all about potential, like the foundation of a building they let us do great or terrible things to the house but still hold it up. If the foundation fails it doesn't matter how pretty of ugly the building is, it will collapse. Some of your points are about eroding the foundations of the US economy and some are just problems.


There is this: 2 days ago NPR asked Business Week Bureau Chief why the feds bailed out FannieMae/FreddieMac but let Lehman Bros go to the wall. His answer: The Chinese govt owned billions of dollars of FannieMae/FreddieMac stock/assets. If the U.S. let the Chinese lose that money, the P.R.C. may not be inclined to keep purchasing U.S. Treasury bills. That, my friend, speaks loudest of all.

more of the same - politics and power.

"I know engineers. They love to change things."

- Leonard McCoy (Star Trek: The Motion Picture)