Comments on: Housing bubble burst “with a vengeance”

By: IDS - New Jersey Secure Document Shredding

IDS - New Jersey Secure Document Shredding — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:10:18 +0000

Quality the better

By: IDS - New Jersey Secure Document Shredding

IDS - New Jersey Secure Document Shredding — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:32:04 +0000

Roll drumming A

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:32:49 +0000

“ya see, that sounds like a very strong argument for NOT lowering taxes during an economic downturn. And yet, somehow I am quite sure that that was not what you intended.”

Don’t assume my positions. I’m sick of the cut taxes vs increasing spending debate.

I’m for decreasing spending.

By: Sir Rentsalot

Sir Rentsalot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:35:16 +0000

Ben – “Which is the exact reason why Keynesian policies should never be implemented in the first place. The government has an 80 year history of not reversing course after their Keynesian medicine.” – ya see, that sounds like a very strong argument for NOT lowering taxes during an economic downturn. And yet, somehow I am quite sure that that was not what you intended.

By: Sir Rentsalot

Sir Rentsalot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:31:36 +0000

105 ben – when you refer to generic “people” who are doing X, it begins to sound like a straw-man argument. And it’s all well and good to predict a crash in the djia in 2001, but if you miss an 7-year run-up of 80% as a result, there are a lot of people who are doing better than you. Schiff is an investment advisor, not a policy-maker, and on actual 2001-2007 results, he didn’t do that well. Now, if he had been at the fed in 2001, we’d all be better off.

By: Sir Rentsalot

Sir Rentsalot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:24:46 +0000

“Rofl, Ron Paul is Republican in name. He openly campaigned against John McCain in November.”. Yeah, and joe lieberman isn’t a Democrat. And I notice you conveniently dropped Schiff from that discussion. You may protest, but you source one side of the aisle. I’m not quite sure why you’ve gotten so breathless, since I generally agree with you about monetary policy, but you’d be more pursuasive if you came across as a bit less of an ideologue.

By: cobbler

cobbler — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:56:20 +0000

ben [103]
Our problem in 2001 as it is now was globalization (which pulls down median incomes all things equal). Credit expansion was the way to make people not feel this drop in real income. Both D and R establishment can’t oppose globalization for their own ideological reasons: D because it improves the life of the poor of the world (at our expense) and R because it allows corporations to reduce expenses (because they could pay the poor of the world much less than they paid us).

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:52:17 +0000

“On this, I happen to disagree with him, but I think it serves to be accurate about what the debate is, and “Krugman has openly stated that their is no danger of inflation at all” doesn’t do that.”

Actually, it does. Because people are holding Krugman up like he’s the genius economist that knows everything when the fact of the matter is, his policies that he believes in result in utter disaster…and any solution he proposes will result in greater unemployment and greater inflation down the road.

By: cobbler

cobbler — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:49:13 +0000

Unfortunately, inflation is the only way to resolve the debt crisis other than by bankrupting 1/3 of the populace, 2/3 of the states and the USG to top the pile. It is also the only way (unless we are willing to completely get rid of the free trade policies – which I think will be a tremendous thing to do.The dirty little secret about beggar thy neighbor policies is that they actually work for the majority of the population; they are really bad for the investment bankers) to stop and hopefully reverse the decline of the U.S. productive economy. Overall, we need to design the most painless way to step on a sea urchin – how to reduce the average consumption by 20-30% and not cause social unrest…

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:47:23 +0000

“Bang on. During the bubble, our prescient one-party government was cutting taxes and sending spending through the roof.”

So what? You won’t find me defending a single action of the Bush administration.

“However, Keynes does advocate higher taxes and lesser government spending during times of plenty. *This* part of Keynesianism is easily forgotten by our governemnt.”

Which is the exact reason why Keynesian policies should never be implemented in the first place. The government has an 80 year history of not reversing course after their Keynesian medicine. But let us simply revisit the facts. Keynesianism didn’t help us in 2001. It just made a bad problem worse at a later date.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:43:23 +0000

“- Ron Paul IS a Republican

- Robert Blumen donates only to Ron Paul

- Puplava and Faber get a pass”

Rofl, Ron Paul is Republican in name. He openly campaigned against John McCain in November. Robert Blumen donates only to Ron Paul? So friggin what! That doesn’t mean they weren’t both 100% right!

If you want to refer to mises.org as conservative, then you are sadly mistaken, you fail to acknowledge what the modern day incarnation of a conservative is. Mises.org openly criticizes the policies of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Both George Bush’s more than they do Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. These are the guys that have been the face of conservatism for 40 years!

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:38:38 +0000

“Same thing. In late 2001, lowering rates was the right course of action. By a year later it wasn’t. So pointing out that Krugman advocated lowering rates in 2001 doesn’t get you anywhere, no matter how many citations you have.”

Nonsense. The rates got down to 1% and Krugman was busy writing articles about how 0% may not even be low enough and therefore the government should increase spending. And no, lowering rates wasn’t the right course of action. It resulted in a big financial crisis and a weaker dollar. They were already too low to begin with at 6%. We needed to raise rates to purge the economy of the excesses of the late 90s and increasing our national savings rate, which was already dismal at the time. Any lowering of interest rates discouraged savings and encouraged reckless consumption in an economy that was already suffering from underproduction and overconsumption.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:32:43 +0000

“Just curious where you are getting those numbers?”

Case Shiller Inflation Adjusted National Index

By: still_looking

still_looking — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:27:37 +0000

still_looking is still_awake.

By: SirRentsalot

SirRentsalot — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:15:08 +0000

“looks like I’m the only one who burns the midnight oil.”

I’m still at the office.