Being as this is called the "Obama Effect" i figured that it would be about a president steering a country into the ground by piling on debt, fueling racism and racial separation, and blaming everyone else for his short-comings...
shareSounds a hell of a lot more like our LAST President, who pretty much ruined our image in the eyes of the world--"a president steering a country into the ground by piling on debt, fueling racism and racial separation, and blaming everyone else for his short-comings"---yep,that sounds JUST like Bush, who also started TWO wars he never even laid the groundwork to finish, which is ONE of the main reasons this country has been run into the ground economically.
Also, the economy has been in trouble since 911---it especially hit Michigan--my home state---real hard, and FYI,racism and racial separation was created and institutionalized by white folks, and it's been around since this country began---unless you're been living in a cave before 2008, you would already know that. Obama damn sure isn't perfect and he's made some mistakes that I don't like, and pissed me off about certain decisions he's made, but to blame him for each and EVERY damn thing that's gone wrong with this country in the last four years is ridiculous and unrealistic, because some of those same problems existed BEFORE he even got into office. I mean, half the time, he can't even get thing like a major jobs program passed because the Republican-run House of Reps has tried like hell to block damn near EVERYTHING he's tried to pass to at least help working people. And what kills is that these same Repubs don't seem to give a damn whether what he wants to pass will help their constituents or not, they just want to run him the hell out of office, as if THAT alone would improve everything----how *beep* idiotic CAN YOU GET!
kgreene12_248, I agree with you that Obama isn't perfect and has made mistakes and certainly can't be blamed for everything that the US is currently under.
But the poor keynesian economic policies that Obama enacted such as bailing out companies that should have failed while letting the Federal Reserve continually devalue the US dollar to where it is now have been nothing short of failure.
Obama has also continued the Patriot Act and signed the NDAA which has violated American's rights and liberties. He has also continued the ridiculous war on drugs which has segregated the population in that those who have been arrested for victimless drug-related crimes have been overwhelming African American. I don't think Obama's racist, but the judicial system obviously is, and prison's certainly are not rehabilitation centres, thus those who enter for victimless crimes are going to come out likely to commit worse "crimes."
While replacing American troops with contractors in Iraq, he has increased troop levels in Afghanistan at the outset of his presidency from roughly 20,000 to over 100,000 currently, and there are over 200,000 American soldiers abroad right now. The US has been getting involved in North African, South America, Latin America, etc, furthering the military industrial complex. This is what currently drives the US economy sadly.
There are many other policies that have been awful, but Bush was just as bad, if not worse, and it is debatable which one is actually worse. Lastly, making the argument that Republicans stop him at every turn doesn't hold any weight anymore. Sadly, both the Republican and Democratic parties are cut from the same cloth and the establishment (America's elite) own both parties through their lobbying powers.
So what can be done? Usually at this point I'd say support Ron Paul and research him, but I know you either won't, or you will research him and you'll dismiss him for some obscure reason just so you can continually support Obama, which is what the majority of the US has done. Anyways, hope what I've said helps in some way to this discussion.
Wow. Yes! Why can't every in America read this right now? Couldn't have said it better myself.
shareYeah you obviously understand the nature of the political machine but sadly you lack for depth in understanding economics. Firstly the bailouts had to happen. you want to know why? because the entire American economy was tied up in those companies. Unless of course you wanted a repeat of 1929 in which real unemployment would have been at 30 percent instead of 15 percent. Secondly you know nothing of the value of the U.S dollar which has kept steady at just 2 percent inflation per year since the bailout was enacted. If anything the bailout was to small and should have been bigger. 787 billion was about half of what it should have been. you really don't understand that it wasn't keynesian economics that got us into this mess but rather the friedman lets deregulate and decentralize everything policy. Sure keynesian economics failed post world war 2 but that was largely due to the over socializing of the economies of europe. I don't know, you need to study history and get our economics straight before you go on some libertarian rant. Thank you
share
You can't blame Friedman for all the economic woes. It was Congress that passed the law that basically said, "A house for everyone" forgetting that the house had to be paid for somehow. Sure Friedman may have had something to do with letting the banks sell mortgages that were sub-prime mixed in with good mortgages which caused the real downturn but he didn't encourage lower income people to be saddled with debt they could not pay the monthly payments on.
I saw this happen in a new subdivision where they got a $20,000 down payment for an over priced house but after living in public or lower class rentals all their life didn't know how much it costs to keep a house going plus making the payment. Most didn't even make it for a year before the foreclosures started and this was way before the 76-77 downturn. It had just multiplied out of control by then. One owner told me she didn't know she had to cut her own grass and couldn't afford a lawnmower. Some didn't know they had to fix their own problems if it was caused by a family member, like knocking holes in the wall during arguments.
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My favorite: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The bailout should have been bigger? Are you serious? So you're saying that American's should have had their wealth stolen from them to an even greater degree? The bailouts were sadly just another way of control over the American people by the political and corporate elite. Which basically means that you want the government to have more control over people's lives. One doesn't have to be a libertarian or anarchist to see that needing the government to always intervene and come to the "rescue" creates a dependency on the government, which allows them to further their control over the population. Relying on anyone or any group to control millions of people and dictate what they do with their lives is asinine. I hope you didn't get your unemployment rate stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics because that would be very sad, please tell me I'm wrong in that regard, because the real number is closer to 23% according to http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts.
Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan are moronic Keynesian economists who have relied on economic theory that has failed time and time again, convincing people we're in these great economic growth periods, only to see these periods crumble hard. In regards to the US dollar, the Federal Reserve Act has been one of the most detrimental things to happen to the US in its history. The fact is that the FED literally creates fiat currency out of thin air backed by nothing of value. The FED forced interest rates low and got this perceived boom happening that couldn't sustain itself in the long run. The housing bubble was created out of this and instead of the free market correcting itself (i.e. interest rates would have to go higher to accommodate the loans being given out as the money supply depleted), the FED continued to print money until eventually the bubble collapsed and created this current recession. The Keynesian system continually relies on creating these bubbles that inflate and then eventually explode. Trying to argue in favor of this and that the USD has held steady at 2% gets away from the real issue at hand regarding fiat currency.The real issue is that the political and corporate elite use this system to enhance their own wealth by creating monopolies and crony capitalism that furthers their control over the population. What you need is to study up on Austrian economic theory and history and get YOUR economics straight before you go on some big government rant.
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