Dems Will Turn Meltdown Into Catastrophe
With scant elegance, nuance or tact, this "bird's-eye view" is a rough picture of what will happen if we go over this particular cliff at this, "our moment" in history, and why we may never regain what will be lost if we do.
The problem is not only with the presidency. Increasingly, Congress is the problem. Congress has much more power than the President now. If the Democrat majority grows, it will have still more power over the new President, whether Obama or McCain. What will that mean for the future, and especially for this meltdown?
Remember how this meltdown started. It was from the Democrat party, and from their mis-handled compassionate desire to help minorities and poor people own their own homes. The motive was laudable. The result was ruinous. We need to assess blame in order to know what not to do, and who not to put in charge next time.
To recap: President Carter started the CRA, which pushed banks to make sub-prime mortgages to people who could not afford them. ACORN pushed banks into making sub-prime mortgages that they were forbidden to make, by law and by prudent practice. ACORN pushed Congress into forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into accepting more of such mortgages than they wanted. Then Congress forced Fannie/Freddie to make 50% of all its mortgages be sub-prime mortgages. Then President Clinton's Justice Department under Janet Reno actively threatened any banks who did not comply. (Clinton has recently acknowledged his mistake.)*
Madness! The house of cards started its free-fall when the price of housing started down, and the "housing bubble" burst. But that house of cards was built, first to last, by the Democrats. To understand our future, that fact must be remembered at every turn. Because we must move from Left to Right to have any semblance of a good future.
Why? Because this meltdown will take years to work out, even if we do everything right. (Much worse, if we do not do everything right.) That is because this meltdown is a "perfect storm." More than one crisis is going on, and more will come. They will be worse than this one, because this one, at least, has some underlying equity behind the bad debt in the form of property. The oncoming crises do not. And these crises will all feed on each other.
The housing crisis will be followed quickly by the Social Security crisis and the Medicare crisis. It Democrats are elected this time, there will also be the nationalized health care crisis.
Why will they be crises? Because they are all Ponzi Schemes. None of them are sustainable. Each one is a bubble, waiting to burst. Each one is built on debt. Sooner or later, debts have to be paid. If not, there is default on the debts. Then the bubble bursts. Then there is a meltdown, like this one - or worse.
Each of these future meltdowns will rapidly become international, world-wide. Why? Because the U.S. has become the lynchpin, the cornerstone, that keeps the world economy functioning. Why? It is the major market in the world. Everyone wants to sell to the U.S. It is also the major "safe haven" for investment money. Why? Because money is less likely to be stolen or lost here than anywhere else. And because it is the U.S. military - supported by U.S. prosperity - that is the primary guarantor of however much safety and stability there is in the world.
Another more long-term, underlying trend must be factored in. It is demography (population studies.) All countries have had declining birth rates for several decades now. At the same time, life-expectancy and life-spans have also been increasing in all countries. This has caused a "gray overhang." That is, the older population percentage has been growing while the younger population percentage has been shrinking. This means there are fewer and fewer young workers to support more and more older non-workers. This will ruin retirement schemes all over the world. Not to mention universal health-plans, which are heavily impacted by the old. This trend also invisibly underlies many other economic/political problems and will help drive them into crises. Now that the retirement of the huge Boomer generation has arrived, these crises will not delay long.
But what of the prosperity we have had since WWII? It cannot last, without drastic changes - toward the Right. Our prosperity has mostly been based on debt - the promise to pay in the future what we borrow and spend today. Such promises eventually must be paid, or see the whole system collapse. The Asian countries save money. The West saves little. The U.S., nationally, does not save at all. Everything, all our prosperity, is based on debt. (For instance, our Social Security has no "lockbox". There are no funds, no actual savings there. Congress spends every dime, in "off-budget" spending. This "Ponzi Scheme" has assumed that taxes from younger workers would always pay retirement for the older non-workers. Our declining birth rates and growing survival rates have destroyed that possibility.)
All over the world, savings from retirement plans have been invested in the U.S. for security and safe returns. So when we crash, they crash too. And we will crash, because we are built on debt.
What can we do? First, when we are in a hole, we have to stop digging. So for a long time, we have to stop electing Democrats. Why?
Democrats want to help people. At least, some of the people. And they want to do it on a new, much larger scale To do that, they want to use force. That is, they want to force part of the population to support the other part. With what force? Government. Government is defined primarily as the ultimate coercive power - the highest power that can force people to do things. And Democrate, bless them, want to help people in the only way they know - through government.
To spend what they must in order to do what they plan, they must build government debt to great new levels- because there is no way they can spend that much out of current U.S. income.
What can we do? Don't let them spend what they plan. How can we stop them? Don't elect them. Don't vote for them.
Whatever other preferences we may have doesn't change the equation. We cannot afford the Democrat way. We cannot survive this, and the other coming crises, by making it worse.
I'm truly sorry. And I do realize and acknowledge that the Republicans have many, many problems of their own. But voting Democrat, at this time and probably for a long time, is to say "Bring it on!" to catastrophe. I'm sorry. But I can't argue with facts anymore than you can.**
__________________
* Congress is pushing mightily to shift blame from itself to Wall Street fat cats - who are not without fault here. But the truth is that it was Democrats in office who pushed Wall Street (through the banks who were forced into making bad mortgages) into accepting toxic debt. This meltdown belongs to Democrats in office.
**Helping the poor and disadvantaged must not be abandoned. But we must find ways to help them apart from government. Fortunately, there are many other ways, with good, less-ruinous track records.
The problem is not only with the presidency. Increasingly, Congress is the problem. Congress has much more power than the President now. If the Democrat majority grows, it will have still more power over the new President, whether Obama or McCain. What will that mean for the future, and especially for this meltdown?
Remember how this meltdown started. It was from the Democrat party, and from their mis-handled compassionate desire to help minorities and poor people own their own homes. The motive was laudable. The result was ruinous. We need to assess blame in order to know what not to do, and who not to put in charge next time.
To recap: President Carter started the CRA, which pushed banks to make sub-prime mortgages to people who could not afford them. ACORN pushed banks into making sub-prime mortgages that they were forbidden to make, by law and by prudent practice. ACORN pushed Congress into forcing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into accepting more of such mortgages than they wanted. Then Congress forced Fannie/Freddie to make 50% of all its mortgages be sub-prime mortgages. Then President Clinton's Justice Department under Janet Reno actively threatened any banks who did not comply. (Clinton has recently acknowledged his mistake.)*
Madness! The house of cards started its free-fall when the price of housing started down, and the "housing bubble" burst. But that house of cards was built, first to last, by the Democrats. To understand our future, that fact must be remembered at every turn. Because we must move from Left to Right to have any semblance of a good future.
Why? Because this meltdown will take years to work out, even if we do everything right. (Much worse, if we do not do everything right.) That is because this meltdown is a "perfect storm." More than one crisis is going on, and more will come. They will be worse than this one, because this one, at least, has some underlying equity behind the bad debt in the form of property. The oncoming crises do not. And these crises will all feed on each other.
The housing crisis will be followed quickly by the Social Security crisis and the Medicare crisis. It Democrats are elected this time, there will also be the nationalized health care crisis.
Why will they be crises? Because they are all Ponzi Schemes. None of them are sustainable. Each one is a bubble, waiting to burst. Each one is built on debt. Sooner or later, debts have to be paid. If not, there is default on the debts. Then the bubble bursts. Then there is a meltdown, like this one - or worse.
Each of these future meltdowns will rapidly become international, world-wide. Why? Because the U.S. has become the lynchpin, the cornerstone, that keeps the world economy functioning. Why? It is the major market in the world. Everyone wants to sell to the U.S. It is also the major "safe haven" for investment money. Why? Because money is less likely to be stolen or lost here than anywhere else. And because it is the U.S. military - supported by U.S. prosperity - that is the primary guarantor of however much safety and stability there is in the world.
Another more long-term, underlying trend must be factored in. It is demography (population studies.) All countries have had declining birth rates for several decades now. At the same time, life-expectancy and life-spans have also been increasing in all countries. This has caused a "gray overhang." That is, the older population percentage has been growing while the younger population percentage has been shrinking. This means there are fewer and fewer young workers to support more and more older non-workers. This will ruin retirement schemes all over the world. Not to mention universal health-plans, which are heavily impacted by the old. This trend also invisibly underlies many other economic/political problems and will help drive them into crises. Now that the retirement of the huge Boomer generation has arrived, these crises will not delay long.
But what of the prosperity we have had since WWII? It cannot last, without drastic changes - toward the Right. Our prosperity has mostly been based on debt - the promise to pay in the future what we borrow and spend today. Such promises eventually must be paid, or see the whole system collapse. The Asian countries save money. The West saves little. The U.S., nationally, does not save at all. Everything, all our prosperity, is based on debt. (For instance, our Social Security has no "lockbox". There are no funds, no actual savings there. Congress spends every dime, in "off-budget" spending. This "Ponzi Scheme" has assumed that taxes from younger workers would always pay retirement for the older non-workers. Our declining birth rates and growing survival rates have destroyed that possibility.)
All over the world, savings from retirement plans have been invested in the U.S. for security and safe returns. So when we crash, they crash too. And we will crash, because we are built on debt.
What can we do? First, when we are in a hole, we have to stop digging. So for a long time, we have to stop electing Democrats. Why?
Democrats want to help people. At least, some of the people. And they want to do it on a new, much larger scale To do that, they want to use force. That is, they want to force part of the population to support the other part. With what force? Government. Government is defined primarily as the ultimate coercive power - the highest power that can force people to do things. And Democrate, bless them, want to help people in the only way they know - through government.
To spend what they must in order to do what they plan, they must build government debt to great new levels- because there is no way they can spend that much out of current U.S. income.
What can we do? Don't let them spend what they plan. How can we stop them? Don't elect them. Don't vote for them.
Whatever other preferences we may have doesn't change the equation. We cannot afford the Democrat way. We cannot survive this, and the other coming crises, by making it worse.
I'm truly sorry. And I do realize and acknowledge that the Republicans have many, many problems of their own. But voting Democrat, at this time and probably for a long time, is to say "Bring it on!" to catastrophe. I'm sorry. But I can't argue with facts anymore than you can.**
__________________
* Congress is pushing mightily to shift blame from itself to Wall Street fat cats - who are not without fault here. But the truth is that it was Democrats in office who pushed Wall Street (through the banks who were forced into making bad mortgages) into accepting toxic debt. This meltdown belongs to Democrats in office.
**Helping the poor and disadvantaged must not be abandoned. But we must find ways to help them apart from government. Fortunately, there are many other ways, with good, less-ruinous track records.
posted by Old Neocon at 8:54 AM
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