You guessed right.. Here we go...
Hmm, Nothing seems to stop people from seeking fun and frolic. Certainly not $4/gal gas.. So I wonder when it gets to about $5/gallon by mid summer if 81% will people still be That determined to pursue their 'God-given Right' to vacation at Disney?
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Turns out I was mistaken because I keep thinking about a very popular and Tired tagline that Republicans like to say and which was used that night. It goes something like this- Governments do not create jobs. Businesses do.. and Government needs to get out of the way so the Private sector can do what it needs to do...
Here's the truth on that popular fallacious Reaganism--
1) Government can and Does create jobs-- lots of jobs with better pay and benefits generally speaking then you will find in the public sector. Admittedly Wall St pays higher wages overall than the government but not everyone wishes to work for the devil, yes...
2) Businesses like doing things on the Cheap and Hate that Government hires because it means in a good economy, the work pool is lessened and they are forced to offer wages and benefits more in line with what the Government is offering.
3) A historical example this occurred during the height of the Great Depression- businesses then (exactly like today) were sitting on hoards of cash and were refusing to hire because it was better for them to just have their skeleton workforce work longer and harder with the constant fear that they could be next to go.
So FDR basically said if the private sector can not or will not hire, then we (the Government) will, and provided jobs to millions of Americans who would of been out of work otherwise, doing constructive things with their time that was beneficial to the nation as a whole.
And while this act in itself did not end the Great Depression, it allowed many people to generate the necessary income to pay their mortgages (and avoid foreclosure) and other bills, retain their dignity and forced businesses to begin hiring at higher wages than they really wanted to pay out.
~ Now, for some reason the Obama Administration doesn't seem to feel the need to follow in fellow Democrat FDR's footsteps and get this unemployment problem under control with boldness and swiftness.. Hmm, wonder why?.. Besides the fact his economic policies are exactly the same as Bush?
Hmm.. Ohh.. maybe that was it...
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Found an AP article that said, "Consumers used their credit cards more in March, marking only the second increase in the more than two years since the height of the financial crisis." And then it said, "More frequent credit card purchases could be a sign that consumers are feeling more confident about the economy."
HA! What Bleeping Gall!
Prices for Everything from gasoline to food to utilities are Rising.. Hourly wages- still Flat or lowering.. People so desperate for work, they have to lower themselves to attending job fairs at McDonalds.. and yet this AP writer tries to implant in the reader's mind that credit card use is rising because of Confidence in the nation?!
~ Slapppp ~
People are using their cards to survive because they are completely tapped out of cash. Think about it this way... let's say starting tomorrow, gas stations and supermarkets were cash only and the Wal-Marts & Targets could not take credit card payments for any food item, do you think people have the financial means to purchase everything with cash, instead of 'eat today and worry tomorrow'?
Could you survive without credit cards for your basic living expenses?
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Another entity does...
From AP: "Fannie Mae asked the government Friday for an additional $8.5 billion in aid after declining home prices caused more defaults on loans guaranteed by the mortgage giant. The company said it lost $8.7 billion in the first three months of the year... The total cost of rescuing the government-controlled mortgage buyer is nearing $100 billion -- the most expensive bailout of a single company. Combined with the bailout of sibling company Freddie Mac, the government expects their rescue to cost taxpayers about $259 billion."
You might think from this that Freddie and Fannie Mae are absolute failures which are being ineptly run.. You'd actually be mistaken. The pre-financial meltdown Freddie & Fannie may have been but in its current charter, its running perfectly.
How can this possibly be?
After 2008, the government decided to use these entities as a back door bailout to the banks and mortgage apparatuses who were holding trillions in toxic debts and threatening to sink the entire financial system. So F&F buy these toxic pieces of yukk not at its mark-to-market value but at pre-recession values. They hold on to the garbage, the banks get 100 cents on the dollar on the exchange, then F&F simply go back to Congress every few months to report a loss and ask for more money.
Here's a simple example-
You, the reader and I are friends. You are severely cash-strapped, have never-ending debts and are very close to losing Everything- home, car, etc.. Now because I get my $$ from other sources and its an endless stream, I offer to give you money to repay your debts. But i can't simply 'Give' it to you because will make our mutual friends Very angry you're getting bailed out when they're having problems too.
So I offer to buy things from you. Perhaps I will give you $1000 for a box of your tissues... or $500 for every envelope of sugar... I am buying things that are completely worthless and overpaying but that isn't important. My goal is that I want to provide you, my friend the money you need to pay off your endless debts and obligations using my unlimited cash stream while minimizing the jealousies and anger of others.
So we exchange tissues & sugar packets for lots of cash and call it a good deal.
This is the post-meltdown Freddie & Fannie Mae
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