'The Third Depression'

[CoolBlue71]

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman, a Nobel Peace prize winner and economist, belives further collapse is coming.


The Third Depression

By Paul Krugman
New York Times | June 27, 2010

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

 

[justapixel]

The Third Depression

The correct name is the Obama Depression.

 

[ColorSlaughter]

The correct name is the Obama Depression.

Three cheers for revisionism.

 

[JB3]

Just more fear mongering to push the world towards severe regulation that Krugman advocates.

 

[Jack Springer]

It's true that Obama "owns" this horrible recession now.

His policies have not made things better - maybe band-aid on some problems of teachers and other local government employees but those problems are coming back as more school districts, local, and state government terminate employees.

The trillion dollar stimulus was a failure and has brought us closer to the brink of disaster. I can't see a solid project that the stimulus has done in my local area -- mowing grass along the highway is nice and putting oil down on blacktop roads to lengthen their life for a year is great - -but it doesn't do much to stimulate jobs and business.

I'm worried, scared, and confused. Will the markets collapse? Will businesses every start hiring again? Will I ever get a job again? What do I do with my money -- do I buy gold and hide it? My belt is tight and I'm punching another hole in it to tighten it even more. Mr. Obama and Mr. Krugman would like us spend even more on government projects. It just doesn't make any sense.

America needed a person of action, a person of vision, a person who could honestly get people and business excited about the future.

What we got was a President who lacks guts. He couldn't even fire a general (who has openly said he voted for him in 2008) when he made derogatory statements and about him and his administration.

A president who play golf while our country falls apart and who's wife plants seeds in a magical White House garden and the next morning full size plants appear is not the right person to lead us.

How in the hell are we going to exist in the next couple of years?

You live life with the cards you are dealt. Blaming the dealer, the table, the chair, the building and everything else just doesn't wash.

The legacy he is building will only leave Kenya as the place where he could go after he's out of office.

The only thing we can do is try is have a good attitude, vote everyone out of office this year, and push for a return to America's can-do spirit.

 

[ColorSlaughter]

blah blah blah

I guess we'll make it 6.
Six cheers for revisionism.

 

[Jack Springer]

I guess we'll make it 6.
Six cheers for revisionism.

I have absolutely no idea what you are referring to.

Sounds like you are full of shit. blah, blah, blah

 

[grantt]

The correct name is the Obama Depression.

Exactly.

 

[grantt]

It's true that Obama "owns" this horrible recession now.

His policies have not made things better - maybe band-aid on some problems of teachers and other local government employees but those problems are coming back as more school districts, local, and state government terminate employees.

The trillion dollar stimulus was a failure and has brought us closer to the brink of disaster. I can't see a solid project that the stimulus has done in my local area -- mowing grass along the highway is nice and putting oil down on blacktop roads to lengthen their life for a year is great - -but it doesn't do much to stimulate jobs and business.

I'm worried, scared, and confused. Will the markets collapse? Will businesses every start hiring again? Will I ever get a job again? What do I do with my money -- do I buy gold and hide it? My belt is tight and I'm punching another hole in it to tighten it even more. Mr. Obama and Mr. Krugman would like us spend even more on government projects. It just doesn't make any sense.

America needed a person of action, a person of vision, a person who could honestly get people and business excited about the future.

What we got was a President who lacks guts. He couldn't even fire a general (who has openly said he voted for him in 2008) when he made derogatory statements and about him and his administration.

A president who play golf while our country falls apart and who's wife plants seeds in a magical White House garden and the next morning full size plants appear is not the right person to lead us.

How in the hell are we going to exist in the next couple of years?

You live life with the cards you are dealt. Blaming the dealer, the table, the chair, the building and everything else just doesn't wash.

The legacy he is building will only leave Kenya as the place where he could go after he's out of office.

The only thing we can do is try is have a good attitude, vote everyone out of office this year, and push for a return to America's can-do spirit.

That can-do spirit has been so severely damaged by Obamanation that it will take a long time to get it back. A long time. Joblessness is plaguing the nation and this president plays golf rather than seeking answers to the ailments of the nation that are mounting up faster than he can go 9 rounds.

 

[laikaNYC]

Obama has done precisely what FDR did by recklessly inserting the Federal Government into private industry and not allowing the private sector to recover.

The world operates on capitalism. The less government regulation and interference the more competitive a country's economy is. Krugman and Obama are both socialists and have not gotten the message yet that the system never worked.

Rather than let private enterprise recover, FDR decided to make government spend heavily and recklessly which directly resulted in the longest sustained unemployment we experienced then. The unemployment numbers are at well over 9% I thought Obama said it wouldn't go over 8? So much for that 3 trillion dollar stimulus, huh? The facts are in and Obama is simply repeating history.

 

[jackoroe]

Krugman suggests in the article that the problem is lack of government spending. He's concerned about deflation. We've pissed away Trillions that we don't have to pretty much no effect. And most economists are warning of pending inflation, not deflation.

Krugman is right about the desperate state of the economy, but for the wrong reasons.

 

[grantt]

Obama has done precisely what FDR did by recklessly inserting the Federal Government into private industry and not allowing the private sector to recover.

The world operates on capitalism. The less government regulation and interference the more competitive a country's economy is. Krugman and Obama are both socialists and have not gotten the message yet that the system never worked.

Rather than let private enterprise recover, FDR decided to make government spend heavily and recklessly which directly resulted in the longest sustained unemployment we experienced then. The unemployment numbers are at well over 9% I thought Obama said it wouldn't go over 8? So much for that 3 trillion dollar stimulus, huh? The facts are in and Obama is simply repeating history

You got it right, my friend.

 

[iman]

No one really believes that the country would be in better shape had the investment houses, banks, and auto companies had been allowed to fail and neither does anyone really believe that we would be in better shape had not the stimulus saved jobs and created public work projects, so why bother trying to make so disingenuous an argument?

Krugman always believed that the stimulus was too small, but the administration thought that they could not get any thing else past the Republican fifth column that is hellbent on turning America into a third world oligarchy.

 

[CowboyBob]

The depression that started in 1929 was when Hoover was in office, a Republican. It took Democrat FDR to get us out of that.

The depression of 1974 was when Richard Nixon was in office, a Republican and we emerged out of that in 1978 when Jimmy Carter was president, a Democrat.

The depression of 2008 was started when George W Bush was in office. We're still trying to dig out of that and we will with President Obama's excellent leadership, another democrat.

The Bush Depression lingers on. Along with his wars.

 

[laikaNYC]

The depression that started in 1929 was when Hoover was in office, a Republican. It took Democrat FDR to get us out of that.

The depression of 1974 was when Richard Nixon was in office, a Republican and we emerged out of that in 1978 when Jimmy Carter was president, a Democrat.

The depression of 2008 was started when George W Bush was in office. We're still trying to dig out of that and we will with President Obama's excellent leadership, another democrat.

The Bush Depression lingers on. Along with his wars.

Jimmy Carter creating a successful economy? Economic emergence in 1978? What the hell are you talking about? That's nothing short of preposterous. Do you not realize his disastrous handling of the economy was one of the main reasons why he was crushed by Reagan in 1980? Carter was not responsible for solving any fianancial mess, he only made it worse.

Carter inherited a mild recession because of the costs of the Vietnam war. It was by no means a "depression" as you put it. First he tried to reduce unemployment by both increasing government spending and cutting taxes. However, when inflation skyrocketed in 1978 he changed his mind. He delayed tax cuts and vetoed the spending programs that he himself proposed to the Congress. Carter then tried to ease inflation by reducing money supply and raising interest rates. All of his big government, liberal efforts proved to be failures. Instead, inflation and interest rates became as high as they were during World War II.

This is why near the end of his term public opinion polls had Carter's popularity lower then Nixon's during Watergate. Oh and let's not get into his mishandling of the Energy Crisis.

 

[JB3]

No one really believes that the country would be in better shape had the investment houses, banks, and auto companies had been allowed to fail and neither does anyone really believe that we would be in better shape had not the stimulus saved jobs and created public work projects, so why bother trying to make so disingenuous an argument?

Krugman always believed that the stimulus was too small, but the administration thought that they could not get any thing else past the Republican fifth column that is hellbent on turning America into a third world oligarchy.

And Krugman has been consistently wrong. The reason the administration didn't ask for more is because it wasn't, and isn't needed. The very limited effects of what they did spend weren't worth what they spent, and more spending won't fix that.

Krugman needs to stop talking. He's quickly making himself irrelevant.

 

[NickCole]

Krugman always believed that the stimulus was too small, but the administration thought that they could not get any thing else past the Republican fifth column that is hellbent on turning America into a third world oligarchy.

That's the Obamanation line and it's just a lie implying Republicans somehow obstructed what Obama wanted.

Obama didn't get a single Republican to vote for his stimulus bill so if it's not what he wanted, it's his own fault for failing to write what he wanted and letting the Democratic Congress pass it.

Obama's stimulus delivered very little bang for the nearly trillion dollar buck. Unemployment went UP from 7.6% to nearly 10%, way past ObamaCo's own prediction that WITHOUT Obama's stimulus bill unemployment would top at 8%. Obama's stimulus wasn't only too small, it was filled with pork rather than jobs creation -- a piece of crap legislation just like his health insurance legislation and the financial regulatory legislation he's crowing about now.

 

[laikaNYC]

Carter, in fact, came a cropper largely because of what was happening in Iran....I was 17 years old when all of that happened. We got our asses publicly humiliated by the Iranian Revolution and all that followed.

You do pretty well in debate when you stick to the present, Laika, but you fare very badly when you talk about history.

Yes, the Hostage Crisis was another reason as to why Carter was the worse President of the 20th century.

 

[KrisHawkXXX]

Obama has done precisely what FDR did by recklessly inserting the Federal Government into private industry and not allowing the private sector to recover.

The world operates on capitalism. The less government regulation and interference the more competitive a country's economy is. Krugman and Obama are both socialists and have not gotten the message yet that the system never worked.

Rather than let private enterprise recover, FDR decided to make government spend heavily and recklessly which directly resulted in the longest sustained unemployment we experienced then. The unemployment numbers are at well over 9% I thought Obama said it wouldn't go over 8? So much for that 3 trillion dollar stimulus, huh? The facts are in and Obama is simply repeating history.

How are they socialists? What legit statements and resources do you have to argue that? What is your definition of socialism? How does socialism not work if it's never been done? Are you aware there is more then one kind of socialism? What policies of Obama are socialist and what part of certain policies in vivid detail MAKE them socialist as you claim?

 

[rareboy]

From the downward drift in the stock market this month, I think we're already in it.

Sigh......................