Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Just How Bad Could the Economy Get?

Just How Bad Could the Economy Get?

by | 30 Comments

This post is in: ,

A commenter left this link to Terri Gross’s interview with Michael Greenberger. It really could get very bad relative to what it already is. When you have 38 minutes, listen and learn about the shadow economy that threatens to completely ruin our economy (and everyone else’s.)

Greenberger insists he is not a pessimist about the economy; he says that “intelligent leaders” — coupled with government aid, transparency and regulation — can enable the American economy to transcend its current troubles. But he has harsh words for the companies that were engaging in questionable practices — and for the government that turned a blind eye to the potential consequences.

And, it seems to me, he is very clear about who is to blame – the Republican Congress in 2000.

Reader Interactions

30Comments

  3. 3.

    d0n Camillo

    If there’s one thing we should have learned from the Clinton years, it’s that the American economy is perfectly capable of top to bottom growth as long as we have someone reasonably competent running it. The last 8 years shows us what happens when you have actively incompetent numb nuts running the show. Thank God the McCain’s post convention bounce appears to be fading. We can’t afford to have either him or that fundy whack job running partner of his anywhere near the levers of our economy.

  4. 4.

    r€nato

    I’ve listened to the interview three times already. Fascinating.

    Fresh Air is must-listening for me and should be for you, too. That show and This American Life alone justify NPR’s existence.

    They even excuse the execrable Scott Simon, who has completely ruined Weekend Edition for me.

  5. 5.

    r€nato

    The last 8 years shows us what happens when you have actively incompetent numb nuts running the show for the benefit of malicious, greedy assholes.

    fixd

  7. 7.

    Bostondreams

    Not sure if this has been linked yet, but Sullivan points out this lovely little email making the rounds.

    The Obama as the AntiChrist Meme Returns…with Palin as the Savior

  10. 10.

    r€nato

    really, is it any coincidence that the following have happened while Bush/Cheney and the GOP were minding the store:

    Enron
    Worldcom
    trillions in new debt
    Katrina
    Mortgage meltdown
    Financial meltdown
    Currency meltdown
    Rampant political corruption
    Rampant military contractor corruption
    Two failed wars

    And still about 40% of the people want to vote for another four years of this mess.

    I mean, shit, if that shit doesn’t cure you from voting Republican than nothing will.

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    also 2004 congress and president.

    basically the entire kleptocracy of the last 8 or so years.

    yeah but the Democrats won Congress in 2006 so it is all their fault!!!!

    /wingnut

    I really wish stupid were a disease you could die from, then this shit would take care of itself, wouldn’t it?

  13. 13.

    Zifnab

    he says that “intelligent leaders” [sic] can enable the American economy to transcend its current troubles.

    But what could possibly transcend such a mountain of trouble? You’d need some sort of enchanted politically harmonizing equestrian beast to hurdle such an obstacle. What would you even call such an animal?

  14. 14.

    pharniel

    back in febuary I was helping a freind get her black belt (by helping i mean ‘being faceless attacker #2 who gets the unholy fuck kicked, thrown, locked and stabbed out of him) and had a chance to talk to said friend’s mother, who’s a phd of economics.

    know what i got out of that? the ‘cra caused all this shit, becasue the government made banks make bad loans’
    *boggle*
    when phd’s are getting this wrong, it makes me want to hurt people.

  15. 15.

    d0n Camillo

    Thanks for the fix, Renato. The things is, if we just leave the American economy more or less alone and regulate to prevent extremes, we wouldn’t be in the fix we are in. But the GOP couldn’t leave things alone. They were so much smarter than the DFHs running the White House in the 90s. Well I guess they showed us. If this had happened on Clinton’s watch, we’d never hear the end of it. It would be considered second only to lying about a blow job in the pantheon of Clinton sins.

  16. 16.

    Bubblegum Tate

    yeah but the Democrats won Congress in 2006 so it is all their fault

    Damn, you beat me to it. I suppose I shouldn’t be amazed that wingnuts actually say that with a straight face, but I kind of am.

  17. 17.

    SGEW

    The Obama as the AntiChrist Meme Returns

    Just had a brief mention in the “Some Help” thread.

    I’m personally looking forward to the wider U.S. getting a good look at the true weird-ass fundamentalism rotting out the American core. Hopefully most people will recoil in horror (as they should), and rethink the whole anti-secular thing.

    Sigh. Well, here’s hoping. (and will Maher’s “Religulous” really help?)

  18. 18.

    tim serbo

    may i just point out that a wingnut i used to have truck with (i have since stopped returning his calls) insisted to me that enron and worldcom were a direct consequence of bill clinton’s dalliance with monica lewinsky. leaders take signals from other leaders, he explained, and bill’s regrettable actions signaled to all those CEOs that they, too, could break any rule they wanted to. that makes sense, i sweetly replied. could he then tell me, i asked, what failures of ronald reagan’s leadership gave rise to the insider-trading scandals of the 1980s?

    for some reason, i received no reply.

  19. 19.

    r€nato

    The things is, if we just leave the American economy more or less alone and regulate to prevent extremes, we wouldn’t be in the fix we are in.

    yeah that doesn’t seem all that difficult, now does it?

    If this had happened on Clinton’s watch, we’d never hear the end of it.

    dude, we never hear the end of shit that didn’t happen on Clinton’s watch, like, um, 9/11.

    Nice handle, btw :-)

  20. 20.

    r€nato

    May I point out to you LIE-berals that you just don’t get it about McCain and Spain.

    1) He is going to declare war on Spain, a NATO ally. What’s more mavericky than that?

    2) He’s against illegal immigration. Most illegal immigrants speak Spanish. It’s just part of the broader War on Immigration.

  22. 22.

    liberal

    pharniel wrote,

    when phd’s are getting this wrong, it makes me want to hurt people.

    Given she had an economics PhD, it’s hardly surprising.

    One thing that conservative economists claim—which I agree with—is that incentives matter.

    Now, guess what sector of the economy has lots of money to spend on PhD economists? And guess what their view on political economy is?

    ‘Nuff said.

  24. 24.

    lethargytartare

    Zifnab Says:
    But what could possibly transcend such a mountain of trouble? You’d need some sort of enchanted politically harmonizing equestrian beast to hurdle such an obstacle. What would you even call such an animal?

    win

  26. 26.

    JackieBinAZ

    So bad that Cindy McCain has to drink Budweiser.

    Isn’t Budweiser one of those elitist foreign beers now?

  27. 27.

    Napoleon

    Hey everyone, I just saw a picture in our newspaper of this huge resort AIG is building in Stowe, VT and since we all own it now (well except for Krista and the other Canadians and furriners here) I say we organize the first annual Bolloon Juice ski outing at it this winter.

    Who is in?

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    But what could possibly transcend such a mountain of trouble? You’d need some sort of enchanted politically harmonizing equestrian beast to hurdle such an obstacle. What would you even call such an animal?

    A unicorn.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    Just How Bad Could the Economy Get?

    So bad the Republicans are thinking about jumping into the WABAC Machine to fix things.

    A Bailout Like It’s 1989?
    Gov’t considers creating an entity like the one created during the S&L crisis.

    By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer

    Wall Street rallied in a stunning late-session turnaround Thursday, shooting higher and hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up 400 points following a report that the federal government might create an entity to absorb banks’ bad debt…..

    The report that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is considering the formation of a vehicle like the Resolution Trust Corp. that was set up during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s left previously solemn investors ebullient.

  30. 30.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    I’m personally looking forward to the wider U.S. getting a good look at the true weird-ass fundamentalism rotting out the American core

    That’d be nice. Unfortunately most Americans would just continue under the delusion that their invisible savior in the clouds is waaaaay different than Palin’s invisible savior in the clouds. They’ll keep chucking money into the collection plate, keep forcing their children to say their prayers before bedtime, keep insisting that relgion has a space in the public sphere and can easily coexist with science and reason. They will, in other words, keep this mass delusion alive long enough for a whole new generation to discover what the Bible *really* says and get caught up in the fundamentalist trap all over again.

Comments are closed.