Again...if this is a liberal trait then God save us from liberals...

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ALL who will need it in the next four years. That would be everyone who feels duped for having voted Obama in. Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

In the words of Yogi Berra: 'It ain't over till it's over.' There will be another election in four years.

We gave Carter - the 1-term wonder - a chance and he wrecked the economy. Reagan fixed the economy (with tax cuts) and bankrupted the USSR out of the arms race. There could be no more stark example of socialism vs free-market economics.

the trouble, let me be the first to accuse you of being a racist, a paranoid, a nasty, hateful person (did I miss anything?) for bringing up all these facts about the president and the party who only have your best interests in mind. How dare you say these things when our brave president is trying his very best to fill your gas tank and pay your mortgage. You should be ashamed.

See? Now nobody else has to break a sweat typing furiously to put you in your place. I'm sure we all feel much better now.

It looks like our wonderful govt is thinking about another stimulus -- remember those tax rebates we got back in the spring of this year? It was $600 an individual and $1200 a couple. The govt doesn't want to do quite the same kind of stimulus as last time because -- get this -- 80% of the Americans who received it used it to either pay down debt or bolster savings. Here's what they want the new stimulus to do:

�The extension of unemployment benefits and possibly food stamps from 39 to 52 weeks.

�A boost in infrastructure spending, despite the problems of getting the money to work quickly.

�Some relief for state and local governments facing tighter budgets because of lower tax receipts and rising Medicaid costs.

God forbid we give something to the middle class -- let's extend the food stamps and boost the "infrastructure spending" -- what is that anyway? I'm guessing it's a way to line the pockets of the suits even more. When is it going to end?

From time to time in human history, there occur events of seismic significance, when one orthodoxy is overthrown and another takes its place. Today, the scale of the global financial crisis demands that we re-evaluate the economic policy and philosophy that brought us to this point.

George Soros has said that "the salient feature of the current financial crisis is that it was not caused by some external shock. ... The crisis was generated by the system itself." He is right. The current crisis is the culmination of a 30-year domination of economic policy by a free-market ideology that has been variously called neo-liberalism, economic liberalism or economic fundamentalism. The central thrust of this ideology has been that government activity should be constrained, and ultimately replaced, by market forces. In the past year, we have seen how unchecked market forces have brought capitalism to the precipice.

Instead of distributing risk throughout the world, the global financial system has intensified it. Neo-liberal orthodoxy held that global financial markets would ultimately self-correct - the invisible hand of unfettered market forces finding their own equilibrium. But as economist Joseph Stiglitz has caustically observed: "The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is not there."

Just as it fell to Franklin Roosevelt to rebuild American capitalism after the Depression, and to the American Democrats, strongly influenced by John Maynard Keynes, to rebuild postwar domestic demand, to engineer the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and to set in place the Bretton Woods system to govern international economic engagement, so it falls to a new generation to reflect on and rebuild our national and international economic systems.

If centrist governments are to save capitalism, they must face three challenges. First is to use the agency of the state to reconstitute properly regulated markets and to rebuild domestic and global demand. With the demise of neo-liberalism, the role of the state has once more been recognized as fundamental. The state has been the primary actor in responding to three clear areas of the current crisis: in rescuing the private financial system from collapse; in providing direct stimulus to the real economy because of the collapse in private demand; and in the design of a national and global regulatory regime in which government has ultimate responsibility to determine and enforce the rules of the system.

The second challenge for social democrats is not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. As the global financial crisis unfolds and the hard impact on jobs is felt by families across the world, the pressure will be great to retreat to some model of an all-providing state and to abandon altogether the cause of open, competitive markets both at home and abroad. Protectionism has already begun to make itself felt, albeit in softer and more subtle forms than the crudity of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Soft or hard, protectionism is a surefire way of turning recession into depression, as it exacerbates the collapse in global demand. Social democracy's continuing philosophical claim to political legitimacy is its capacity to balance the private and the public, profit and wages, the market and the state. That philosophy once again speaks with clarity and cogency to the challenges of our time.

A further challenge for governments in dealing with the current crisis is its almost unprecedented global dimensions. Governments must craft consistent global financial regulations to prevent a race to the bottom, where capital leaks out to the areas of the global economy with the weakest regulation. We must establish stronger global disclosure standards for systemically important financial institutions. We must also build stronger supervisory frameworks to provide incentives for more responsible corporate conduct, including executive remuneration.

The world has turned to co-ordinated governmental action through the Group of 20: to help provide immediate liquidity to the global financial system; to co-ordinate sufficient fiscal stimulus to respond to the growth gap arising from the global recession; to redesign global regulatory rules for the future; to reform the existing global public institutions - especially the International Monetary Fund - to provide them with the powers and resources necessary for the demands of the 21st century.

The IMF's governance arrangements must be reformed. It is only reasonable that, if we expect fast-growing developing economies such as that of China to make a greater contribution to multilateral institutions such as the IMF, they should also gain a stronger decision-making voice in these forums.

The longer-term challenge for governments is to address the imbalances that have helped to destabilize the global economy in the past decade: in particular, the imbalances between large surplus economies such as that of China, Japan and the oil-exporting nations, and large debtor nations such as America.

The magnitude of the crisis and its impact across the world means that minor tweakings of long-established orthodoxies will not do. Two unassailable truths have already been established: that financial markets are not always self-correcting or self-regulating, and that government can never abdicate responsibility for maintaining economic stability.

For governments, it is critical that we get it right - not just to save the system of open markets from self-destruction, but also to rebuild confidence in properly regulated markets, so as to prevent extreme reactions from the far left or the far right taking hold.

Governments must get it right because the stakes are so high: There are the economic and social costs of long-term unemployment; poverty once again expanding its grim reach across the developing world; and the impact on long-term power structures within the existing international political and strategic order. Success is not optional. Too much now rides on our ability to prevail.

He figures he can win on the Dem ticket because PA has turned Dem. Well, I have news for him.....I doubt it. He only won by a couple votes in the last election because of Pat Toomey running against him. He will definitely lose this election.

I always split my ticket and I usually voted for him, but no more. I don't care what party anyone is affiliated with; but, to me, he is a traitor and that's someone else who is not needed in the Senate.

To those who vote straight party, open your eyes. They are only out for themselves (but is that really news to anyone?)

As posters have said before, we have to educate the people who don't watch/investigate/read up on the candidates running to make sure we vote the best candidates for the job...those who value the constitution, listen to their constituents (which is hard), and vote for the good of the country. Get rid of the a-holes who are in there. We really need to clean house this coming election.,

you didn't answer mine. Where did you hear that the U.S. doesn't make vaccines? Or is it merely more conservative fiction? Because it's simply not true.

You're talking about all this as if it's a leisurely endeavor that isn't time sensitive. I'm talking about protecting my family and your family from a potential bio terror attack using smallpox.

And you're right. No response is necessary at all because you haven't said anything worthy of one.

But they're outnumbered by neocons who are more like roaches than people. They're nasty, keep multiplying, aren't very nice to be around, are very hard to get rid of and are just creepy and disgusting.

who repeatedly say that Palin has hurt McCain. I think some people are obviously put off my Sarah Palin but others find her refreshing. The media is generally more liberal and so we obviously hear more about how she hurts McCain than helps, but I think she is doing great. I think they make a great team. You could say that Biden hurts Obama especially with some of the boneheaded things he has said but you don't hear people continually bringing that all. Nope....it is always Sarah.

I saw an interview with that Rothschild woman yesterday. She stated that she is not only is voting for McCain and Palin, even though she is a major democrat, but she is also going around and talking to many democrats who are not so extreme left as Obama. They too are voting for McCain. She would not name names but there are many democrats who do not want to go so extreme left. You might be surprised at the outcome of this election. It will most definitely be close either way.

I never call Republicans any of those names and I don't like it when Republicans use the same derogatory names for liberals. I don't like Ann Coulter because I just think she uses her intelligence for fear and hate mongering, but that's just me.

When people of any ideologic viewpoint call each other names, it diminishes their own standing, imo. Use your words, people! Stop name calling and have intelligent debates about the issues. That's much more fun anyway. And I've never seen Ann Coulter be able to do that, hence my dislike for her.

have spoken out about the war in Iraq over and over and over again and just recently there was an attack on a military recruiting center by a man who said the reason for his attack was for "political and religious" reasons and his disagreement over military operations. Gee....sounds to me like he did something because he kept hearing the libs on TV disagreeing with military operations in Iraq. Hmmm....if you want to spin something, it can be spinned both ways.....just remember that.

The only people to blame are the people who do the crime. I can't blame libs for this guy opening fire on a recruiting center just as you can't blame Bill O'Reilly for that nut job who opened fire on Tiller. So give it up, give me break, and get a clue.

just get better producers and your radio shows and T.V. networks/shows will be raging successes!!!

It's the Neocons who are the Stepford Wives of the Bush administration, who follow in step, never varying in their pro-Bush propaganda mantra, who make excuses constantly for Bush, and who treat Bush more like a god than the lying, manipulating, misleading, very dangerous moron that he is.

LOL, your first sentence sounds like back in the 1960's..Well, I know some Blacks..and they are my friends..Well, geez, you know some liberals..yada yada yada..

It is still a free country and if we want to bash Bush we can..Most certainly throughout the 1990's most republicans bashed Clinton and his wife and unfortunately his daughter..Now, who has turned out to be stellar and giving back to society..Chelsea..Not Bush's daughters, they are too busy partying and getting drunk and certainly not Bush's nephew, drunk in public..OMG..As much as you republicans bashed Clinton, he is loved by many and a statesman and handles himself quite well these days..like I said, loved by many..and his daughter is contributing to society, an intelligent, upstanding citizen, his wife is a senator in NY who will most probably be re-elected as many in NY love her..So..mmmm..seems to me Bush and his family fall just a bit short..So bash Bush, you bet, sweetie, every chance I get.

with the same problems as well. Bush's family seems to take the lead as far as number of people who are drunks or drug addicts.

Now, if you don't mind, I think I will stop responding to your posts. It's much more entertaining watching you talking to yourself on this board.

I hope you find the attention you so desperately seek, but you're not getting any more of it from me.

Again...if this is a liberal trait then God save us from liberals...

What government must do to save capitalism

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