McCain's top economic advisor says we are in a "mental depression" sm

and additionally says that we are a nation of "whiners.' McCains top economic advisor is Phil Gramm.

How do you feel about these remarks? Additionally have you or someone you know been experiencing tough times in the last year?

• McCain's top economic advisor says we are in a "mental depression" sm - liz
  • McCain had a statement... - sam

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http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/jobsforamerica/

The  IDEA of:

http://www.rense.com/general83/ties.htm

Obama is your man.

regardless of which idea they go with.  I really don't think there is anyway out of this. 

You know what really bugs me....and this is kind along the lines of the topic of equal pay........

If a caucasian male is making more money for doing the same job as an african american, by law the african american has the right to sue for legal pay.  I'm cool with that.  If you do the same job and think you deserve the same pay....more power to you.  If an african american is making more money for doing the same job as a caucasian, the caucasian has no legal rights to sue for equal pay.  I'm sorry, but that doesn't sound equal to me.

has anything to do with it?  Hey, that's what republicans want, big business to grow fast--no regulation--me, me, me...

How about all those families that are going to suffer from this.  Did they ask for it too?

This sounds familiar:

http://eh.net/Clio/Publications/unemployment.html

I am paying off debt.  Made my garden bigger.  Planted some fruit trees.  Stocked my pantry.  But I don't want to take in any relatives......I would rather pass out free zuchini.

Gee, and when was the last time this country saw tent cities like this? The Great Depression.

The unemployment rate in California is over 10% and has risen to 15% in some of the hardest hit states in the country. To say that this has been fabricated and that there is no crisis is just more of the republican elitist socially darwinistic pile of horse @!$%# that has been pervading the GOP.

It's time for all of you hard right conservatives to pull your head out of the sand and take a really good look at what YOUR republican president did to this country in the course of 8 years. Obama inherited one of the biggest messes in this country's history, and you are pssed off that he hasn't "fixed" it yet?!! Are you kidding!? He's been in office for not even two months. It took the Great Depression over a decade to be resolved, and your screaming over 2 MONTHS!!!!!!????

There are a lot of people hurting. And guess what, the CEO @!$%#s that helped cause the mess are laughing all the way to their bank accounts in Grand Cayman and couldn't give a @!$%# about the rest of the country. And who helped them get their egregious bonuses and compensation? Hmmmm, couldn't be the republicans that were in power for HOW LONG!!?? I'll tell you: from 1994-2006. Hmmmm, just long enough to deregulate the banks and lower the taxes on the wealthy enough to create the largest income gap in this country since the Industrial revolution.

The republicans f'd up big time. That is why they lost control. And they are continuing on that same wretched path with NO IDEAS on how to fix the mess they are mostly responsible for creating. Except tax cuts for the wealthy. The GOP mantra. It's BS and you all need to stop buying into the rhetoric.

I am hoping with all my heart that Obama is a successful president and is doing what needs to be done to rectify this nation. Yes, he may fail. That is a risk you take with ANY president. But if any of you have even half a functioning brain you would wish for success as well. His failure will mean the failure of our country. And I don't know about you, but I certainly hope I never see that day.

BOOK:  The Crisis Of The Old Order  By:  Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

In 1928 and 1929, the nation had reached, it seemed, a permanent plateau of prosperity.  Businesses expanding.  Foreign trade growing.  The stock market was continuing to rise.  And national leadership could not now be in more expert or safer hands.  "I have no fears for the future of our country," said Herbert Hoover in his inaugural address in March 1929.  "It is bright with hope."

There remained a few discordant voices, anxious in the main over the stock market boom.  In spring 1929, Hoover summoned a special session of Congress to deal with these issues.  The session was not a success.  The Board's purpose was to control the flow of commodities to the market; one provision was to control temporary surpluses.  The session adjourned from April to November without taking action on the tariff.  Hoover wanted state public lands and reclamatin projects and related irrigation matters be withdrawn from national control and states to manage these affairs then Federal Government.  President's attitude toward utilities regulation was similar. 

Yet most Americans remained more interested in teh stock market than economic question and the few interest as now beginning to turn into concern. 

Early 1929, Federal Reserve Board under pressures of NY Federal Reserve Bank, finally consented to warn member banks that they should not lend money for speculative purposes.  But did not work.  Some argued that a restrictive policy might well induce deflation.  The board felt it created "a state of mind which breeds depression."  It was certainly true that reducing the interest rate was a clumsy way of combatting THE BOOM.  As long as the stock market offered highest returns, it was bound to have first call on funds.  Higher interest rate would have slowed down investment, cause capitalization process and bring down prices of ALL CAPITAL ASSETS and thus discourage investment.  President Hoover did nothing as he was preoccupied with his own mind and watched the Board run the course.

CHECK THIS OUT!!!  Finally by summer 1929, some danger signs were apparent, STARTLING DECLINE IN BULIDING CONTRACTS.  Residential construction for the entire year SANK.  CONSUMER SPENDING WAS SLACKENING.  By midsummer 1929, building began to fall off, wholesale commodity prices dropped.  In August, Federal Reserve Board finally agreed to raise to 6 percent. In September Stock Exchange price were at the highest.  On October 23, PRICES STARTED FALLING.  WALL STREET WAS SHAKEN.  Anxiety was suddenly infectious.  As panic spread, stocks dropped.  Hoover stated, "The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities is a sound and prosperous basis."  As prices held for a week, bankers QUIETLY fed back into the stock market that they had bought on Black Thursday for further future storms.  

Banks protected themselves against their customers.  On Monday, new explosion of gloom and panic happend.  General Motors stock lost nearly 2 million.  It soon was an avalanche, vast numbers rushing to get out of the market.  By noon, 8 million shares traded hands and by closing time, Exchange had broken all records with 16 million shares.  By mid November the financial community began to survey the wreckage.  New York Stock Exchange had fallen 40 percent in value. 

CAUSE OF THE CRASH:  Management's disposition to maintain prices and inflate profits while holding down wages and raw material prices meant that workers and farmers were denied benefits of increases in their own productivity.  Decline of mass purchasing power (like our real estate in 2005?) as goods flowed out of expanding capital plant in ever greater quantities, less and less cash in the hands of buyers to carry goods off the market.  Seven years of fixed capital investment at high rates had overbuilt productive capacity and had thus saturated the economy.  The slackening of the automotive and building industries.  Businessmen trying TO SAVE THEMSELVES COULD ONLY WRECK THEIR SYSTEM.  Representing the financiers, it had ignored irresponsible practices in the securities of the markets.  Ignored the weight of private debt.  Result was both class and national disaster. 

homes, natural disasters unattended to, collapsing bridges, earmark bridges. Address those first, save flag for later.

It may seem that he's acting a little early, but given the economic state of this country, I don't think that's such a bad thing.

He also has a parent-teacher meeting just before that...good for him!

the stock market is tanking again. It's down to -212. I have never seen the INDP as low as today at 7154. I think part of it is because they talked about nationalizing CitiGroup and Bank of America.

We all gonna drown. Hope you all have a life jacket.

10.   Blissful ignorance.  "The economy is not my strong suit."

 9.    Ridicule.  In an interview with the Washington Post on 07/9/2008, McCain advisor and national campaign general co-chair Senator Phil Gramm was defining McCain's plans to reform the U.S. economy.  Gramm explained the nation was not in a recession, stating, "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," and "We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."  This would be the same Phil Gramm of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which allowed commercial and investment banks to consolidate.  The legislation allowed Swiss Bank UBS to purchase several American institutions. Gramm later became a lobbyist for UBS, collecting over 750,000 USD in fees. UBS alone issues over 18 Billion USD in subprime mortgages.  

 8.    Denial.  Black Monday, 09/15/2008.  John McCain:  "The fundamentals of our economy are still sound."  A worldwide stock market crash occurred as Lehman Brothers filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and major investment bank Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America. Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 500 points, which is the biggest point drop (up to that point) since September 2001.  FTSE 100 dropped 212 points, and it was the biggest one-day percentage drop since January 21, 2008. Hong Kong, Japan and Korea stock market suspended that day due to public holiday, and they fell over 5% on the following day.   Two weeks later, we had a blacker Monday (09/29/2008) with a 777.68 point drop on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

 7.    Political grandstanding.  Announcement of suspending his campaign to return to DC to "lead" Congress during economic bail-out negotiations.  This effort led to a defeat of the measure when the votes were cast.  Tried unsuccessfully to use the bailout as an excuse to postpone the presidential debate.  

 6.    Flip-Flop.  Claims to support regulation.  Record says otherwise. 

 5.    Incoherence.  Threatens to fire the chairman of the SEC if he were in office, even though the president does not have the authority to do so.   

 4.    Theft of intellectual property.  Claiming previously existing mortgage buy-out proposal as his own. 

 3.    Avoid / change the subject.  Greg Strimple, a McCain top advisor:  If we keep talking about the economy, we will lose." 

 2.    Engage the politics of division, hate, fear mongering and cultural warfare with high-gear Obama smear campaign:  Ayers, ACORN, Farrakhan, Rev Jeremiah Wright, Barack Hussein Obama, etc.      

 1.    McCain’s send message to voters is to stop whining about the economy and start focusing on attacking Obama.