the usa has been going through boom and bust cycles for centuries.  so nothing new here.  i said a year or two ago that the next downturn could occur in 2008.  i was right.

 

two schools of thought as to why the usa goes through this cycle.  one is a natural byproduct of capitialism.  factories produce durable goods.  people buy them.  the factory maybe able to produce more goods than people who have enough money to consume them will do so.  the second school thinks that booms end because the elite don't want to destroy the dollar.  allowing booms to run wild for two long a time will result in hyperinflation.  china tends to try and cool down economic swings.  they have had experience with hyperinflation when they invented paper.

 

both views have merit.  stangnation is the  normal economic state.  it takes a stimulus to have an upturn.  but all stimulus seem to have a limited life span.  when it ends,  there will be a downturn until the economy reaches its normal state.  the usa just came off another boom.  all booms end and usually resilt an economic contraction.  can't have a boom without a market correction.

You left out the other school of thought.....

 

Idiots like Carter and Clinton putting pressure on lending institutions to make bad loans to  unqualified dead-beats they knew couldn't meet their debts, then buying-up those bad debts, and other idiots like Barney Frank running around telling everyone the Fannie & Freddie were financially sound right before the collapse....

 

John McCain mentioned this would happen almost three years ago, but no one paid any attentrion.

what carter and clinton did was to fight against redlining.  redlining is racist.  the idea is to deny blacks and hispanics credit so that they wouldn't compete against whites.  the government can't make any company stay in business when they are losing money.

Contemporary issues

Dan Immergluck writes that in 2002 small businesses in black neighborhoods still received fewer loans, even after accounting for business density, business size, industrial mix, neighborhood income, and the credit quality of local businesses.^[15] Gregory D. Squires wrote in 2003 that it is clear that race has long affected and continues to affect the policies and practices of the insurance industry.^[16] Workers living in American inner cities have a harder time finding jobs than suburban workers.^[17] Redlining has helped preserve segregated living patterns for blacks and whites in the United States, because discrimination motivated by prejudice is often contingent on the racial composition of neighborhoods where the loan is sought and the race of the applicant. Lending institutions have been shown to treat black mortgage applicants differently when they are buying homes in white neighborhoods than when buying homes in black neighborhoods. ^[18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

 the government can't make any company stay in business when they are losing money.

 

 

So, what are all those BILLIONS of $$$$ in government bail-outs all about?

 

I needn't resort to name-calling anymore.....

 

You are what you ARE, Knightly.

what!?  it is the corps that bribed the politicians so they would make the bailout happen.   this was all plan ahead of time by the way.  it is a repeat of the saving and loans bail out that happen in the 1980.  the same thing in both times.  biger bank corps bought out smaller bank corps.

Driver, he will have to do that.  We spent too much time with the philosophy of Tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor.  That is why we are in this mess, in the first place.

 

So, at least in the begining, we have to do it this way.

We have representation.

No government has ever taxed it's way to prosperity.

 Increasing taxes on the entities that create jobs, and promising tax cuts to people who already pay little to no taxes, only makes sense to someone who is ignorant of the basics of economics. President Reagan inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression from Jimmy Carter, who did EXACTELY what Obama is preposing to do. Reagan implemented drastic tax cuts and created the longest period of peace-time economic growth in US history.

Anyone with half a brain knows how to fix the problems because we've had these problems and fixed them before.  The only thing Obama is using his half a brain on is spreading propaganda and out-right lying to people attempting to make them believe that proven failed policies will now somehow work.

There is nothing "whimpy" about reducing government and lowering taxes to improve the economy. Nothing "whimpy" aboat drawing the line on a stupid 'stealing from the rich and give it to deadbeats' scheme.

 In a way I suppose we have become "whimps" by allowing the government to become the "money-pit" that it is.

The "eye popping" 94% tax bracket applied to ordinary income over $200,000 in 1945 - equivalent to about $2.5 million in 2008 dollars.

 

 

It should be noted that FICA tax rates during WWII were 2% (1% individual, 1% employer) on a maximum $3000 income.  That income cap is equal to about $37,000 today - compared to $102,000 for 2008 and $106,800 for 2009.

 

The Medicare tax didn't exist.  Thus - combining the taxes, our current payroll tax burden is 15.3% of income compared to just 2% then.

 

The total combined tax on earnings over $32,550 in the United States is currently 25% on income, plus 15.3% FICA, for a total just over 40%.  This is equivalent to the 37% tax bracket in 1945, which started at $8,000.  That $8,000 in annual income is equal to $99,500 in 2008.

 

What does this mean?  For most people, the tax burden in WWII was less than it is today.  This can be seen in the Tax Foundation's publication:  Tax Freedom Day

 

Tax Freedom Day was April 4 in 1943, March 29 in 1944, and March 30 in 1945 - equivalent to effective overall tax rates of 25.7, 24, and 24.2% respectively, for an average 24.6%.  We've not seen such low tax rates again.

 

Taxes in 2006 through 2008 were 31.5, 31.7, and 30.8% respectively, for an average 31.3%.  This means Americans are currently paying greater than 27% higher taxes out of their income than they were in the war years of 1943 through 1945.