I find myself somehow not panicked by today’s stock market … well … panic. Perhaps I’ve lived through a few of these at this point: 1987, post-9/11, 2008, and now. It’s scary, yeah … but not unexpected, given what we’re going through.
Bottom line lesson: If Republicans win, we all lose money. Yeah, it’s worse than that, for sure; but that is truly the lowest common denominator going into 2012.
It’s important at this point to take the long view. There’s a reason why the House of Representatives has a new election every two years — it’s so that popular passions (or even semi-popular fringey passions) can get in and out in relatively short order. Sadly, there’s a lot of damage the GOP could do in the next few months. But after that, America simply must call it quits on this lunatic brand of right wing Political Correctness. 2012 — particularly for Congress — might be even more consequential than 2008, if you can imagine. If we don’t win, God help us.
And let’s please stop blaming “Washington”, as in “Washington dysfunction” or “Washington disconnect.” Our problem today doesn’t come from the hackocracy, or the favor-trading establishment, as un-beloved as those are. In fact, the current problem is not enough Washington — that is, a lack of any recognition of mutual or at least negotiable interest. Call it back-scratching, logrolling, backroom deals, whatever you like, but that’s how business has gotten done in the boardroom and the backroom since the Romans. And when business doesn’t get done, money floods out of our pockets, as it did today.
Old-timey hacks like Boehner, Cantor, McConnell and Hatch have plainly enabled the radicals, ceding power to the pitchforkcrowd in order to maintain their comfy positions. Let’s be clear: The Tea Party is an Outside-The-Beltway brew: A far-right movement awoken by economic anxiety, animated by identity politics, xenophobia, and anti-establishment spite; and immersed in 24/7 propaganda media (corporate-approved). You see many of these elements in far-right movements in Europe all the time. The twist is that here, the xenophobia is conveniently aimed at our mixed-race President. We’ve got a vast corporate propaganda industry egging the rads on, and making money from them. But long-term, FOX News is probably not good for Republican political prospects. They make scads of money — but apparently more when the GOP is in minority. Tail wags the dog.
There simply must be a price to pay for Tea Party Republicans in 2012. They’re begging for it, for crying out loud.
Well said, and I’d add that I still hold the perhaps naive notion that there are still Republicans out there who care about the country and are willing to sit down at the table and discuss issues like grown-ups. I think as the Tea Party wave recedes, you’ll see more of these reasonable people come out of the woodwork.
In the meantime, however, there’s simply no group more dangerous to the future stability of the United States than the current Republican Party.
in the short term, people start to notice that the real problem is inadequate economic growth and the corresponding lack of jobs. If things get worse (or don’t get any better), which is likely in the short run, the opening will be there for a renewed emphasis on jobs and growth. In the past week I’ve seen economists even of the generally right-wing bent voice concerns along these lines. The current stock sell-off may spur that discussion along.
MAYBE, at that time, the Democratic Party (starting with the guy at 1600) will try to argue that the Tea Party austerity stuff does not work, and start pushing policies recommended by rational economists. You know, instead of climbing aboard the fad of the day. Instead of buying into GOP framing and solutions, even when the public roundly rejects them. And MAYBE, as hoyapaul says, some non-Tea Party types in the Republican party will decide they’ve seen enough of this nonsense.
Nothing I have seen thus far gives much hope of this, but perhaps Obama & the Dems. will realize they’re in trouble if unemployment is at this level, of higher, approaching November 2012. Then perhaps they will try a narrative that isn’t “both parties bear the blame for this.” Otherwise, with 10% unemployment and a terrified electorate (plus lots of 2006 Dem Senate seats up again), I think the Dems are toast and we’re looking at a very, very bad stretch.
There are times when politicians must put aside partisanship for the sake of the country. Barack Obama seems not to realize that this is a time when the Democrats must embrace partisanship for the sake of the country. We can’t take too many more “bipartisan” deals like the stinker he signed last week.
More jobs means more taxes to the USA and less social spending coming from the USA. It also means more indirect jobs, for a bonus. Then of course there are the induced jobs — now that you’ve got money, you can spend it. At the very least you catch up on your bills and now the utilities and financial institutions have more money to invest.
More jobs would go a long way. Yet here we are discussing how many jobs to cut. It’s as if we learned nothing from the 20s and 30s.
Just remember that for every seller there is a buyer, i.e., for every person who wants to get out of the market and put his money in the mattress or in Treasuries, there is someone else who wants to invest in our businesses for the long term. Who is the smart money and who is the dumb money in this kind of market?
You buy, I’ll hold.