Are We Courting a Populist Backlash?
The government is doing a lousy job helping distressed homeowners. And according to John Dugan, the Comptroller of the Currency, the little that's been done has had surprisingly little effect. Nearly 36 percent of homeowners holding mortgages whose terms were adjusted to give them more leeway defaulted on payments within three months, and almost 53 percent were behind on payments by six months.
What's going on? It's hard to know for sure, because the homeowners who have qualified for help so far were supposed to have been fairly good credit risks to begin with. My guess is the worsening economy is making it harder for just about all homeowners to pay their mortgages, and those who were teetering on the edge months ago -- although perhaps good credit risks before that time -- are now way under water. Two of the biggest culprits: Layoffs and fewer working hours. With far less money coming in, more and more people have to choose between paying their mortgages and trying to keep up with larger and larger credit card debt. They're trying to manage both while paying the medical bills and the food bills and energy bills, and they can't make it.
It wouldn't surprise me if many of these Americans were starting to look at the size of the bailouts of Wall Street and the bailout of the Big Three -- at the executives, well-paid professional employees, upscale creditors and shareholders, and even well-paid blue-collar workers, who are the major beneficiaries of this federal largesse -- and conclude that a fundamental principle of fairness is being violated.
These Americans aren't revolutionaries. To the contrary, they're deeply conservative. They've worked hard, but their hard work hasn't paid off. Some have tried to save, only to see their savings disappear. They're worried about the future and about their kids' futures. They never expected anything like this.
This is the angry soil in which populist backlashes can take root.
What's going on? It's hard to know for sure, because the homeowners who have qualified for help so far were supposed to have been fairly good credit risks to begin with. My guess is the worsening economy is making it harder for just about all homeowners to pay their mortgages, and those who were teetering on the edge months ago -- although perhaps good credit risks before that time -- are now way under water. Two of the biggest culprits: Layoffs and fewer working hours. With far less money coming in, more and more people have to choose between paying their mortgages and trying to keep up with larger and larger credit card debt. They're trying to manage both while paying the medical bills and the food bills and energy bills, and they can't make it.
It wouldn't surprise me if many of these Americans were starting to look at the size of the bailouts of Wall Street and the bailout of the Big Three -- at the executives, well-paid professional employees, upscale creditors and shareholders, and even well-paid blue-collar workers, who are the major beneficiaries of this federal largesse -- and conclude that a fundamental principle of fairness is being violated.
These Americans aren't revolutionaries. To the contrary, they're deeply conservative. They've worked hard, but their hard work hasn't paid off. Some have tried to save, only to see their savings disappear. They're worried about the future and about their kids' futures. They never expected anything like this.
This is the angry soil in which populist backlashes can take root.
posted by Robert Reich | 2:51 PM
75 Comments:
I'm always surprised when I talk to regular people by how well they understand who's to blame and how the system is corrupted. They don't know the mechanics of how the hedge fund compensation scheme or executive bonus packages lead to excessive risk taking for short term game, but they do know exactly who screwed everything up. They don't understand quite how lobbyists control the legislative process, but they do know that big money rules Washington and not the American people.
The populist backlash is ready to go if Obama or another leader is ready to use its power to bring about the dramatic and necessary changes. So far it doesn't seem like anyone has the courage to lead that revolution. The media machine and the most powerful corporate interests are formidable, but the people are ready to take them on.
What about renters' backlash? Your focus on homeowners is quite tiresome...
We need an Unemployed Homeowners Relief Act. I am working to help homeowners as a volunteer in foreclosure mediation. Most of the folks I deal with are unemployed and have no income, so are rejected from various foreclosure mitigation programs.
How about a government program to support Foreclosure Forebearance for those who are unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control. I'm thinking of a government program that will pay interest-only at, say, 3%, to lenders who agree not to foreclose (or a bankruptcy-like stay of foreclosure cases) on anyone who is drawing unemployment compensation, in exchange for a junior lien on the property in the event it is sold. Such a program would give lenders something and homeowners a lot.
What form would you think that a populist backlash might take?
"fundamental principle of fairness is being violated." How fair is it to those of us who had to pay 10% interest rates during hard economic times from 1975-85 to give people government sub. 4% rates? How fair is it to those in retirement who can only earn 2% on their money market funds because the fed. wants to help over spenders not savers? How fair is it that some one can live in a nice new home for nine months free of charge while they milk the forclosure process and the rest of us can't? How fair is it that people who owe money on their home loans are given complete forgiveness while those of us who were upside down in our homes during the last bust got nothing? How fair is it that lower income people can pay no federal taxes and get thousands annually in free EIC tax-payer hand-outs? These are all bail-out programs that steal from the tax-payer to give to the people who pay no taxes and violate principles of fairness.
We need to focus on creating JOBS NOT HAND-OUTS.
At some point, there will be, also, a taxpayer revolt. We have seen our 401s and taxes go into a black hole. Now we are seeing our mortgage payments, our biggest investment, do the same. If given a choice, I will make the mortgage payment, and the credit cards and taxes go to the bottom of the list. House, Utilities, Car, Gas, Food, and fight another day.
One can only hope for a populist backlash. Here on Long Island, NY, people are finally beginning to run for office to challenge money-squanderers who hold public posts. It's such a heartening development to see people standing up for their rights. I'm no conservative, but I am situationally a fiscal conservative. And I think reduced spending by local government fits the needs of this time. So does helping regular people stay in their homes.
Anne Michaud
www.hardforthemoney.net
Several of the comments have asked "in what form will the populist backlash come?"
To quote Thomas Jefferson:
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
how much worse do you think it will get before we have riots in the streets? 10% unemployment? 15%? 30%?
Greg
Don't worry. The people who end up with the short end of the stick will be instructed by the media that it's all the fault of their friends and neighbors who still have jobs and aren't losing their homes. Just like they've been dutifully misinforming all of us about how Detroit's problems are mostly the result of greedy unionized auto workers making $70 an hour, instead of accurately reporting that autoworkers make $29 per hour. And we can count on the natural inclination of a fair number of Americans who would rather see the economy go deeper into the hole than see some homeowner get a "handout" that allows them to stay in their home. No big surprise there - we're really good at cutting off our noses to spite our own faces, whenever it allows us to play the role of morally superior while making sure the other guy takes a beating. Really, those who value seeing their neighbor evicted from his home because "he made a mistake!" more highly than helping him - and the overall economy - those folks have no business lecturing anyone on "values". And for that matter, no business pretending expertise on macroeconomic policy, either. Spite is not a reasonable substitute for sound policy. But you can count on the powers that be to stir up as much of it as possible, to make sure things that help ordinary people don't get in the way of things that help the people who need the help the least.
So, no, probably no populist backlash - at least not against those actually responsible for this mess. Instead, we'll probably get more of the stuff pushing racial, religious, and ideology divides, and we'll agree to fight each other like we usually do, while the guys who control all the levers go on doing whatever they want.
@BMW
Because the amount of "your tax money" going into the pockets of the super-rich (even before the "bailouts") vastly outstrips any amount you consider to be "handouts" to the working poor (you know, the people who do the actual work in our society of consumers and data-shufflers). Because real wages have been in decline in the U.S. since 1973 and we consequently have the largest disparity in wealth in this country since 1929. Because we need to stop looking down the economic ladder to find the source of our problem when the actual sources are standing on our collective necks. Because living in a stable society is of far more value to you than living in a collapsing one.
Because you don't want to have to find out if you'll be put against the wall when the revolution comes.
Nearly 36 percent of homeowners holding mortgages whose terms were adjusted to give them more leeway defaulted on payments within three months, and almost 53 percent were behind on payments by six months.
Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the FDIC, somewhat contradicted these statistics today. Evidentlty, she believes that the IndyMac program will not result in this level of redefaults. So maybe it's the program that resulted in these statistics that's the problem and not the general concept or another alternative manifestation of it.
A populist uprising? Unemployment would have to reach 30%.
Dr. Reich - I agree with what you say totally. I'm not sure if the Backlash will be Populist, but there will be a Backlash if Wall Street doesn't get it's act together. I question whether it will be Populist because 'Populist' is label for a late 19th, early 20th century political movement. I'm just not sure what constituted a Populist then is what would constitute a Populist now.
For something like 70 years American political thought has been in a kind of stasis due to the Hot/Cold War between 'US' and the 'USSR'. The instant a new political, economic, or social idea came into being it was was forced to conform to the symbolism of that conflict.
So is what is brewing with the American people really 'Populist' or something new? I don't know, do you?
Dear Bob:
I respect you, but you are a chump.
Let me see...
Allow NINJA (no income, no job, no assets) borrowers get negative amortization or interest only loans with no money down or better yet, 110% LTV in order become property speculators.
The borrowers cut and run when the market turns with no recourse loans and then....
Suprise, suprise when they default on their workouts?
We are financially and politically encouraging bad behavior,how can we be suprised when you get more of it?
Who paid the bill for this 'subprime crisis'? It logically couldn't be the net debtors as they have no assets.
It has to be the net creditors...those villainous, predatory lenders extending credit to NINJA's in a non-recourse environment in order to clean up? What? Their own stomach juices?
Backlash? Forget the 'homeowners'. How about looking after the prudent savers first. What is my reward for not over-extending myself, for not leveraging, for living with in my means and saving for the future? Oh, right it's ZERO per cent interest, a free falling dollar and the over-riding concern that my savings are not safe sitting in a bank. Great. Thanks a bunch.
James - that's very good for you - you were prudent in your actions and yes, it's unfair that your investments have lost value thanks to the actions of others. But at this point, kicking people out of houses isn't going to bring back your money or improve the overall economy - it can only make it worse. It might make you feel better, momentarily, to see other people who got snookered lose their homes, but when it ultimately sends the economy even further down and makes your investments worth even less than they are now, isn't it kind of self-defeating?
As I said before, spite is not a reasonable substitute for sound policy.
My guess is that folks needing a mortgage MOD have run out of credit channels, no home ATM, no credit card balance to borrow, they are the new carney in the coal mine for what consumers will face in a economy that is short on credit with asset deflation.
They will be living on their paycheck if they are lucky enough to have one or some kind of gov't assitance either way its a cash only economy for them, no credit card or home ATM to cover any emergencys, you all get the picture.
The reality for the person getting a mortgage MOD is they need to be getting the most cost effective housing available and homeownership is just the opposite.
More and more American consumers will be living on a cash budget rather then living off credit cards and asset inflation this requires a completely different mind set that means forget about the rear view mirror economy of credit surplus and illusion of wealth, focus on the here and now which is credit rationing and asset deflation. The rules have changed.
Long ago, I understood and accepted the end of the social contract between employer and employee; and I've adjusted to life as an expendable, out-sourceable cog in the machinery of the global economy.
I have prepared myself as much as possible to remain competitive and employable, but all preparation is for naught if the economy is built on a foundation of sand.
I worked in the mortgage business many years ago when it was a conservative industry, and I know from my own experience that lenders know who can and cannot repay a loan. These subprime loans were given to people who would default no matter what the terms.
This is where I believe the populist backlash comes from. People understand that none of this had to happen, that something terribly wrong if not criminal has taken place.
Yet the people who drove our economy off a cliff have already made their millions, and they don't have the risk that people like me face.
Sure, bail out Citibank, and AIG. Save the automobile industry, loan them billions. We have no choice, they have us held hostage.
But, the bailouts will have to come with a price, and part of the price is to renegotiate the social contract.
I don't know what the new social contract should look like, but I do know that one is deserved because nobody is playing by the rules anymore. I can never again trust the economy!
Anonymous Jennifer said...
Don't worry. The people who end up with the short end of the stick will be instructed by the media that it's all the fault of their friends and neighbors who still have jobs and aren't losing their homes. Just like they've been dutifully misinforming all of us about how Detroit's problems are mostly the result of greedy unionized auto workers making $70 an hour, instead of accurately reporting that autoworkers make $29 per hour. And we can count on the natural inclination of a fair number of Americans who would rather see the economy go deeper into the hole than see some homeowner get a "handout" that allows them to stay in their home. No big surprise there - we're really good at cutting off our noses to spite our own faces, whenever it allows us to play the role of morally superior while making sure the other guy takes a beating. Really, those who value seeing their neighbor evicted from his home because "he made a mistake!" more highly than helping him - and the overall economy - those folks have no business lecturing anyone on "values". And for that matter, no business pretending expertise on macroeconomic policy, either. Spite is not a reasonable substitute for sound policy. But you can count on the powers that be to stir up as much of it as possible, to make sure things that help ordinary people don't get in the way of things that help the people who need the help the least.
So, no, probably no populist backlash - at least not against those actually responsible for this mess. Instead, we'll probably get more of the stuff pushing racial, religious, and ideology divides, and we'll agree to fight each other like we usually do, while the guys who control all the levers go on doing whatever they want.
-------------------------------------
Beautiful! Another person that understands the truth in the USA. You and I both know when it comes to doing the right thing, a majority of US citizens can care less. This "trump" card that you and I have been speaking of is a last resort of course. However, it seems that the last resort is really close, especially if we can not keep people in their homes. As I have mentioned before numerous times, Americans are the easiest people on the planet to dupe. We are so easily manipulated it is sad. We are no better than our own politicians we elect and that is the sad truth. What is even more sad is that no one ever listens to people like you and I. We get our opinions shoved to the back of the line because they don't coincide with the majority! Truth is never a majority if beliefs my friends. If we can not take more interest in the everyday lives of our fellow man, then we are better off living as wild animals running rampant in the forests and mountains. We have the ability to use a logic that is unheard of among species on this planet. Yet, we still find ways to kill and use each other.
Enough is enough already. The people we elected represent how the US citizens truly are: immoral, degenerate, and manipulative people. Either we change these ways and take an interest in our fellow man, or we will all be gone faster than the blink of an eye. I am not talking religious babble either. As a nation, we have the power to feed and cloth everyone. We have the power to educate and instill compassion, kindess, and great intellect. Unfortunately, we choose the oppositte. We prefer hatred, biggotry, and death opposed to learning to shut up and deal with someone who looks and acts different.
These hard times will either see this nation rise, or it will fall in a spectacular blaze. Either way, we are in for one heck of a ride.
James, your spot-on with your comments. "How about looking after the prudent savers first. What is my reward for not over-extending myself, for not leveraging, for living with in my means and saving for the future? Oh, right it's ZERO per cent interest"
As you can tell by many comments on this board. "FAIR" is what helps spenders not savers! Why not you? Because they feel you do not need help. They feel they were forced into over-spending, buying big homes and big cars. Now they want to blame some one. Why not help retirees who bought small homes and paid them off and who live off a fixed income and are now on hard times because they only can earn 2% on their MMF which is used to buy food? Why no help for these people? Because the people screeming for more hand-outs only care about them not you and not retiree's! The people who pay no federal taxes and get thousands in hand-outs from the IRS EIC payments are the first to ask for bigger hand-outs at your expense. And you can bet they could care less about helping anyone but them.
No question the economy is in a mess. But those people who cry-out for more hand-outs have not called for more jobs...just more hand-outs!
Henry Blodget, one of the more famous Merrill Lynch tech-stock analysts who took a lot of heat for the dot-com debacle, wrote an interesting article titled Why Wall Street Always Blows It in the latest Atlantic. Blodget and his wife were very concerned about the looming housing bubble and had expected it to burst, but after holding out for years, they decided in 2007 that "this time would be different" and set out to purchase a house. They got an adjustable-rate mortgage. According to Blodget, they are still able to make payments, although their mortgage rate is about to reset and they have heard rumors at their jobs about coming layoffs. The article highlights how even those homeowners who "should've known better" were lured into the trap by mortgage brokers and real-estate agents who were really just doing what was fashionable and accepted at the time. (It also describes the insane culture of Wall Street that rewards big risk-takers and weeds out/punishes cautious fund managers.)
In the beginning, there was a lot of scapegoating going on and there still is. Minorities were blamed the most. I imagine that once more upper-middle- and upper-class families get into trouble, the tune might really start changing. Much like the difference between media treatment of an inner city teenage girl gone missing and a suburban white teenage girl gone missing, there is always more public support/outrage when victims belong to the more privileged classes.
What I'd like to know: what ever happened to Paulson's "Hope Now" and his "Project Lifeline"? Oh, right - those were both PR scams to fleece the public into believing that the administration was actually doing something to help homeowners.
I believe that there will be a backlash. Whether it's populist or not is the question. Without honest leadership, the anger that is gripping the nation might be channeled into violence instead of protests. The first commenter is right: people are rightly pissed off, though a lot of them don't know where to direct their anger. The media certainly hasn't helped by ignoring how this economic nightmare is unfolding globally and by failing to report on what Paulson's bailouts are really about: handing over taxpayer money to his banker cronies so that they can pay off their gambling debts. Unlike the looting of Fort Knox, this time, the looting is happening right in the faces of the American public - disguised as "a housing correction"/"liquidity crisis" that needs trillions of dollars to "correct." The financial infrastructure is not a "failed model" whose CEOs and managers need to be fired (or jailed); there is no talk about "throwing good money after bad" - it just needs a "correction"! And while our Democratic and Republican leaders poo-pooed the CEOs of the Big 3 for taking private jets to their Congressional meeting, not one of them has said a word about Citibank keeping their name on Mets stadium & paying the Mets $400 million over the course of the next 20 years, putting on the Rose Bowl, or spending $10 billion to acquire debt-laden Spanish construction company, Sacyr Vallehermoso. Likewise, not one of them said anything about Bank of America's chief spending $7 billion of his TARP cash to up the bank's stake in China Construction Bank to 19 percent. (Silly bankers! How ever did they expect to be able to afford to extend a line of credit to Republic Windows and Doors after sending $10 billion to China?!) Nothing but crickets. No excesses, acquisitions, or land grabs should be tolerated while these effing crooks are surviving on taxpayer money. One would think that a "housing correction" wouldn't require such bold-faced fraud anyway. Soon, they will all be asking for more $ for their "correction." They're terribly deluded/insane if they think that the public will stand for that. Our leaders are equally insane. I have a mild temperment, and even I am ready to raise holy hell.
Dr. Reich, you have access to the President-elect and his team. You might suggest that Tim Geithner take a radically different approach than Paulson by simply being honest with the American public. Spin will only hurt the new administration. Without honesty about why we are really in this mess, what can be done to get out of it, and why the administration is taking the steps that it sets out to take, the public will only grow more angry and attribute the entire mess to the new administration. So, to get back to your last blog, if we're in a depression or barely hanging on, that information needs to get out asap. It can't be the "Obama depression" . . . there are enough armed, Obama-hating lunatics out there as it is.
People are resentful at having to pay anywhere from 1/3-1/2 or even MORE of their monthly earnings to paper pushers based largely in NYC just so they can have a simple roof over their head.
To make matters worse, they probably payed more for their house than it is really worth and now it's dropping even further in value.
Populist backlash, indeed. Coming soon to a USA near you!
People that can't afford the homes they bought need to leave them, period. People should not be bailed out for bad decisions.
Life is tough, get over it.
Good, we need an uprising.
Revolution is an inevitable reality, no civilization has survived indefinitely, this one will be no different.
In all the decades of driving I have never bought an auto from the big 3.
I am so happy to hear that now I will be floating them the cash so they can continue to build cars people don't want and can't afford.
Why not buy up all the mortgages as well, just cut the banks an IOU.
Better yet, let's have a 3 month holiday on mortgage and credit card payments.
For 3 months, don't pay your bills.
That should drop this baby to her knees real quick.
The banks will have to hire more repo men and foreclosure tellers.
Booming industries of the 21st century:
Home deconstruction
Property deparcelization
Shopping Mall Homeless Centers
Virtual Prostitution and Gambling
Off-grid Electric Fencing
Gunsmiths and ammunition facilities
Farmer's Markets
Off-Grid meat lockers
motion detector technologies
closed circuit security systems
Grumpy Old Man, even if everyone shared your grumpy stance, what about all of the people who will be forced out of their homes when they lose their jobs? At this point, it doesn't even make sense to take a moralistic position when talking about the people losing their homes. At least, it doesn't make sense to me. We all know that there were people who were well aware that they couldn't afford the payments, that there were those who thought they could, those who were just confused, those who were greedy house-flippers, and that there are those who are losing their homes because they lost their jobs. Who was pushing the people to take the mortgages? Who was chopping those loans up and selling them off? Who was doing the heavy gambling? Who was benefiting? Shouldn't we be more upset with those people?
What about those who pushed for and repealed the Glass-Steagal Act and the Shad-Johnson Accord? Or Greenspan, Reagan, Bush, Paulson, the SEC, those who were warned about derivatives trading & the housing bubble but ignored the warnings, etc. etc. What about all of them? They all effed up. They all helped to put us on this path. But so did the Congress that passed the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. We surrendered to the rule of bankers and have done little since JFK in the way of even questioning what the power of the Federal Reserve (or the IMF and the Work Bank) means for all of us.
In short, there are plenty of people to blame. I just can't see how it makes sense to focus the blame on homeowners facing foreclosure.
WELL DONE TOM.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
Thomas Jefferson, 1802
Without the STUPID, the CLEVER cannot live.
I didn't read all the comments - it might have been mentioned already - but could one of the reasons for this not be (as Peter Schiff suggested earlier in the year) that the rational thing for homeowners would be to NOT pay their mortgage bills in order to qualify for government support? Makes sense.
Anonymous: Thomas Jefferson wasn't the only one who understood the root of the problem. Google and watch The Money Masters: How International Bankers Gained Control of America.
Dr. Reich: I am curious to know what you think about John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics site? I have seen many people suggest multiplying the government's reported unemployment rate by 2 to get a more accurate picture of unemployment. Williams, however, believes that the unemployment rate is now 16.5% and that 873,000 jobs were lost in November.
1 million jobs lost per month beginning in 2009? - http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Coming_soon_to_U.S._1_million_1207.html
Sounds like social unrest to me...widespread unemployment will lead to swelling numbers of nearly destitute, hungry, heavily armed, homeless, hopeless, and very pissed off young and middle-aged men of the working and middle classes who will feel utterly betrayed by society. Large numbers of these types of men, most of who will be White, will no doubt lead to the rise of new right-wing ideologies of the White racialist sort (not necessarily "White supremacist," but more like a "White rights" movement); however, these movements will most likely also be anti-immigrant/anti-Hispanic, anti-Jewish (they will blame "the NYC bankers"), anti-capitalist (they will blame greedy plutocratic bankers for many of their troubles), anti-big (leftwing) govt., etc.
Something tells me a movement like this is actually picking up steam right now -- all it needs to really break out now is a catalyst of some kind and/or the emergence of a charismatic leader for these people to rally behind.
Hello again 1930s...rinse, repeat.
Will someone tell all these new Democrats we elected what country this is ! It's America, where there should be no pain !
So let's get to work under our new champion - Barak !
List of things to get done in '09:
1. Reduce interest rates to zero, then negative to territory (lenders should pay borrowers)
2. Support good $70k Auto union jobs with rolling bailouts for the Big Three.
3. It's time for another immigration Amnesty (everyone should have access to The American Dream)
4. America has great lumber resources; turn as many trees as possible into $100 Bills.
FYI, these redefault rates are in-line with long-term historical averages. There is nothing "going on" that has been going since folks with a propensity to default first started being born. Check out Housing Wire for some background on this issue.
Here's a cheerful holiday song (the 12 days of bailouts) to blunt any possible backlash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xJnIqq9ZI
Populist backlash? Like what, start taking a part in government? Pu-lease. Most Americans are too worried about catching the next Survivor/American Idol/Lost episode to construct any meaningful revolution.
Bread and circuses for all!
Cannot help but notice the decline of Dr. Reich's thinking on his blog. First, there was hope. Then came a recognition that government cannot resolve these monumental, nation breaking financial issues. Then came THE WORD: DEPRESSION. At last, we have arrived essentially at "blood in the streets".
Mr./Dr (?) Reich is probably one of the more decent, honorable men who has served in government. Certainly one of the brightest. But I think he is seeing his hopes dashed as the government stumbles from one bailout to another all the while debasing the currency, enslaving its citizens with more debt and taking care of the elitists.
Further, he is seeing Mr. Obama backing away from campaign promises. He, too, will be a perpetual war president. He is also a smoker (who can blame him). Mr. Obama will preside over the collapse. Ten to twenty percent of our population will be out of work for a long, long time.
Our inner cities will become no go zones. Life will become more dangerous. The American dream is over.
Jennifer:
You exhibit signs of brilliance but in fewer words, Pogo said it all.
We are looking for a leader to take charge and get us organized. Wealth disparities across history have proven to be the catalyst for revolutions. I also want religious freedom from the NeoCons in this country. I’m tired of backing religious states like Israel. Let them fight their own wars. Basically, religion keeps the poor from killing the rich. The rich push religion into the masses. It is another form of hypnosis like the corporate media.
Lead the charge.
Populism is evil because the people must be replaced by more compliant peoples. The resistance to this is merely proof of their uncivil inability to accept their fate gracefully hence their envy of others more favored by G-d and His Chosen.
Dr. Reich -
I disagree with those that say you are being negative here. An open analysis of the mood of the public is not negative to me, even when results show "bad things acomen'".
Any good "Emergency Management' person will tell you that the more you know about the Emergencies you will likely be facing, the better you can prepare. An preparation and training, I mean knowing and practicing what you do when the Emergency happens, the better you can minimize the damage done.
Abusing the messenger for telling us a storm is coming is what Bush & Co has been doing the last eight years. I voted for President-Elect Obama in the hope we will get someone who will lesson to what the messenger and then thank him/her for a job well done.
The only way I see to get through the troubles that are here, and coming, with as little hurt and harm possible we need to lesson to the messenger(s). So keep up telling what you see and what you think, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Dr. Reich, I like you but you've got the same problem most economists have- 20/20 hindsight.
The populist backlash is already starting- with a factory being held by workers trying to avoid layoff. It will only accelerate from here until the rich get smart and realize that they're about to lose everything because of their greed- just like it did during the 1930s.
Beau, I'm often amazed at how many people believe that you shouldn't talk about problems. It's as if they believe that the problems isn't real, or doesn't need to be addressed, unless it's said allowed.
My maternal grandmother was like this, she wouldn't speak of certain things, because she worried they would become real. Like don't say the devil's name or he'll be summoned. Don't talk about death or someone will die...
I agree with you. you have to talk about problems, bring them out in the open and examine them, if you're going to have any hope of solving or mitigating them.
It wouldn't be reasonable to step in a big pile of dog crap and pretend it's not caked all of your shoe, because you're worried that this might give it power or cause other people to notice it. Likewise, there would be no point in telling people that they shouldn't talk about the dog crap all over your shoe, and call them liars for insisting it's there.
Yet, I hear this logic on Republican radio stations and in causal conversation all the time.
The most obnoxious reply I get is, "If you don't like America, get out." As if inviting politicians to lie cheat and steal from us, is patriotic.
But from their perspective, they feel that must remain loyal to their owners. And as a few studies have suggested, this devotion to authority is genetic. It's the same drive that makes people remain loyal to their abusers.
And I guess it makes sense that evolution would give some people these traits. In oppressive societies, the ability to maintain undeserved loyalties, even in the face of abuse, could have strong survival advantages. These people may do very well (comparatively), as the US sinks deeper into this long depression.
Doc:
Whether an uprising, a revolution or a workout, likely we will end up right back where we started.
Many here rail that we need to scrap our historic system and start anew. Not sure how any of them think you can accomplish that. Even if possible it will mean years of pain and suffering for all, save, perhaps, those who can temporarily leave the country until the dust settles. Few of us can go back to growing our own food and heating our own homes.
I do have to apologize to all those who did the "right thing" in managing their finances and personal lives, but I find their wailing comical. Who ever taught you that there were societal rewards for doing the "right thing"? Who suggested to you that if you did the "right thing" you would be exempt from any harm coming from aggregate dilemmas? That's supposed to be what heaven is for.
Despite all the finger pointing at the money brokers or the stupid, greedy home buyers or the union workers or the politicans, the real root cause is that our whole system is predicated on profits and wealth accumulation, more of both. You "right thinkers" were not, not, players in that game, you merely chose what you thought was a better strategy.
We have come one hell of a long way under that system. To a great extent it has never been fair but as controls and cultural influences have ebbed and flowed, varying degrees of equality have been attained. Are we at the end? I haven't a clue. I know we've been through harrowing times before and turned them around but many parameters have changed. We are no longer a self-sustaining, isolated economy. Nuclear weapons have rendered a world war or even a major war against nations completely infeasible. The rise of insurgent, guerilla warfare, actually first practiced by a fledging US, has made even piddling nation building attempts fruitless, unless we're willing to completely abandon the killing of innocents as a constraint.
A new way? Actually Karl Marx, and others, suggested it many years ago. Now I am not a proponent nor a believer in Communism(I don't even believe it's possible), but it does strip away those root causes which exist in our capitalistic system. You can sermonize about the "right things" but if everyone practices frugality the economy slows, if not dies. There is no reason to produce more, offering more jobs, if consumption slows to a crawl.
I wouldn't disagree that religion is promoted by many of the power brokers as a means of quieting the masses. Not because they are believers but because the tenets of Judeo/Christian morality don't tend to support violence as a solution. Compliance and reverence to God are the preferred coping mechanisms. I might be inclined to lean in that direction as soon as I figure out that loaves and fishes thing.
I guess what I'm saying is that we can't really take the existing framework of our historic system and tweak it here and there and make it work perfectly. If we are going to seek a complete overhaul of our system I see no other answer than to change our form of government. One could posit that beyond profits and wealth, freedom may be the real root cause. We can't have freedom without some seeking gain from others. We can write laws to mitigate the impact but freedom can draw a line as to how far those laws can go.
I happen to be in that camp that suggests the first priority is to try and return our system to its previously functioning state and then take the lessons learned and inject controls, via laws, to alter the ease with which it can get out of control again. Not an easy task in itself. I'm not sure it will work or make us any better off but, for the most part things weren't going too badly in total until free wheeling became the order of the day.
Certainly we have to look at free trade. That, alone, is a very slippery slope. While we, in the US, have paid a steep price for globalization, the process has improved the plight of many of the world's inhabitants. As horrendous as it sounds we may have to consider a world economic governing structure. One that can work toward stable prices, wages and employment for the entire world. Conceivably a pipe dream.
Jack would suggest that our first order of business is to eliminate lobbyists. That will eliminate malfeasance in our politicians. Does not today's fiasco about Governor Blagojevich substantiate that the problem is not the drug pushers but the drug users? He wasn't pandering to the desires of lobbyists he was seeking personal gain for a decision for which no lobbyists had paid him. All kinds of remedies can be posed for our ills but we can't overcome the weaknesses of human nature. Likely most of them started at the time men began walking upright.
While revolutions are always possible, successful revolutions usually have a solution or trusted leaders to eventually drive to a settlement. The fragmentation of ideas in our society, evidenced in your blog microcosm, suggests that should a hallowed leader surface, he will not be able to appease all the various constituencies, thus the revolution would continue for a long time. Is not Obama already facing this dilemma?
I think that Mr. Reich is off a bit. The populist backlash may not just lie with people who faltered even with the foreclosure mitigation program: it also will lie with those who are tired of seeing scumbags of all sorts game the system. We are also bright enough to see that the primary beneficiaries of Obama's New Deal, are none other than his cronies: the unions and union members. New roads won't do crap for the vast majority of people...unless I am lucky enough to acquire construction skills and know someone who can get me into one of these unions, (many of which also exercise crony patronage, as well). Granted Obama may pacify us with some sort of symbollic check for maybe $600 -$1000 or so, but to hear him talk about it, its as if he is doing it as something that will actualy make a difference. A $1000 is a pittance! Obama's suit cost more than that. So yes, I'm tired of bailing everyone else out but myself. SICK AND TIRED!
Jennifer: You are so full of it! My best friend worked in a union for GM for years as a manager of a night shift in Delaware in the late 90s. Many times, there wasn't much to do, so she passed the time SLEEPING, making $65 an hour, and that was in the late 90s! So yes, there is plenty of abuse in the unions. They have too much power, and unrealistic expectations. They need to face reality like the rest of us Americans. Unions are great, but they can be bureaucratic and have their own pork, like everything else. My best friend was living proof that you can make big bucks for doing little work, courtesy of the union.
Incidentally, as if it matters, it is all too little too late. I don't call myself a tin hat survivalist, but when Citigroup says that gold my hit $2000, there is a very bad reason for that. Your buddy Obama can't save this becvause the train has left the station. Its called SHTF, people. I suggest reading Peter Schiff who has been correct about this huge mess since 2004.
Everyone should go back and read "Hard Times" by Studs Terkel. Over and over again the people who lived through Great Depression I said they were surprised by how little civil unrest there was.
I think a big difference between now and then is that many people in the 30's blamed themselves for their difficulties. They felt shame and somehow responsible for staying in the stock market too long, being among the one in four people without work, not having enough savings.
This time, perhaps because of the media, tens of millions of us know that our suffering is due to the greed, incompetence, intemperance and corruption that has been the underpinning of the unholy alliance between Wall Street and the Beltway.
We used legal and democratic means to throw out the bastards on November 4 but, if the new administration does not begin immediately to clean up the rot that got us here, the next effort by the populace to get their boots off our necks is not likely to be nearly so orderly.
CathyG
Yes, it's all about jobs. Why not create jobs for the unemployable folks who have mortgages they can't pay? Do it like Germany does with their 1 Euro jobs. The government pays the difference and the business gets a very affordable worker.
Anonymous:
Your analytical and cause and effect skills could use a little work. To say nothing of your logic.
I have known salaried executives who have slept here and there on paid time. Not that sleeping on the job is acceptable but there are times when managers don't really have anything to do, especially managers who train their workforces well. Not quite as prevalent today because many corporations have adopted the concept of "working" managers. That equates to highly paid clerks.
I can site you example after example of waste and inefficiency at the corporate level and at the union level. It is a fact of life in our business world. Your personal, one example, does not justification for a universal condemnation make.
Art, our system expanded to fill a vacuum. As we extracted more and more energy out of the Earth, our industry was able to grow, and our economic system had more value, more wealth to work with.
Energy production growth began to contract again in 2005, and went into decline this year.
so we have an economy with a rapidly growing money supply chasing after a diminishing industry base. So the dollar devalues, trade is disrupted. The financial system is in chaos. This was completely predictable.
Now you've argued that increasing the money supply will grow the economy which will spur energy, but this is like injecting more air into a carburetor when the fuel line is choked. The engine sputters, if it doesn't just quit.
There must be a balance between money supply and energy. If not, we get what we have today.
I am reminded that you keep telling me that this problem will be solved in the future, and these troubling economic times aren't a hardship for you because you're going to die soon. Does that mean we should pretend that everything is fine today? Should we all follow your example and pretend the problem doesn't exist because soon it won't be your problem anymore? I don't think so.
I agree with your notion that we should be stepping back and putting controls back in place that held the system stable in earlier times. But when I argued that, you pointed out that this leads to farming and keeping chickens, that we can't go back. Which is it, go back or keep on doing what we're doing? You made the point that we can't change course. So if we can't turn, only go forward or move back. I vote we take a couple of steps back.
Now when your patron saint of future science quits watching Survivor and invents a perpetual motion machine, we can start worrying about infinite growth again.
But until then, I still believe that the fundamentals we need to be looking at, is keeping the money supply aligned with industry. Now if you think that's going to get us back to raising chickens, and so this must be avoided, then I feel it's certain that our current path will take us there anyway.
As I have no faith whatsoever, that taking the same path that Argentina took, will lead us to a different place. We're doing all the things they did, and enriching the same banks and the same bankers. So long as we follow the plan that has impoverished dozens of nations, we should expect it to impoverish us. In this view, planting a victory garden this spring, and keeping a few chickens, sounds more like prudence than panic.
The Baltic Dry Index is in the toilet. Wheat imports are down to near zero. Chemicals for water treatment plants aren't being shipped to us. Farmers aren't getting loans for seed, fuel and fertilizer.
In the mean time, our government is creating money from nothing, in a giant blowout gala for the bankers. Folks keep saying it's disappearing down a black hole. I'd like to see some number on this as others are saying that it's mostly padding accounts.
So I expect prices of food and fuel to double over the course of 2009. Now you might be dead by then Art, but I expect to be here, and this is troubling to me.
I expect your answer to me, once again, will be, "Don't be pessimistic, don't hedge your bets, assume the best live like you're gonna win the lottery." But that's never been wired that way, and I've avoided many financial traps and pitfalls by looking ahead.
Now I'm looking at an abyss. I don't think I need to put blinkers on and whistle Dixie.
A populist uprising is better than a fifth column... unfortunately though a cellular methodology is probably more successful in a place crammed to bursting and piled high with sediment and rubbish and politics and inner courts and stairways, traffic, crime, etc, to misquote kafka...
thirty thousand pairs of eyes and ears, men and women playing roles as peddlers and chambermaids, salesmen and prostitutes, shop clerks and secretaries, lawyers and clergy, frock-coated gentlemen and smartly gowned women to ply their charms—men to woo women in all walks of life, women to seduce men. Thirty thousand spies overran France in advance of the military and so undermined it that when the troops of Prussia marched into the country it collapsed like a termite-ridden structure. . . .
http://spitfirelist.com/?p=1873
Anonymous, your argument over autoworker wages isn't with me; it's with the AP and GM spokesman Tony Sapienza.
But GM, which negotiated the four-year deal that serves as a template for UAW deals with Chrysler and Ford, says its total hourly labor costs dropped 6 percent this year from pre-contract levels, from $73.26 in 2006 to around $69 per hour. The new cost includes laborers' wages of $29.78 per hour, plus benefits, pensions and the cost of providing health care to more than 432,000 GM retirees, GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said.
The total cost will drop to $62 per hour in 2010 when the linchpin of the contract -- a UAW administered trust fund -- starts paying retiree health care costs.
There may well be some line managers making $60 per hour, but that would be the exception, not the rule, according to the automakers themselves.
While the bailouts may be fueling a populist backlash, states and municipalities are in the best position to react quickly and efficiently to put out the flames. The heroes of this economic crisis will be not only every day Americans, but local leaders who address the ache for populist policies by embracing infrastructure projects focused upon alternative transportation, competitive education, and economic innovation. The errors of the federal government are not a valid excuse for local failures.
Wease:
Gracious! Given that alcohol is a depressant it would follow that your outpouring is not from Scotch. Are you smoking something? ;)
Now if we define money supply as fiscal spending then yes, I do favor more money supply. That is not what is generally meant by the term money supply, however.
Everything was predictable in hindsight.
Energy may be declining but it is not gone yet so rebuilding needs to take place with what we have and then seek alternatives from there. You have a much better chance at success if you can resurrect strength rather than starting from weakness.
The engine is already sputtering. The ballon is deflating and we have no choice but to blow harder. We can't create more or a different energy source without a thriving economy. Maybe we can't even with a thriving economy but it's our best chance. Ergo, fix it and fast.
Am not sure if the Scotch or whatever else blurs your understanding of what I say but something does. I am suggesting that we attempt to go forward or back to where we were and then employ changes to improve the system from there. I am not suggesting nor do I accept as sensible going back to raising chickens and growing gardens and then see if we can resurrect from there.
Going back always sounds wonderful in a nostalgic sort of way, but you'll notice that if you put your car in reverse and drive 30 miles at 30 mph, you will have gone backward but time will have gone forward and for you to get back on time, you're two hours in the hole from the get go.
No doubt my age places death as far more likely than economic doom for me. I realize that does not solve your dilemma you have to do what you think best. Even if I were to cheat death, I've told you I'm too old to be worrying about tilling the soil or fighting of foxes from my hen house. I have become entrapped in enjoying all the advances that science has provided me and prefer to enjoy those and the many more coming. When that all ends I'm done. Finis! Kaput!
I didn't say we can't change course. I said we best commence changing course from a vantage point with which we are familiar rather than one from which most of our populace would have no idea how to handle. It's your age, old problem of seeing only black or white.
You are well aware of my feelings about your constant harangue regarding the plights of other countries, Argentina, etc. Foolish at best, wasted time at worst. You want to find enemies, scapegoats, objects to point fingers at. A worthless exercise until we are at the point that we can address causes. Right now righting the ship is paramount.
Given much of what you post here wease, forgive me if I don't place bets on your expectations.
If we review all the personal dilemmas you've faced and posted here I doubt that you have faced near the number that I have in my lifetime. I have bought three houses in my life and overextended myself with each one. I have from time to time accumulated mountains of credit card debt, numerous times. I have been unemployed numerous times. I have suffered a heart attack. I put my wife in a nursing home 10 years ago and have gone every evening to take care of her for 4 to 5 hours. When I was working that meant 16 to 18 hours days, from the time I left home until I returned. For 10 years I drove 100 miles a day. I had aortic aneurysm surgery four years ago and after three days was back visiting my wife again. Thoughout all of that I never got negative. I never buried my head in the sand or in a garden. I functioned primarily by believing that I needed to change those things that I could and accept those things that I couldn't but always believed I would beat fate in the interim.
I am not denigrating your decisions. I do question you when you espouse them as the only solutions for others to follow. I believe in positive thinking, in a positive outlook, as the best method to progress. Progress is always forward it is never backward. Survival may ultimately require backward but I will have to be forced to take that road. Optimism has always bode me well.
I know not what course others may take, but as for me: Give me Optimism or give me death!
It's a crying shame that Americans don't have the same courage that Thai people have. Were that the case the situation we're now in wouldn't have ended up plunging the planet into cultural and financial collapse.
Since when did the Constitution of the United States give a lamb duck President the right to borrow trillions of dollars from foreign governments in order to give monetary bonuses to CEOs and other well paid executives--all at the cost of the American taxpayer??!!
Never have we heard of such reckless financial injustice since the excesses of the Louis XVI and the French Revolution.
This is utterly outrageous!!!
And George has nothing to worry about...he's leaving office!!! Is this something he planned to his cronies all along, to wait until the moment was just right, come up with these trillions, then dive out of sight?
Wouldn't put it past him. Sounds like something Cheney might have dreamed up.
Let's hope that our backlash doesn't end up looking like Greece.
Some are beginning to see the riots in Greece as an uprising of sorts. BANKS and businesses are being burned to the ground, not law enforcement facilities - which would be most logical if the riots were really about the shooting death of a 15 year-old.
http://theirishbulletin.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-are-greek-riots-really-about.html
"What's going on? It's hard to know for sure.."
Dr. Reich. Why are YOU unsure? I have a lot of respect for your opnion. But are you lying, or just playing dumb like the rest of our so called leaders?
Almost EVERY home sold in the last 10 to 12 years was OVER priced. They were the product of a criminal conspiracy between the local real estate agents, the appraisers and those "fake" mortgage companies.
By allowing those "companies" to sell their loans as soon as they were made, all risk was passed on to the last person holding the bag.
Home prices shot up. And now most people have mortgages they simply can't support on their incomes. No way, no how.
Modest loan modifications will not help most people. Doesn't anyone out there get that?
All the current schemes guarantee more pain and failure.
@Angry Citizen:
Let's hope that our backlash doesn't end up looking like Greece
Whats happening in Greece is going to look like a Sunday school social if Americans ever find half the guts Thai people have!
I find it funny when someone writes in to say, I was a saver. I was virtuous. Why not say, I was a chump? The notion that private virtues are public vices has been around since capitalism was a pup, when Mandeville wrote about it, and it is still true. If you are a saver, than you should view bubbles with horror, and look upon, say, a politician who casually decides to cut taxes 2 trillion dollars, putting most of that money in the hands of the wealthy, as your worst enemy. What did you think was going to happen?
Those supposed savers often have plenty of money invested in the markets, were always chasing yield - give me more! - and mistook higher yield for an efficient allocation of capital, if they ever thought about it at all. Now they are crying because, inevitably, when you give the wealthy super-money, they will use it in the political market to buy insurance for the downturns. Oh, but how about the freedom to be successful and other b.s.? Can it.
If savers are so clueless they haven't noticed that the policies of the last thirty years - the massive wealth inequality coupled with the massive dependence on a consumer economy - was set to blow up in their faces, then they deserve little pity. Nobody is an island - now that the meltdown has come, the savers, who thought that they could benefit forever from the low inflation brought about by crushing labor's bargaining position, are finding that they are next on the plate. Amoral chumps, most of them.
Please excuse my odd Freudian typo three comments up; I meant World Bank, not "Work Bank."
Thanks to Robert Reich for his outstanding and accurate analysis. I wish Obama would make Mr. Reich VP!
Ready to do something about this? Help me here:
http://www.american-consensus.org/
Sign up!
It is about time the lemmings got mad. We the middle working class have been used and abused for over thirty years.
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson
Every generation needs a new revolution.
Thomas Jefferson
The only hope is to put people back to work in more PRODUCTIVE sectors of the economy as opposed to purely CONSUMPTIVE sectors.
As population levels stabilize in developed countries like the U.S. and elsewhere the economy cannot grow as much as it used to; we need to get used to this and accept a certain level of stagnation as in Japan and many European nations unless we want to flood our country with masses of immigrants or start mandating that women have more children just to keep the economy growing at a fast pace.
A healthy/optimum American economy would be broken down approximately as follows (some leeway here):
* Agriculture and Environmental: approx. 25% (agriculture is by far the most important productive sector and as such as many people as possible should be employed in this sector)
* Manufacturing and Technology: approx. 25% (not as many workers needed as in the past because of automation, i.e. the technology itself replaces people)
* Services (medical, education, etc): about 20%
* Defense and Government: about 15%
* Other: approx. 15%
We need to do away with the wasteful, overly materialistic, and hyperconsumerist economy and bring back the one based on PRODUCTION OF ESSENTIALS, i.e. "back to the basics." Also, more opportunities for leisure must also be made available (perhaps working hours for the majority of non-essential jobs could be cut?) because what's the point of working feverishly for all of this prosperity if we never take the time to actually enjoy it?
Does your hypocrisy have no bound Mr Reich?
Anonymous said:
My best friend worked in a union for GM for years as a manager of a night shift in Delaware in the late 90s. Many times, there wasn't much to do, so she passed the time SLEEPING, making $65 an hour, and that was in the late 90s!
If she was a Manager, she wasn't a Union member.......if she WAS a Union member and was allowed to sleep, where was her manager?
Sounds like you need friends with better work ethics.
The real problem that is sucking up the billions of dollars of bailout money is not overextended homeowners, it is not even mortgage backed securities / CDO's. It is Credit Default Swaps.
The total outstanding notional value has been estimated at $50 trillion. Divided by the total number of US citizens, that is over $160,000 for every man, woman and child US citizen. $500,000 for a family of three!
There really should be anger about this. No normal person I know has ever traded a Credit Default Swap. Yet a substantial proportion of those CDS is now in-the-money (because of default by the "reference entity" in some specified contract) and now those CDS will have to be paid by the short to the long party. When the short cannot do it, that's where our bailout money has been going!
Stop that. As news of this spreads and the facts sink in, many people might decide that taxes are no longer to be paid.
We have 2 sets of family members who may soon lose their homes.
Both sets are families where the adults do not take saving money seriously, and try to live above their means. These are not poor families attempting to become middle class ones. They are middle class families trying to live like upper middle class, so they have no safety savings and are sliding down the economic scale as a result.
Both families have great resistance to budgeting or to keeping budget books. Let me emphasize that is an understatement.
While both also are dealing with hardships right now which are not of their making, they might have been able to not topple if they didn't have long histories of spending more than they could afford to spend and expecting others to bail them out because right now others can't bail them out yet again.
Sometimes getting a foothold simply IS hard. To prepay our mortgage we scrimped to the point where i used the scrap from old undies that were too worn to patch the ones that were more salvageable, and we otherwise were tight with a penny, but it worked. We got rid of debt and we put together savings. To this day we keep a weekly budget book and we live modestly.
Yes, part of the problem is definitely lack of fairness. If Golden Parachutes are ever outlawed I will yell with joy until I am hoarse. But another part of the problem for some families is too early or too often embracing an unrealistic standard of living.
I Recall after Hurricane Katrina, that most americans BLAMED the Victims !!!! It seems to be a sign of the times for the USA and not a good sign. People did not and do not want to help rebuild New Orleans and the homes of the people there and the insurance companies surely did not want to do it , they just named the damage caused by a SURGE instead of naming it what would be insured on the people's insurance policies. A Surge is NOT covered, it's a new term and a new device to screw people who have been insured for years. And, of course there is the Federal Government which is RESPONSIBLE for the levee system and flood protection in the USA. Now when a great percentage of people are effected, people look at things differently. Working , middle class and now the new Lower class better wake up and see what has happened in our country. It is very sad. I don't see an end to it either. Did I hear Revolution ????
So, again, with these Credit Default Swaps, the wealthy institutions that can GAMBLE on stocks, etc. they are covered and receive millions, but people , american citizens, taxpayers who bought homeowners insurance in New Orleans, did not get paid, the insurance companies and their legal departments found many "loopholes" to avoid paying hard working people with insurance and the government did not bail out the people. Something is wrong here !!!!
STOP voting for Incumbents, None of these people in government should EVER be voted in a second time. That is a MESSAGE to them to make a change to vote in the best interest of the people!!!!
The worst violation of basic fairness, in my opinion, are the usurious interest rates slapped on credit card holders for truly trifling lapses. Pay your bill a few days after it comes in, forget that a holiday weekend will slow down the mail, BLAMMO - 25% interest. And other cards will automatically follow suit. If you've accumulated any debt on these cards, that means that a truly insignificant transgression has just cost you many thousands of dollars, and you will be kept in debt for years. How many people out there have paid their original debt, plus reasonable interest, yet still have many years worth of payments left to catch up with their outrageous interest? You don't hear about the mob much anymore - those folks all work for Bank of America and Chase now. Here's the backlash I'd like to see: I want Congress to call this behavior what it is - CRIMINAL. Congress should cap credit card interest at something reasonable, and forbid credit card companies from driving rates up for insignificant infractions. These people are robbing everyday hardworking good people blind.
Thanks Robert, Deflation huh. Time for me to move to a better economy (city), plan is a move in 2009 Spring or Summer. Also buy up some real estate rentals as investments. B
I don't know where it is going for sure but one thing I do know for sure the US dollar will be worthless in less than 2 years so if you have money in stock or banks you better get rid of it now gold- silver is the safest place even if it go's down a little you won't lose it all.
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