Damn I love conservative economics. It makes me feel like the motherfucking angel of compassion.<\/p>\n
American consumers are<\/a> awash in debt, drowning in it. This is the fundamental issue with the stimulus proposal. We're trying to borrow our way out of debt. Unfortunately, we need a recession. That is, consumption must decline because for some time we have been consuming more than we produce or have reasonable prospects of producing. Monetary policy has been used to inflate a series of bubbles to avoid the consequences of excess debt, and the more we try to hold it off, the worse it's going to be. Bourbon works as a hangover cure, but only for a while.<\/p>\n
It's theoretically possible for an intelligently-designed stimulus action to help smooth this landing a bit, but we can't avoid a painful adjustment. Americans are going to live in smaller houses, drive older cars, vacation nearer to home and have less impressive digital camcorders than they expect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\"Vacation nearer to home\"? Well, I guess that's one way to put it.<\/p>\n
The number of people receiving unemployment benefits<\/a> has reached an all-time record, the government said Thursday, and more layoffs are spreading throughout the economy.<\/p>\n
The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest on records dating back to 1967. That's an increase of 159,000 from the previous week and worse than economists' expectations of 4.65 million. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This year, I imagine lots of people are going to spend their summer looking for jobs<\/a> or standing in line at the unemployment office - having driven there in their old cars<\/a> , I'm sure:<\/p>\n
Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it lost $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter and burned through $5.5 billion in cash as sales slumped<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ah, but that's Ford - when's the last time they made any money? What about our shiny Japanese friends?<\/p>\n