Goodbye To All That: My Farewell to the Awful Oughts
My official Adios to the decade of decay as it appears in the Wednesday Los Angeles Times. Are we poised on a New World?
Or condemned to languish in political purgatory?
Meanwhile, writing on The Daily Beast, my daughter has her own list of trends we should leave behind/
December 30th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Krugman krunched the “aught” numbers…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28krugman.html
Nada…
December 30th, 2009 at 8:42 am
I remember thinking we were poised on a New World when the Catholic Church `vindicated’ Galileo for his heretical `truths’ about Earth’s heliocentric orbit in 1992.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Great job, Natasha! Very smart and funny. She’s got a terrific voice.
December 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
2010+ Trends (Pokey’s Doom and Gloom Predictions)
1) Baby Boomers coming to an end of their peek spending will continue to cut back on purchases, worsening the economic outlook (Trend 2010-2019). http://www.hsdent.com/spending-wave/
2) Foreclosures to peak again because of resets for Prime, Option Arm and Alt-A loans (Trend 2010-2012) http://www.sandiegohousingsolutions.com/assets/images/monthly_mortgage_rate_resets.gif
3) World Food Shortage in 2010 caused by poor harvests worldwide will push food prices up in USA and cause starvation in many parts of world – (The American grain belt was hit by cold and wet weather and the harvest was a disaster, especially for soybeans, of which the USA produces at least three-quarters of the world’s supply. Crops have also failed in Northern China’s wheat-growing region, in Australia, Argentina, and India. ) http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/av-rajwadeimminent-food-crisis/380890/
4) Unemployment will stay high for foreseeable future, worsening slightly as with U6 moving edging past 20%+ levels over next several years, which will continue to exacerbate Foreclosures and Credit Card defaults. http://www.shadowstats.com/imgs/sgs-emp.gif?nov09
5) Massive Budget Deficits (can you say Trillions/year) caused by:
a. Afghanistan War
b. Iraq War
c. Low Taxes
d. Reduced Income Tax collected (Personal and Corporate)
e. Medicare Expenses (expanding with baby boomer retirement)
f. Social Security (expanding with baby boomer retirement)
g. The Obama Medical Plan (appears to spend more than save)
h. Stimulus Part 2, 3, and 4
i. More secret bailouts for the too big to fail financial institutions
6) Federal Reserve continues to print money and throwing it out of helicopters trying to revive the economy.
Gold and Silver continue to climb slowly with ups and downs
7) Dollar will be replaced as the world reserve currency http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-magazine/is-the-us-dollar-done-for/article1400078/
9) Energy Prices will get higher and higher as dollar is devalued and developing world continues to increase use of energy.
10) Dollar will be devalued to about 50% of current value pushing prices of all imported products higher for Americans.
I am not blaming Obama it is more systemic than that.
December 30th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
The Left can never move ahead as long as it keeps one eye on the past, like falsely claiming that the Supreme Court chose the President while ignoring the fact that Bush, as legitimate counts proved, really did have the most votes in Florida. The real breakdown of the voting system began with Chicago-style stuffing of ballot boxes and continues with ACORN-style voter fraud.
The Left can never move ahead when it continues to look back and makes false claims, to a nation that knows better, that our “guiding principles as a nation” fell with the Twin Towers, when that actually was a time when we regained our solid and united determination to not let evil win. Rather, polls show that our “guiding principles” fell with the bribing of Senators with our tax money to support a health-care bill that goes against individual freedom and choices and results in a major expansion of government and a major increase in taxes for everyone — not just “the rich.”
The Left can never move ahead as long as it claims that interrogations of enemy combatants is wrong, especially since it saved lives, and wring their hands over pictures of underwear on the heads of prisoners. Enjoy your show-trial spectacles of terrorists — “fair trials” of which the AG and Pres. have already said the accused are guilty and won’t be let go even if found innocent. The world will love your kind of American justice.
Katrina was a fiasco of the New Orleans mayor, who let hundreds of school buses flood rather than use them to evacuate people too stupid to get out on their own, and of the Louisiana governor, who spent fedeal tax funds designated for levee construction on unrelated and unnecessary programs. If Katrina was any turning point, it showed the complete stupidity of bowing to political correctness by throwing money to every claimant, real or not, and wasting huge sums of money to rebuild areas that should remain swamps…oh, excuse me, “wetlands.”
The “economic free fall” was not a result of free-markets but started with government regulations and force which required banks to make loans to deadbeats, who represent the core of Obama’s support and will only make our economy worse in the future.
The Left looks back at spending to defend our nation and ignores the greatest waste, deficits, and debt that their own programs have brought.
The old world is not dead. It’s seeing the castrophies being brought on by a temporary group of incompetent and inexperienced Leftists whose results will be no better than socialist and Marxist programs of the past and will result in the old world taking back over just to straighten things out.
The Left can never come up with better solutions, because it never interprets the past correctly and always makes the wrong responses. Enjoy it while you can, because your time will be temporary.
December 30th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Bet you never expected this:
New York Times op-ed, A Less Than Honest Policy, by Bob Herbert
December 30th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I have a lot of time on my hands! I am lonely! Don’t make me write a long response. PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!
December 30th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Superb article, Marc.
December 31st, 2009 at 6:26 am
Hoakster’s response may be typical of the Left, but is it really the best that Marc’s commenters can do?
December 31st, 2009 at 7:22 am
Good list, Pokey, but ironic that #1 is as much a part of the original problem as it is the “solution”: Boomers’ irresponsible HELOC-spending was a significant factor in inflating our unprecedented real estate bubble. Insanely low interest rates (thanks to Greenspan and co.), coupled with our national belief that stupid consumption is what drives the economy, was fuel for the fire. Remember that recession back in ’01? Probably not, since we pretended it didn’t exist, and recited slogans like the “homeownership society” to justify a bubble economy and real estate unsupported by fundamentals (thanks, GW Bush and Clinton).
In short, too much private debt. Will public spending get us out? It forestalled an epic collapse in bailing out the banks (something I admit was probably necessary to prevent economic armageddon), and probably is our only hope for a solid recovery.
But it won’t be pretty.
December 31st, 2009 at 8:52 am
This just in: Clinton bests Palin in `Most Admired’ poll.
Do we live in Bizarro World, or what?
December 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
I bet that Palin is near the top of Bill Clinton’s most admired list.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Kyle,
Our massive debt, huge trade imbalances and Federal Reserve are well on their way to destroy the Dollar in the very near future.
I believe the real collapse still lies ahead; this last year was only a warm-up.
“Only Hope”
Argentina in 2001 devalued its currency and people lost 50-75% of the money they had in the bank.
December 31st, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Argentina in 2001 devalued its currency and people lost 50-75% of the money they had in the bank.
The very definition of apples and oranges.
Argentina, among other things had pegged the peso to the US dollar instead of letting it float freely because it had hard currency reserves denominated in dollars, allowed its citizens to convert any sum into US dollars and had driven some regions to issue bonds such as the Patacon, which became a defacto complementary currency in the capital region.
In addition, they received horrid advice from the IMF, which sadly they took. All this after the revaluation of the Brazilian Real. Brazil happens to be Argentina’s largest trading partner.
This followed years of hyperinflation and abrutal military dictatorship.
Your comparison is groundless on its face.
December 31st, 2009 at 11:50 pm
The Left can never move ahead as long as it claims that interrogations of enemy combatants is wrong, especially since it saved lives, and wring their hands over pictures of underwear on the heads of prisoners.
I’m guessing by “interrogations” you mean “torture,” which is not the same thing. If so, it’s totally and completely against all evidence, including reports from the folks who did the torturing. Nice try. You lose. Better luck next year.
January 1st, 2010 at 9:23 am
Randy,
“only hope”, was refering to Kyle’s link.
I just have very little hope for our economy, unless we get a major technology break.
The one that I have put my money into is callled “eestor” (super battery). Incidently, Al Gore has money on this horse also. http://www.zennergy.com has the rights to eestor technology for cars worldwide.
Happy New Year
January 1st, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Happy New Year to you as well. The situation in Argentina in 2001 still isn’t relevant to what is happening here.
January 1st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I am a conservative humorist and live in Alabama. Pay attention to me our I will accuse you of being a leftist.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Have some respect.
Happy New Year.
January 1st, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Randy, I see that Dan O has joined your blog site as an author. I appreciate his thoughtful responses here, even if I don’t always agree with them. He’s a good addition and will add a rational, calm perspective from the left. Congratulations to both of you.
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:50 am
marc,
your oped appeared today in the China (sic) Post in Taiwan, sic because Taiwan is NOT in China, but the owners of that paper think it is, ….and….you asked at the end do we have collective will to etc etc or are we destined etc etc….marc, i left the USA in 1991 for Asia, and will never turn, and frm my POV here in Japan and Taiwan, america is a sick sick country, and became very very sick the last 10 years, yes, as you so well wrote. America now lacks the will to recover, because the blue state red state divide has become so big it is now an impasse and there is no more collective will and the USA is destined from now on to decline more and more and then rot….. i say ths as someone who loves the USA but “america, i cry for thee….” you answered your own qusetion, marc…..America is gone with the wind……the poltiical divide can never be put back together, watching frm here overseas on CNN and the itnernet, it is indeed ugly. very ugly. I think the entire world mourns the passing of the good ol USA…..me too
1776 – 2001
January 2nd, 2010 at 7:48 am
Thank you. Who are you and what have you done with Woody?!?!
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:34 am
http://tinyurl.com/yee57hw
January 2nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Major influence in reg’s formative years
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:09 am
Why didn’t someone bring this up earlier?!!
Why the Health-Care Bills Are Unconstitutional
Now, with all the litigation over individual mandates and higher taxes for a bill that is unconstitutional, , the next decade will be even worse than the last one.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:54 am
There “aught’a” be a law against putting the GOPers in charge of anything, ever again. (They did more substantive damage to the country than al Qaeda…)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html
And why they will continue to be as dishonest and dangerous as ever…
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-12/the-gops-misplaced-rage/full/
January 3rd, 2010 at 11:08 am
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Klingons can never move ahead as long as it keeps one eye on the past, like falsely claiming that the Hall of Justice chose the Supreme Leader while ignoring the fact that Darth Vader, as legitimate counts proved, really did have the most votes in Clavius Base. The real breakdown of the voting system began with Endor-style stuffing of ballot boxes and continues with REBEL ALLIANCE style voter fraud.
Klingons can never move ahead when it continues to look back and makes false claims, to a nation that knows better, that our “guiding principles as a nation” fell with the Death Star, when that actually was a time when we regained our solid and united determination to not let evil win. Rather, polls show that our “guiding principles” fell with the bribing of the Super Friends with our tax money to support a health-care bill that goes against individual freedom and choices and results in a major expansion of government and a major increase in taxes for everyone — not just “the rich.”
Klingons can never move ahead as long as it claims that interrogations of enemy combatants is wrong, especially since it saved lives, and wring their hands over pictures of underwear on the heads of prisoners. Enjoy your show-trial spectacles of terrorists — “fair trials” of which the AG and Pres. have already said the accused are guilty and won’t be let go even if found innocent. The world will love your kind of Intergalactic justice.
The Destruction of the Death Star was a fiasco of the Death Star’s commander, who let hundreds of Millennium Falcon’s explode rather than use them to evacuate people too stupid to get out on their own, and of the Death Star Commander, who spent federal tax funds designated for levee construction on unrelated and unnecessary programs. If the Death Star was any turning point, it showed the complete stupidity of bowing to political correctness by throwing money to every claimant, real or not, and wasting huge sums of money to rebuild areas that should remain spaceships…oh, excuse me, “superweapns.”
The “economic free fall” was not a result of free-markets but started with Hall of Justice regulations and force which required banks to make loans to deadbeats, who represent the core of Captain Nathan Bridger’s support and will only make our economy worse in the future.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Woody Hoakster — that’s a fun little read. Impressive blending of Sea Quest, Star Trek, and Stars Wars. Surely our favorite tea partier will be able to ‘get it.’ Nice ensemble. You’re a mere reference to Hadji or Arthur Dent away from a magnum opus.
Btw, is Erik Prince Joba the Hut?
But remember, the destruction of the Death Star was not the end of it… Beware the empire will strike back…
It’s a noble mission to save our republic from the dark side. We need all the fortitude we can muster. May the force be with us. And if the force isn’t with us, hopefully we’ll at least sail with Father Mapples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rWV8sBZ9ho
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Woody Hoakster in other words: I have a lot of time on my hands! I am lonely! Don’t make me write a long response. PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!
January 4th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Krugman’s an idiot but, like a blind squirrel finding a nut, sometimes he’ll stumble across the right conclusion, like realizing that we’re not really out of the recession — at least, not until people get jobs. After saying that, Krugman goes back to being an idiot, like supporting more federal spending just in case we haven’t wasted enough on the stimulus.
That 1937 Feeling
Oh, the stimulus project in our area was to put wheelchair ramps and walk-don’t walk signs at intersections along a local road. The only problem is that there are no sidewalks or paths that connect to the wheelchair ramps. The ramps dead-end after ten feet at an embankment or guard rail. There’s not even any development around there. Great plan! Because of that, the recession in our area must be over!
January 4th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Marc,
You and Natasha should like this.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
January 4th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
How the socialized medicine bill will move forward….
Democratic Leaders Plan Secret Health Reform Deliberations
January 4th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Randy, that link is beautiful.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:04 am
Hawaii Ending Universal Child Health Care After 7 Mos. – 10/17/2008
Can you see any parallels to what Obama wants and what it will do? His plan will drive our country into greater debt and (yes, it’s true) lead to rationing care.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Hawaii considering new holidays, parks to honor Obama
Kenya is considering the same thing.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Again we must ponder: I’ve been kicked off Marc Cooper’s
message page, TWICE. I’ve seen other people saying perfectly
valid and obviously true things (Marc Cooper has a deep
psychological problem regarding the Clintons, which clearly
has clouded his judgement and made his analysis pretty
worthless in the last twenty years) thrown off too.
Yet here’s Woody, the troll’s troll, spewing his mindless,
bigoted absolute garbage week after week and never
drawing even a stern word. Somewhere within this
contradiction is the explanation of how George W
Bush got to be President, and why those Oughts
were so awful.
January 5th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
The Twelve Colonies are considering new holidays, parks to honor Chewbacca.
The Fifth Column are considering the same thing.
January 6th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Hoakster, in case you don’t know, you really don’t bother me, so whatever you write must be for your own need for attention.
Also, I’m about the furthest thing that you would find from those people who devote their lives to Star Trek and Star Wars. Your own geekiness is on full display.
January 6th, 2010 at 11:38 am
I’ve explained it before, TC: MC will never admit he’s wrong, and kicking Woody off would be tantamount to doing so.
January 6th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
But, Marc isn’t wrong.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Seems the posts have gone off the cliff…
A fresh air moment on national TV and on Rachel Maddow:
She gave time to Bob Barker (Yes, Bob Barker) a long time animal rights activist who gave $5,000,000 to the Sea Shepherd foundation to buy the boat they needed to ramp up their ability to fight the Japanese whaling ships.
Yes, you read the price right…FIVE MILLION.
Rather than the usual reporting on who is the worst person in the world or biggest idiot it was wonderful to be informed of someone who does the right thing…
Amen.
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:31 am
I understand that but where does it take us?
The sex was so good that even the neighbors had a cigarette.