Lehman Brothers has become the largest bankruptcy in history, Merrill Lynch just sold itself for half its value little more than a year ago, AIG is on the brink, there are over 100 banks on the FDIC’s watch list and the DOW is down (as of this writing) nearly 300 points.
In spite of all of this, however, John McCain told Florida voters this morning that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
WHAT!?
On a day that many in the media are calling “Black Monday” due to the volumes of terrible economic news, McCain actually said that the economy is strong!
Expect to see this statement in an Obama ad soon.
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McCain has already made this comment before… and it’s already in an Obama ad…
Reganomics come home to roost. When the money didn’t trickle down after Republicans redistributed it the top 1%, their only recourse for getting money into the economy was to make credit easier and easier to get. Now we are in the credit mess of our countries life.
McCain wants to redistribute even more to the top 1%, making the problem even worse than Bush. Consumer spending drives the strength of our economy. Both sides agree to that. The myth of trickle down supply side didn’t come true, so the only way for republicans to get money in the hands of the consumers was to give them more and more credit. The was especially damaging because Republican policy from Regan on crippled labor, making it harder and harder to get a good job with good wages and benefits.
Anyway, supply side has never, ever worked in the history of mankind except to make a landed gentry that our forfathers revolted against.
Yes, nn, but to say it again today, given what’s happening in financial markets around the world, shows McCain even more clearly to be somewhere beyond merely “out of touch” and more like “living in an alternative reality.”
If you don’t know how ugly it is in downtown New York right now, just wait. You will.
Financial markets are not congruent with how an economy is doing. If so, Bill Clinton presided over the 2nd largest economic collapse in history. But it wasn’t — it was a bubble burst that drove a light recession.
Financial markets are one indicator to use when looking at the overall health of an economy. Others are inflation, growth rate, employment / unemployment, and monetary strength.
I think what McCain is saying is that when you consider all those factors, the answer is not that we’re in a tanking economy, nor are we in a hot one. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Yes, DtM, stocks go up and stocks go down. We get that.
Please explain away the unprecedented government bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the purchase of Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch for fractions of their worth less than a year ago, and the Chapter 11 filing of Lehman for us.
Also, if you could cover the number of banks on the FDIC Watch List now versus, oh, any other point in time since its inception, and how it’s really not a problem in our current economic holding point somewhere in the middle between tanking and hot, I’d appreciate it.
I’d truly hate to see what needs to happen to qualify for a “tanking economy” in your estimation.
DtM, Go ask your nearest car dealer how the economy is, Import or domestic, they will tell you it sucks. The economy sucks for all but the very wealthiest and now they’re starting to caught in shit-storm too. Go ask your local small business owner, ASK ANYONE for chrissakes.
Why do I think that if a Democrat was in the White House, Dan would be leading the charge of the villagers with briefcases, torches and pitchforks?
Want more of this… vote McCain/Palin.
Intuitively the economy doesn’t feel strong to me. I work with several college grads who accepted employment at a salary of about $20,000 a year and I have a nephew who struggles to support his family with two full time jobs. Experts agree. An excerpt from Tapped:
WHAT ARE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF OUR ECONOMY ANYWAY?
-Unemployment Data. Currently, unemployment is at 6.1 percent, or about 9.4 million Americans, and has been increasing. A measurement that reflects people who cannot find full employment or who have been unable to find employment after 15 weeks would put the rate at 10.7 percent. These are high rates — the highest since 2003.
-Real Median Income. The median income of all Americans has actually gone down $324 since 2000 — the first time it hasn’t risen since at least 1969. This reflects the drop in real wages.
for more data: http://prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=09&year=2008&base_name=what_are_the_fundamentals_of_o
Don’t worry about that ice on the deck madame, this ship is unsinkable!
What happens when a government too big to fail… fails?
DtM
You have failed to address the failing financial institutions. Sure the health of the economy is not completely predicated upon the stock markets. Nobody here is making that assertion. There are multiple indicators that the economy is in less than stellar shape.
Consider that the government has bailed out the mortgage industry, the insurance industry, and the banking industry to the tune of several TRILLIONS of dollars in the last week alone. We now have a defacto government owned finance insurance and mortgage business. Huzzah!