Dance Barry Dance

[due_indigence]

Finally, a watershed, thanks to Masachusetts. The fork in the road is no longer postponable. The Dems must either move in a progressive/populist direction or continue to carry water for Wall Street. Hmm. How can the party of FDR continue to advance the interests of the banking elite, complete with publically funded bonuses, all against a backdrop of record foreclosures and 20% unemployment? They must be thinking, what good are Wall Street benefactors if you have to change your address in your home district? Hence the panic and Obama's sudden Huey Long head-fake. Then again that was Friday. On Monday he reiterated his support for Geithner and Bernanke.

Wall Street stalking horse Mort Zuckerman was out on Saturday declaring Obama a complete failure. Mort didn't waste any time challenging the mob headed for Manhattan. Don't mess with the banks, Barry. You can't straddle the (growing) Main Street-Wall Street schism any longer. Pick your poison. And if you want a roadmap back to the People read Stiglitz, Hudson and Liu and quit letting Summers prepare your economics press clippings.

Historical cautionary: When FDR took decisive steps towards the People, they attempted a coup. Man, tough times ahead. My money's with the bankers, in more ways than one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[GRG55]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

Finally, a watershed, thanks to Masachusetts. The fork in the road is no longer postponable. The Dems must either move in a progressive/populist direction or continue to carry water for Wall Street. Hmm. How can the party of FDR continue to advance the interests of the banking elite, complete with publically funded bonuses, all against a backdrop of record foreclosures and 20% unemployment? They must be thinking, what good are Wall Street benefactors if you have to change your address in your home district? Hence the panic and Obama's sudden Huey Long head-fake. Then again that was Friday. On Monday he reiterated his support for Geithner and Bernanke.

Wall Street stalking horse Mort Zuckerman was out on Saturday declaring Obama a complete failure. Mort didn't waste any time challenging the mob headed for Manhattan. Don't mess with the banks, Barry. You can't straddle the (growing) Main Street-Wall Street schism any longer. Pick your poison. And if you want a roadmap back to the People read Stiglitz, Hudson and Liu and quit letting Summers prepare your economics press clippings.

Historical cautionary: When FDR took decisive steps towards the People, they attempted a coup. Man, tough times ahead. My money's with the bankers, in more ways than one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

It took more than a quarter of a century to create the FIRE economy v.2.

It should be unsurprising that it'll take a dozen years, or more, to kill it off. And along the way, periodically, it'll make like its coming back to life.

[Rajiv]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

Talking of Henry CK Liu, he had this to say on this very topic -- "Obama Can Be the First President in History to Abolish Unemployment From the Economy"

A bold plan to get Americans working again could restore faith in Obama, argues Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Henry Liu.

The first year of the Obama presidency has been a monumental disappointment. By now, the President’s populist rhetoric of “change we can believe in” rings hollow against the hard data of the sad shape of the economy.

The critical bottleneck to recovery is the continuing loss of jobs. Conventional economic wisdom asserts that employment is the lagging indicator. Unemployment cannot be expected to fall until after the economy recovers. But in an economy that suffers from overcapacity due to low wages, as the world economy does today, economic recovery from excessive debt cannot be achieved without full employment with living wages to produce the needed rise in demand to absorb overcapacity. The government, despite its enormous power to intervene in the economy on the supply side, is stuck in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle of stagnation caused by unemployment that in turn causes stagnation.

Yet all is not lost. The President needs only to reestablish his political leadership with bold and effective action to deliver help directly to deserving workers rather than to failed undeserving financial firms that are allegedly too big to fail. One way to do this is for President Obama to use the coming State of the Union address at the beginning of the second year of his presidency to announce that he will be the first president in US history to abolish unemployment in the US economy. He will be the president who will smash the destructive myth that structural unemployment is needed to hold down inflation even in a deflationary cycle.

This is not an impossible task. The US now has 6.5 million unemployed workers, 4 million of whom joined the unemployment rank during the first year of the Obama presidency. The President can introduce a Full Employment Program starting February 1, 2010 to give a job to every American who wants one, to be funded by a Full Employment Fund constructed out off already-appropriated but yet unspent bailout and stimulus money. These jobs can be socially constructive jobs such as teachers, nurses, caretakers of children and seniors, police, artists, health workers, writers, inventors, etc., with the prime function of increasing demand in the economy.

At the rate of the 2008 national average wage of $42,000, a program to fund 6.5 million jobs will cost $2.7 trillion a year. In the past two years, the government has committed over $20 trillion in various form of bailout and stimulus packages, with very little to show for it in the form of economic recovery. The not-yet-spent portion of this $20 trillion can fund full employment for more than three years at a declining rate. As this money is injected into the economy in the form of living wages, the resultant rise in demand will increase the utilization of the capital assets to reduce overcapacity. A balance between supply and demand will be maintained by full employment to permit the economy to grow again.

The resultant growth in the economy will reduce the spending rate of the Full Employment Program way before the allotted money is depleted. With full employment, the US economy of $14 trillion GDP can grow at a 6% annual rate, producing an additional GDP of $560 billion the first year. The $2.7 trillion Full Employment Fund will be repaid in less than 4 years.

That is a change we can believe in.

Roosevelt Institute Braintruster Henry C.K. Liu is an independent commentator on culture, economics and politics.

[Rajiv]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

And Michael Hudson had this to say - "State of the Union: Change of Heart Towards Wall Street Needed"

It’s make or break time for Democrats. At stake is Obama’s credibility as an agent for change. Will the party be able to drag Obama away from the Corporate Democrats?

Massachusetts voters who felt duped by Obama’s promise of reform punished Democrats last Tuesday for failing to make a credible start fixing the debt-strapped economy. The President has begged the banks to start lending again. But this means loading the economy down with yet more debt. The $13 trillion bailout was supposed to help banks do this, but they have simply taken the money and run.

The contrast between Wall Street’s recovery and the “real” economy’s failure has enabled Republicans to depict Obama and his party as stalling financial reform. Instead of change, voters have seen continuity with rejected Bush policies. Even the personnel remain the same — like “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke. The Bush-era folks are now back in the White House, and the Democrats have failed every litmus test involving finance, insurance and real estate — the FIRE sector, which remains the major campaign contributor and lobbyist for both parties.

The perception that the administration has continued Bush policies has enabled Republicans to position themselves for this year’s mid-term elections — and 2012 — by reminding voters how they opposed the bank bailout back in September 2008. Now that support for Wall Street has become the third rail in American politics, they may appoint a standard bearer who voted against the bailout.

This is ironic. George W. Bush ran for president saying: “I’m a uniter, not a divider,” and proceeded to divide the country. Mr. Obama promised change, but then decided that he wants to be bipartisan. On Tuesday, he is scheduled to invite Republicans to participate in a joint committee on the budget deficit — to get Republicans on board for tax increases to finance future giveaways to their mutual Wall Street constituency. They probably will say “no.” This should enable him to make a clean break. But then he would not be who he is.

For opportunists in both parties, the trick is how to wrap pro-Wall Street policies in enough populist rhetoric to win re-election, given that the FIRE sector remains the key source of funding for most political campaigns. The contrast between rhetoric and policy reality is the basic set of forces pulling Wednesday’s State of the Union address this Wednesday - and for the next two years. Is Mr. Obama’s promise to make an about-face and back financial reform merely rhetorical, or will it be substantive?

Putting Mr. Obama’s speech in perspective

Spending a year hoping to get Republicans to sign onto health care almost seems to have been a tactic to give Mr. Obama a plausible excuse for stalling on the economy. Subsidizing the debt overhead and the debt deflation that is shrinking markets and causing unemployment, home foreclosures and a capital flight out of the dollar has cost $13 trillion in just over a year - more than ten times the anticipated shortfall of any public health insurance reform or an entire decade of the anticipated Social Security shortfall.

Not only are voters angry, so are the community organizers and Mr. Obama’s former Harvard Law School colleagues with whom I have spoken. Instead of providing help in slowing the foreclosure process or pressuring banks to renegotiate, his solution is for the Fed to flood the banking system with enough money at low enough interest rates to re-inflate housing prices. What Mr. Obama seems to mean by “recovery” is that consumers once again will be extended bubble-era levels of debt to afford housing at prices that will rescue bank balance sheets.

It is an impossible dream. American workers now pay about 40% of their take-home pay on housing, and another 15% on debt service - even before buying goods and services. No wonder our economy has lost its export markets! Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be.

The moral is that the solution to any given problem - in this case, how to make Wall Street richer by debt leveraging - creates a new problem, in this case bankruptcy for high-priced American industry. The cost of living and doing business is inflated by high financial charges, HMO and insurance charges, and debt-inflated real estate prices. This has made Wall Street richer, but as the Chinese proverb expresses the problem: “He who tries to go two roads at once will get a broken hip joint.”

Banks have largely ignored Obama’s urging them to renegotiate bad mortgages. Their profits lie in driving homeowners out of their homes if they do not stay and fight. What is needed is to help debtors fight against junk mortgages issued irresponsibly.

When homeowners do fight, they win. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, I spoke to community leaders who organized neighborhood protests blocking evictions from being carried out. I spoke to lawyers advising that victims of predatory mortgages insist that the foreclosing parties produce the physical mortgages in court. (They rarely are able to do this.) These people feel they are getting little help from Washington.

And last Friday, Nomi Prins, Rob Johnson and other financial insiders voiced fears that the “Volcker Rule” separating commercial banking from casino derivatives gambling will end up being riddled by loopholes. Financial lobbyists have the upper hand in disabling attempts to reduce their power or even to enact simple truth-in-lending laws.

Two opposing lines of advice to Mr. Obama

Over the weekend Sen. John McCain suggested that Mr. Obama should reach out to Republicans in his State of the Union address. Karl Rove advised him to move to “the center” — what most people used to call “the right”.

Actually, Obama is perceived as being too little for change, too centrist while the economy is polarizing. It certainly seems unlikely that he will now turn on his FIRE-sector backers. His plan is that real estate prices can be re-inflated on enough credit — that is, enough more mortgage debt — to enable the banks to work out of the negative equity position into which their loan portfolios and investments have fallen.

The inherent impossibility of this plan succeeding is the main problem that we may expect from this Wednesday’s State of the Union address. Mr. Obama will promise to cut taxes further for working Americans, but his financial policy aims at raise the cost of their housing, their debt service and the cost of buying pensions. Some trade-off!

America’s debt overhead exceeds the means to pay. Rhetoric cannot solve this problem. The solution is too radical for the administration: to write down debts to reflect the capacity to pay under today’s market conditions. This means that some banks and creditors must take a loss.

Obama must now get concrete on change

For starters, Obama must rapidly push through the Consumer Finance Protection Agency before Wall Street lobbyists wield their bankrolls. There is talk in the press about the Democrats not even pressing forward with the Agency, since they can’t get health care done. This is a false worry - or even worse, an excuse to continue doing nothing. Republicans were able to mobilize populist opposition to the health-care bill by representing it as adding to the cost of relatively healthy young adults forced into the arms of the HMO monopolies. But it is much harder for the Republicans to buck financial reform and still appear to oppose Wall Street. Proposing strong legislation against Wall Street will force politicians of both parties to show their true colors. If they don’t support the best and most popular law the Democrats can draw up, their populist stance will cease to be credible.

If the Democrats do not force the debt reform issue, we must conclude that they don’t really want financial restructuring. This is what pollster Celinda Lake said last Tuesday: “When six times more people think that the banks benefited from the stimulus than working families, you’ve got a problem. And it’s not just a problem with what Martha Coakley did in her campaign,” reported Lake. “Voters are still voting for the change they voted for in 2008, but they want to see it. And right now they think they’ve got economic policies for Washington that are delivering more for banks than Main Street.”

Mr. Obama needs to signal a change of heart by replacing his failed deregulatory-era trio of Summers, Bernanke and Geithner with advisors who will focus more on the “real” economy than on Wall Street’s shadow economy.

I don’t see him doing this. I will discuss how to pierce what I expect to be Wednesday evening’s rhetorical fog in Part II of this article.

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003).

[GRG55]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

And Michael Hudson had this to say - "State of the Union: Change of Heart Towards Wall Street Needed"

Quickie informal poll of iTulip community before tonight's State of the Dis-Union address:

In tonight's State of the Union address, President Obama's main message will be [pick one]:

1. "I am the first black Bill Clinton, and I feel your pain..."
2. "I promised the kids another puppy once the unemployment rate is back in single digits..."
3. "Fannie Mae will make direct investments to support the housing market...today I instructed Fannie to buy the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port to make sure there is still one safe place for Democrats in Massachusetts..."
4. "I promised Americans universal health care. Where the hell did they get the idea that I was going to pay for it?"
5. "While we're on the topic of unemployment and green jobs, Michelle is looking for a new gardener...Republicans need not apply."
6. "It's not my fault...Larry made me do it..."
7. "The White House is doing its part to inspire Americans to cut their household budgets...for example, I've leased my helicopter to Bernanke...he said he needed something bigger..."
8. "Republicans can apply after all...apparently it's against the labour laws to exclude them..."

[Rajiv]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

More Michael Hudson - State of the Union Part II: Euphemisms, oxymorons and internal contradictions

Will Obama abandon myths about deficits and social spending? Or is Wall Street still in charge?

The State of the Union address is in danger of purveying the usual euphemisms. I expect Obama to brag that he has overseen a recovery. But a jobless recovery? What has recovered are stock market averages and Wall Street bonuses, not disposable personal income or discretionary spending after paying debt service.

There is a dream that what can be “recovered” is something so idyllic as to be mythical: a Bubble Economy enabling people to make money without actually working, by borrowing and riding the tide of asset-price inflation to make capital gains. Harold Ford Jr. writes nostalgically that Bill Clinton’s eight years in office created 22 million jobs, “balanced the budget and left his successor with a surplus. This can be done again,” – if only Mr. Obama moves further to the right (which Mr. Ford calls the center).

Well, no it can’t be done again. Clinton’s administration balanced the budget by “welfare reform” to cut back public spending. This would be lethal today. Meanwhile, his explosion of bank credit and the dot.com boom (rising stock prices and bonuses without any earnings) fueled the early stages of the Greenspan bubble. It was a debt-leveraged illusion. Instead of the government running budget deficits to expand domestic demand, Mr. Clinton left it to banks to extend interest-bearing credit - debt pollution that we are still struggling to clean up.

Debts that can’t be paid, won’t be. So defaults are rising. The question that Mr. Obama should be addressing is how to deal with the excess of debt above the ability to pay — and of negative equity for the one-quarter of U.S. real estate that has a higher mortgage debt than the market price is worth. If the hope is still to “borrow our way out of debt” by getting the banks to start lending again, then listeners tonight will know that Mr. Obama’s second year in office will be worse for the economy than his first.
How realistic is it to expect the speech to make clear that “we can’t go home again”? Mr. Obama promised change. “We simply cannot return to business as usual,” he said on Jan. 21, introducing the “Volcker plan.” But how can there be meaningful structural change if the plan is to return to an idealized dynamic that enriched Wall Street but not the rest of the economy?

The promise is that re-inflating prices will help the “real” economy. But what will “recover” is the rising trend of consumer and homeowner debt responsible for stifling the economy with debt deflation in the first place. This end-result of the Clinton-Bush bubble economy is still being applauded as a model for recovery.

Debt deflation resulting from a distorted “financialized” economy

Obama faces a problem that he cannot voice politically without offending his political constituency. The Bubble Economy has left families, companies, real estate and government so heavily indebted that they must use current income to pay banks and bondholders. The U.S. economy is in a debt deflation. The debt service paid is not available for spending on goods and services. This is why sales are falling, shops are closing down and employment continues to be cut back.

Banks evidently do not believe that the debt problem can be solved. That is why they have taken the $13 trillion in bailout money and run. They see the domestic economy as being all loaned up. The game is over. Why would they make yet more loans against real estate already in negative equity, with mortgage debt in excess of the market price that can be recovered? Banks are not writing more “equity lines of credit” against homes or making second mortgages in today’s market, so consumers cannot use rising mortgage debt to fuel their spending.

The President needs a better set of advisors. But Wall Street has obtained veto power over just who they should be. Control over the President’s ear time has been part of the financial sector’s takeover of government. Wall Street has threatened that the stock market will plunge if oligarch-friendly Fed Chairman Bernanke is not reappointed. Mr. Obama insists on keeping him on board, in the belief that what’s good for Wall Street is good for the economy at large.

But what’s good for the banks is a larger market for their credit — more debt for the families and companies that are their customers, higher fees and penalties, no truth-in-lending laws, harsher bankruptcy terms, and further deregulation and bailouts.

This is the program that Mr. Bernanke has advised Washington to follow. Wall Street hopes that he will be kept on board. Mr. Bernanke’s advice has helped bolster that of Tim Geithner at Treasury and Larry Summers as chief advisor to convince Pres. Obama that “recovery” requires more credit.

Going down this road will make the debt overhead heavier, raising the cost of living and doing business. So we must beware of the President using the term “recovery” in his State of the Union speech to mean a recovery of debt and giving more money to Wall Street.

The pretense is that this is subsidizing the middle class, but home buyers are only the intermediaries for government credit (debt to be paid off by taxpayers) to mortgage bankers. Nearly 90 percent of new home mortgages are being funded or guaranteed by the FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — all providing a concealed subsidy to Wall Street.

Obama’s most dangerous belief is the myth that the economy needs the financial sector to lead its recovery by providing credit. Every economy needs a means of payment, which is why Wall Street has been able to threaten to wreck the economy if the government does not give in to its demands. But the monetary function should not be confused with predatory lending and casino gambling, not to mention Wall Street’s use of bailout funds on lobbying efforts to spread its gospel.

Deficit reduction

It seems absurd for politicians to worry that running a deficit from health care or Social Security can cause serious economic problems, after having given away $13 trillion to Wall Street and a blank check to the Pentagon. The “stimulus package” was only about 5 percent of this amount. But Mr. Obama has announced that he intends on Tuesday to close the barn door by proposing a bipartisan Senate Budget Commission to recommend how to limit future deficits — now that Congress is unwilling to give away any more money to Wall Street.

Republican approval would set the stage for Wednesday’s State of the Union message promising to press for “fiscal responsibility,” as if a lower deficit will help recovery. I suspect that Republicans will have little interest in joining. They see the aim as being to co-opt their criticism of Democratic spending plans. But in view of the rising and well-subsidized efforts of Harold Ford and his fellow Corporate Democrats, the actual “bipartisan” aim seems to be to provide political cover for cutting spending on labor and on social services. Obama already has sent up trial balloons about needing to address the Social Security and Medicare deficits, as if they should not be financed out of the general budget by taxpayers including the higher brackets (presently exempted from FICA paycheck withholding).

Traditionally, running deficits is supposed to help pull economies out of recession. But today, spending money on public services is deemed “bad,” because it may be “inflationary” — that is, threatening to raise wages. Talk of cutting deficits thus is class-war talk — on behalf of the FIRE sector.
The economy needs deficit spending to avoid unemployment and poverty, to increase social spending to deal with the present economic shrinkage, and to maintain their capital infrastructure. The federal government also needs to increase revenue sharing with states forced to slash their budgets in response to falling tax revenue and rising unemployment insurance.

But the deficits that the Bush-Obama administration have run are nothing like the familiar old Keynesian-style deficits to help the economy recover. Running up public debt to pay Wall Street in the hope that much of this credit will be lent out to inflate asset prices is deemed good. This belief will form the context for Wednesday’s State of the Union speech. So we are brought back to the idea of economic recovery and just what is to be recovered.

Financial lobbyists are hoping to get the government to fill the gap in domestic demand below full-employment levels by providing bank credit. When governments spend money to help increase economic activity, this does not help the banks sell more interest bearing debt. Wall Street’s golden age occurred under Bill Clinton, whose budget surplus was more than offset by an explosion of commercial bank lending.

I worry that tonight’s address will celebrate this.

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003).

[don]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

It took more than a quarter of a century to create the FIRE economy v.2.

It should be unsurprising that it'll take a dozen years, or more, to kill it off. And along the way, periodically, it'll make like its coming back to life.

A good point that goes well with the historical context for FIRE's rising from the conundrum of global overproduction. Historical context is sorely missing in most of the FIRE reporting.

[sunskyfan]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

FIRE is nothing. It takes only a small moment in time to go out once the fuel is gone. Then you are left with ashes and a memory of warmth or the persistence of pain if you got burned.

[D-Mack]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

He is just reading the script

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama Speaks to a Sixth-Grade Classroom
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

[jk]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

Quickie informal poll of iTulip community before tonight's State of the Dis-Union address:

In tonight's State of the Union address, President Obama's main message will be [pick one]:

1. "I am the first black Bill Clinton, and I feel your pain..."
2. "I promised the kids another puppy once the unemployment rate is back in single digits..."
3. "Fannie Mae will make direct investments to support the housing market...today I instructed Fannie to buy the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port to make sure there is still one safe place for Democrats in Massachusetts..."
4. "I promised Americans universal health care. Where the hell did they get the idea that I was going to pay for it?"
5. "While we're on the topic of unemployment and green jobs, Michelle is looking for a new gardener...Republicans need not apply."
6. "It's not my fault...Larry made me do it..."
7. "The White House is doing its part to inspire Americans to cut their household budgets...for example, I've leased my helicopter to Bernanke...he said he needed something bigger..."
8. "Republicans can apply after all...apparently it's against the labour laws to exclude them..."

how about:
9. i want the american people to know that if big companies can walk away from bad debts, so can you. if your mortgage is underwater, if you owe more on your house than it is worth, it's ok to stop paying your mortgage. you will probably be able to stay in your house for another year, rent free, and you can use the money saved for other, more essential expenses. this is the most direct way available to get money from the banks to the people, and requires no legislation. you have my support.

[c1ue]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

In tonight's State of the Union address, President Obama's main message will be [pick one]:

1. "I am the first black Bill Clinton, and I feel your pain..."
2. "I promised the kids another puppy once the unemployment rate is back in single digits..."
3. "Fannie Mae will make direct investments to support the housing market...today I instructed Fannie to buy the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port to make sure there is still one safe place for Democrats in Massachusetts..."
4. "I promised Americans universal health care. Where the hell did they get the idea that I was going to pay for it?"
5. "While we're on the topic of unemployment and green jobs, Michelle is looking for a new gardener...Republicans need not apply."
6. "It's not my fault...Larry made me do it..."
7. "The White House is doing its part to inspire Americans to cut their household budgets...for example, I've leased my helicopter to Bernanke...he said he needed something bigger..."
8. "Republicans can apply after all...apparently it's against the labour laws to exclude them..."

10. Change You Can Believe in.

For those who are concerned about jobs, I will work towards building the American economy to provide you with these jobs.

For those who are concerned about deficits, I will work towards reducing spending so that our children will have a brighter future.

For those concerned about the safety of the American nation, I will work towards continuing to pursue terrorists wherever they may be.

For those who are angry over the abuses promulgated by the previous administration, I will work towards righting this ship of State towards the liberty envisioned by our founding fathers.

Did I miss anything?

[Master Shake]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

Talking of Henry CK Liu, he had this to say on this very topic -- "Obama Can Be the First President in History to Abolish Unemployment From the Economy"

I'd feel a lot better if the Big O were taking advice from someone affiliated with the Harding Institute. Harding actually did something to ward off and shorten a Depression instead of lengthen one like FDR.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

#10 Read my lips...no new taxes......however we will be implementing compulsory union membership for everyone....with quite reasonable union dues and fees.

#11 Everyone would agree that the calculation of unemployment and CPI is highly inaccurate......a learning moment from my Nobel Prize winning experience, I intend to affect some significant "change" to both better reflect the newfound optimism and projected positive future expectations...much like M3, we will erase all historical and current actual performance.....from here all unemployment and CPI stats will reflect where we "hope" to be in 12 to 36 months time.

[cjppjc]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

Talking of Henry CK Liu, he had this to say on this very topic -- "Obama Can Be the First President in History to Abolish Unemployment From the Economy"

I don't think this can be taken seriously.

[don]

Re: Dance Barry Dance

FIRE is nothing. It takes only a small moment in time to go out once the fuel is gone. Then you are left with ashes and a memory of warmth or the persistence of pain if you got burned.

Variation on your theme: It takes only a small moment in time for it to leave. Capital flight is the usual drill.