Monday, July 5, 2010

Say NO to Corporate Clenchpoops

The news is discouraging. Unemployment fell to 9.5% in June 2010. Change in real GDP is steady at 3 percent. (Let's ignore that the best change in real GDP during the Bush ta "boom" decade was 2004 at a measly 3.6%.) This is down from 5.6 percent in the 4th quarter of 2009. Are we in for a double dip recession? Yes, if the private sector does not step up to the plate.

What? The people who got us into this mess? Yup. Believe it or not, we need these fuck-ups. Government can't do everything. Especially now, with the ill-informed and ignorant politics involving the "worrisome" deficit.

A few things to remember.

Despite all the noise about Fannie and Freddie, ACORN, socialism, subsidized housing, the guvmin'ts fault for not regulating properly, it was:

the banks
Wall Street parasites
the rich

who got us into this mess. You will notice that they all ain't hurting too badly right now.

I do not disagree that TARP was necessary, but people get confused as to why. TARP was there to pay off the bank's and investing houses debt-holders. Had this not happened, I don't see how we could have avoided a depression and  30% unemployment. But we have to recognize what actually happened. Oh sure, some banks got bailed out, but what really happened was the bank's creditors got paid off. Its important to recognize this. 

The whole crisis occurred because the money flow was frozen. The economy was constipated.

Had debt holders not been paid off, no more money would have been lent out. No more money flow. That was the problem. Still is. 

The government did its damndest to get the money flowing again, with a hefty dose of Metamucil in the form of the stimulus. That's what government is supposed to do. They could no more, but the asshole Republicans and Teabaggers idiots worried about inflation and the size of the debt are making so much noise that Congress ran for cover. These same idiots, unaware that the big problem is deflation and real depression from lack of a further enema jolt to the system in the form of another money stimulus.

So, it's up to the private sector now. The problem is, they are holding onto cash. Companies have record amounts of cash. We have a nation of corporate clenchpoops.

And by not loosening up their bowels, and let the money flowing again, which in turn opens up the job market, the corporations are only hurting themselves - but not before they hurt everyone else.

 

2 comments:

  1. That's exactly right. NO one can get loans, especially the little people, even those with sterling credit ratings. Small companies who want to expand, want to hire workers, people who want to start up new businesses can't because the banks won't give them a line of credit. And the arts? fugeddaboutit. Artists and galleries dyin' on the vine.

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  2. What loans are getting through are thanks to the Small Business Administration. You look at the giant corporate private sector lenders we bailed out, and they ain't doing crap, except to hand themselves out big bonuses. Then you've got just completely insulting offers like the BofA promising a piss-trickle offer of $5 bn to small businesses. I say fuck BofA, if they are so short-sighted. Take your busienss elsewhere. While we are at it, let's take 30% of the top 1%'s wealth, pay off the debt, fix our roads, set up some loans to the samll companies responsible for 80% of America's real growth, and still have some money left over for a really nice fireworks display.

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