HAPPY NEW YEARS LOSERS!!!

[frankcal20]

We all don't agree on what we would do but you fools keep it interesting. Happy New Year!!!!

Let's hope we all live successful personal & professional lives and live up to everything we all hope.

[KazooSkinsFan]

We all don't agree on what we would do but you fools keep it interesting. Happy New Year!!!!

Let's hope we all live successful personal & professional lives and live up to everything we all hope.

Happy New Year Frank! Good riddance to 2011. I'm an optimist, but let's face it, 2011 blew chunks. I hope 2012 brings a resurgence of the Skins and finally an end to the endless Great Recession and people who aren't working finally start to find jobs. I gave pretty meager raises in my business this year. I was straight with people, until the economy improves my focus is keeping us all employed. Not one person gave me any unhappy look and I kept getting the reply, Kaz, I'm glad I have a job. I'm glad they understand, but I have some good people and I'd like to think I can do more to reward them then keeping them from being unemployed. But that is the day we live in.

[welch]

We all don't agree on what we would do but you fools keep it interesting. Happy New Year!!!!

Let's hope we all live successful personal & professional lives and live up to everything we all hope.

Happy New Year Frank! Good riddance to 2011. I'm an optimist, but let's face it, 2011 blew chunks. I hope 2012 brings a resurgence of the Skins and finally an end to the endless Great Recession and people who aren't working finally start to find jobs. I gave pretty meager raises in my business this year. I was straight with people, until the economy improves my focus is keeping us all employed. Not one person gave me any unhappy look and I kept getting the reply, Kaz, I'm glad I have a job. I'm glad they understand, but I have some good people and I'd like to think I can do more to reward them then keeping them from being unemployed. But that is the day we live in.

Roughly the same in my company. We increased sales after September, and would like to add staff, but work on a narrower margin than, oh, GE Information Services did 20 years ago (just to pick a random company).

[DarthMonk]

Anyone notice the radical change in the value of the dollar vs. other currencies and how many countries are starting to not accept payment in dollars??

DarthMonk

We all don't agree on what we would do but you fools keep it interesting. Happy New Year!!!!

Let's hope we all live successful personal & professional lives and live up to everything we all hope.

Happy New Year Frank! Good riddance to 2011. I'm an optimist, but let's face it, 2011 blew chunks. I hope 2012 brings a resurgence of the Skins and finally an end to the endless Great Recession and people who aren't working finally start to find jobs. I gave pretty meager raises in my business this year. I was straight with people, until the economy improves my focus is keeping us all employed. Not one person gave me any unhappy look and I kept getting the reply, Kaz, I'm glad I have a job. I'm glad they understand, but I have some good people and I'd like to think I can do more to reward them then keeping them from being unemployed. But that is the day we live in.

Roughly the same in my company. We increased sales after September, and would like to add staff, but work on a narrower margin than, oh, GE Information Services did 20 years ago (just to pick a random company).

[KazooSkinsFan]

Anyone notice the radical change in the value of the dollar vs. other currencies and how many countries are starting to not accept payment in dollars??

DarthMonk

Not sure what you're referring to with the second part who isn't accepting payment in dollars?

But as for the value of the dollar, it's directly due to the endless printing of money by the Fed. If people only grasped how our government steals from us and that direct taxes are only the beginning.

[KazooSkinsFan]

Anyone notice the radical change in the value of the dollar vs. other currencies and how many countries are starting to not accept payment in dollars??

DarthMonk

Not sure what you're referring to with the second part who isn't accepting payment in dollars?

But as for the value of the dollar, it's directly due to the endless printing of money by the Fed. If people only grasped how our government steals from us and that direct taxes are only the beginning.

[welch]

Dollar is still the safest currency in the world. The "gold standard". The Chinese currency has held steady at number 17 "most accepted" in the world, according to SWIFT. (email to staff, customers, and partners...if I'd known that anybody cared, I'd have saved it).

The value of the USD has been fairly staedy. The Euro has bounced, from roughly $1.45 last year to about $1.30 right now.

No way is "printing money" like "stealing" from us. The US continues to borrow at the lowest rate of any country. The Fed lends at a low rate -- something just a bit above zero -- to keep the economy happy. Has been doing that ever since conservative "monetarists" got in.

The test? Look at inflation. It's practically flat.

[KazooSkinsFan]

No way is "printing money" like "stealing" from us

Of course it is. If you earn money, you were compensated for creating economic value. But if you print money, you then take without creation. It's a stealth tax, pure and simple.

The US continues to borrow at the lowest rate of any country.

Can you be clearer what measurement you're referring to? To me it would mean deficit spending as a percent of GDP, where we are definitely not the lowest."

The Fed lends at a low rate -- something just a bit above zero -- to keep the economy happy. Has been doing that ever since conservative "monetarists" got in.

It makes bankers happy. But to the economy it's like eating refined sugar before you work out. It gives you a high, but then you crash unless you eat more sugar.

The test? Look at inflation. It's practically flat.

Inflation is only one thing to look at. Productivity is another and it's going up. There is also little pricing power for businesses. Inflation is..a...measure to look at for sure. But no, it's not the only one.

[welch]

Fed rate to banks is low because the Fed expects / hopes that the banks will oan to businesses to invest. It's something close to zero.

We want that, because we have been in a depression since 2008...have to call it a recession because 1929 - 1940 was a horror, but that's just happy talk.

Problem: business won;t expand without knowing that customers will buy what gets produced. This country has been hollowing out it's industrial base since the mid-70s, and that's where you would find the bulk of customers.

(My own company will add staff, since we doubled our revenue last year, but our margins are thin. Can't hire as many as I'd like.)

I call it "deficit spending", rather than "printing money", but either phrase is OK as long as we do it when the economy is down.

Cutting government spending makes no sense in a depression. FDR did it about 1936 and hurt the recovery he had seen.

Why did he? That was the accepted wisdom in economics. He ran in 1932 promising to balance the budget. Made no economic sense, but nobody knew any better.

Can someone explain why we need to cut the deficit now?