Category: Economy

WARNING:

You are going to fall off your chair, spit your coffee on your screen, tear out your hair or maybe just go sit in a corner and blubber a bit once you read this. By going forward, you have to sign a contract saying you won’t sue me or send big mean people over to beat my ass for being the messenger for the audacity of the lying liars that comes after.

Your Name_________________________________________________

Ok, if you have signed, you may read on.

Guess what our buddies at the Fed are saying just now?  Food, medical, gasoline, legal and illegal drugs; everything you purchase right now is more expensive by an incredible amount that it was just a year ago.  6 months ago.  In the case of gasoline, Yesterday.

Each and every day we read or hear something new from our favorite News sources about how the economy isn’t doing so great.  In fact we are either in a recession or about to go into a recession or something.

I’m here to tell you, people

WE ARE IN A RECESSION AND HAVE BEEN FOR HALF A YEAR NOW!

I hope that was loud enough to hear in the room next to your computer, because it cannot be said loudly enough until EVERYONE gets with the program and really understands what 7 plus years of “Neo-Con-tax-middle-class-into-oblivion-while-sending-jobs-overseas-so-corporations-can-profit” economic genius has produced.

The trickle down theory is working!  Only the liquid trickling down your leg is from a Neo-Con 1%’er pissing on you once again.  Well, at least it is working for the 1% of the richest Americans, anyway.

Check this out.

The national average is over $3.83.  This is $4.00.  And there’s a nearby station that is at $4.089.

Earlier this week my fuel oil tank needed a refill.  Retail price? $4.399/gallon.

A friend who buys bulk diesel fuel told me he last paid $5.069/gallon.

Are you better off now than you were 8 years ago?

Ever since McCain and Clinton proposed and Obama opposed a Gas Tax Holiday, a proposal to repeal the 18.4 cent Federal tax on gasoline for the summer months, there has been near universal condemnation of the idea from a policy standpoint. There is another aspect though that is arguably worse. If enacted, the “holiday” would become a political football in the general election and runs the risk of becoming a permanent vacation.

Before getting into that, here is a little discussion of the policy debate. It can be skipped by those who have been following this issue closely.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

This past week we were all treated to a proposed executive repeal of the venerable Law of Supply and Demand by McCain and Clinton.  Today, not to be undone, El Presidente made it clear that they were too late, he had already issued an executive order nullifying the Law of Supply and Demand.  And by golly, he was going to take credit for that.

According to Bloomberg:

Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both pushing a “gas-tax holiday” to give consumers an 18.4- cent-a-gallon price break. Clinton says the plan will take excess profits from oil companies. McCain says it will help families buy school supplies.

Economists have a different take: They say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn’t be enough to buy a $35 backpack.

The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes.

And this doesn’t even mention that old bugaboo, the Law of Supply and Demand, which holds that decreasing price usually stimulates consumption.  This is that Law: If a bottle of beer was $2 and now it’s $1, wouldn’t you consider having 2 instead of one?  So the proposal, supposedly decreasing the price, would lead to greater oil consumption and then, uh oh, higher prices.

This will be a quick one. We’re putting together a public action kit for Thursday. It will be something that anyone can use anywhere to start up a dialog with strangers, find out what their concerns are, share yours and hopefully send out some positive, activist ripples.

All the fixings can be had at Staples and no doubt Office Depot or any office supply store. The final bit of work is to fine tune the content of the presentation. We have some eye-catching art work on the way (fingers crossed on the file size).

First sheet is issues/survey. What are the bullet point issues that get you most worked up? Personally, I’d need an UZI to list all mine. The survey is the premise for the discussion. People in general love to have their opinions asked. Ever stay on the line for a robo-poll?

Second list is a contact sheet – legislators, etc (we’ll be covering MA)

Second/third sheet is LTE contact info and talking/venting/screaming points.

Third/fourth sheet is a list of links to progressive sites. It’ll probably be a three sheet effort. And that’s not to the wind.

[This is the second in a projected series of short posts I have inaugurated over at Fire on the Mountain. They will focus on one or another particular aspect of the economic situation and are designed as a corrective to the “out of sight, out of mind” approach of the mainstream media to the deepening meltdown. Feedback about the idea is solicited.]

The prospect of $4 a gallon gas, falling real incomes and the growing recession are obviously hitting the US auto industry hard. Other recent developments suggest things are going to get appreciably worse for Ford, GM et al, fast.

For one thing, the runup in commodity prices is sinking its teeth in. Netherlands-based AcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, has announced a $250-a-ton “surcharge” on steel it has contracted to sell its US customers. Other steelmakers, hit hard by higher raw material and fuel prices, are expected to follow. The spot market price of steel is up 40-50% from last year. (Hot-rolled sheet steel now runs about $1000 per metric ton at spot, to give you a comparison point). Supplies have tightened further as countries like Egypt, China and Brazil cut exports to ensure their domestic supply. (Need I mention that Hugo Chávez is renationalizing Sidor, Venezuela’s largest steelmaker?)

[Crossposted from Fire on the Mountain.]

Some kind of quantity changing into quality point has been reached–suddenly the newspapers are full of "in-depth" reports on the global food crisis, a crisis that seems to have sprung up as suddenly as the credit crisis did a few months ago. I've been tracking this for a while and decided to think on the keyboard instead of out loud. I think it is important to try and understand this while it is a New Thing, before it becomes more background noise in world politics and our daily lives.  

1. Production shortages and inflation are two major factors in the crisis.  

What's causing the shortages?  

Global warming is widely regarded as a contributing factor in droughts which have stricken not only subsistence farmers in East Africa, but also major commodity grain producers in the Southern Hemisphere–Chile, Argentina, and especially Australia, with thousands of square miles in their eighth straight year with no rainfall to speak of.  

Growing Asian economies, especially in China and India, have made possible better and more diverse diets for hundreds of millions of people. This growing demand for food has additionally seen rising meat consumption by the middle class (echoing US consumption trends), and, as vegetarians are quick to point out, it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce a pound of beef.

and extremely tired of sucking up to power.  It is well past time to flex our collective muscles.  What is wrong with people in this country?  Most of us are wage slaves because we have to be.  Okay: fine.  Maybe that’s the way of the world.  They call it “work” for a reason, right?  And I don’t think anybody here opposes work, per se.  What I oppose is the suppression of the “underclass”–which increasingly means anybody who isn’t a multimillionaire.

Original article, subtitled Government is the Largest Employer, by Paul Craig Roberts via Counterpunch.com.

Wothwhile reading if only for the statistics. But Roberts, as almost always recently, hits the nail on the head as far as where the economy actually stands.

No, it’s not one of those nonsense questions.

Like, “What would you rather be or an elephant?”

“Would you rather carry your lunch or walk to work?”

“Is it farther to New York or by airplane?”

What would you rather have than the war in Iraq?

Setting aside the human cost, the carnage — if that is possible, by an act of will — just focus on the monetary costs.  Money’s something everyone can relate to — even conservatives.

And there is no better teaching moment, no better time to make the argument that we can’t afford to continue this war and occupation, than April 15, the day we empty our pockets and send our money to the Pentagon.

That could and should be a focus of antiwar activity this month.