Is it just me?

[DoomYoshi]

Or are the Opinion bloggers of WSJ more reputable than the fact-checkers at FOX News?

[notyou2]

Fox News does not employ fact checkers. It employs spin doctors.

[TeeGee]

We learnt in Australia many years ago that Rupert Murdoch only likes news which enforces his opinions. It does not have to be factual.

[thegreekdog]

WSJ leans right, but at least they are reputable. I get a lot of news and opinion from that fine paper.

[waauw]

From what I've seen the WSJ is better than fox, though both of 'm are seriously biassed. I remember several articles in the WSJ almost 2 years ago which stated that the US was pretty much out of the crisis and that the USD status would remain untouchable. Well... I guess we know how much bullshit that ended up being. The US economy is still in terrible shape and a lot of bilateral deals were signed to exclude the USD in trade.

[thegreekdog]

From what I've seen the WSJ is better than fox, though both of 'm are seriously biassed. I remember several articles in the WSJ almost 2 years ago which stated that the US was pretty much out of the crisis and that the USD status would remain untouchable. Well... I guess we know how much bullshit that ended up being. The US economy is still in terrible shape and a lot of bilateral deals were signed to exclude the USD in trade.

The US economy is still in terrible shape? I guess I don't see that.

[DoomYoshi]

Being the largest economy in the world for 60+ years is terrible shape. Don't you know anything TGD?

Basically people call it a recession because the exorbitant growth rates, which come about by the exploitation of the third world, the working class and the environment and are driven by the overconsumption of fat American fucks (which actually are in terrible shape) slowed down a bit so that only one millionaire is made every hour instead of five. This causes the news to Wah-Wah-Wah and pretend there is some sort of crisis. Hence, wauuw's avatar.

[BigBallinStalin]

From what I've seen the WSJ is better than fox, though both of 'm are seriously biassed. I remember several articles in the WSJ almost 2 years ago which stated that the US was pretty much out of the crisis and that the USD status would remain untouchable. Well... I guess we know how much bullshit that ended up being. The US economy is still in terrible shape and a lot of bilateral deals were signed to exclude the USD in trade.

How about a source?

WSJ is usually spot-on, but their economists do favor the econometric/aggregative approach. According to their standards, the US is definitely out of the recession (positive growth in terms of GDP for 3 or so subsequent months). Of course, that approach leaves much to be desired, but that's how it is with mainstream econ.

[notyou2]

Being the largest economy in the world for 60+ years is terrible shape. Don't you know anything TGD?

Basically people call it a recession because the exorbitant growth rates, which come about by the exploitation of the third world, the working class and the environment and are driven by the overconsumption of fat American fucks (which actually are in terrible shape) slowed down a bit so that only one millionaire is made every hour instead of five. This causes the news to Wah-Wah-Wah and pretend there is some sort of crisis. Hence, wauuw's avatar.

Doom, you can't ask questions in the OP and then go spouting some highfalutin knowledgeable shit about world economies........unless you are trolling.....

[waauw]

oh so you guys think it's going great huh?

US labor force participation rate only 63.4
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

People on food stamps increased from february to march by 168 000 to 47 727 052 people(1.3 million increase from 2012)
http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/snapfood-stamp-monthly-participation-data/#mar

US debt still rising and closing in on 17trillion USD(107% debt/gdp), budgetary deficit still above 1trillion USD
http://www.usdebtclock.org/



Us still has a trade deficit
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html

multiple bilateral deals, including china-japan(nr2 and nr3 economies of the world and the two largest foreign USD holders) signed deals to exclude the USD in bilateral trade
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/worlds-second-and-third-largest-economies-bypass-dollar-engage-direct-currency-trade
which was ofcourse followed by many other bilateral deals excluding USD
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-13/china-takes-another-stab-dollar-launches-currency-swap-line-france

Don't forget that at the asian summit in Pnom Penh your president Obama was humiliatingly sent away as he wasn't wanted there. The future of the world's economy is in asia, not in america or in europe. The era of the western hegemony is coming to an end.


===> How the hell do you guys think the US in good shape? You can't go on forever with such budget deficits. The american government is broke and so is the american population(same as large parts of europe). Obama hasn't fixed shit.

Also keep in mind that this was just a couple of data on the US. You only need 1 major economy to tip over, for the rest of the world to follow. You only need 1 big bank to get in trouble again, for the rest of the world to be at danger.

[Phatscotty]

Given that Fox News barely ever has my fav guy (Deniis Prager) on, whereas he was a regular on Larry King at CNN, and that the Wall Street Journal picks up his columns regularly, I do like the WSJ, but I'm not a paying subscriber or anything. There might be some neo-con stuff in there from time to time, but that's because it really does function as close as we are going to get to true diversity in the media. (Krugman gets picked up too there)

[BigBallinStalin]

Given that Fox News barely ever has my fav guy (Deniis Prager) on, whereas he was a regular on Larry King at CNN, and that the Wall Street Journal picks up his columns regularly, I do like the WSJ, but I'm not a paying subscriber or anything. There might be some neo-con stuff in there from time to time, but that's because it really does function as close as we are going to get to true diversity in the media. (Krugman gets picked up too there)

RE: war, yes, it's often. And it's very uncritical (e.g. supporting Rebels who use human shields and possibly chemical weapons while rejecting Assad/Hezbollah cuz they only teh bad guise).

I haven't see Krugman in WSJ, and I've been following WSJ for awhile.

[waauw]

I haven't see Krugman in WSJ, and I've been following WSJ for awhile.

He might be mixing up the NY times with the WSJ

[thegreekdog]

oh so you guys think it's going great huh?

US labor force participation rate only 63.4
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

People on food stamps increased from february to march by 168 000 to 47 727 052 people(1.3 million increase from 2012)
http://frac.org/reports-and-resources/snapfood-stamp-monthly-participation-data/#mar

US debt still rising and closing in on 17trillion USD(107% debt/gdp), budgetary deficit still above 1trillion USD
http://www.usdebtclock.org/



Us still has a trade deficit
http://www.census.gov/indicator/www/ustrade.html

multiple bilateral deals, including china-japan(nr2 and nr3 economies of the world and the two largest foreign USD holders) signed deals to exclude the USD in bilateral trade
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/worlds-second-and-third-largest-economies-bypass-dollar-engage-direct-currency-trade
which was ofcourse followed by many other bilateral deals excluding USD
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-13/china-takes-another-stab-dollar-launches-currency-swap-line-france

Don't forget that at the asian summit in Pnom Penh your president Obama was humiliatingly sent away as he wasn't wanted there. The future of the world's economy is in asia, not in america or in europe. The era of the western hegemony is coming to an end.


===> How the hell do you guys think the US in good shape? You can't go on forever with such budget deficits. The american government is broke and so is the american population(same as large parts of europe). Obama hasn't fixed shit.

Also keep in mind that this was just a couple of data on the US. You only need 1 major economy to tip over, for the rest of the world to follow. You only need 1 big bank to get in trouble again, for the rest of the world to be at danger.

I guess I should caveat this by saying that sometimes I look at the economy from a personal perspective - is my firm doing well? The reason for that is if my firm is doing well, it means my clients are doing well because they will spend money on tax services. If my clients are doing well, then the economy must be doing well. So my firm is doing really, really, super duper great!

As to the rest, jobs statistics mean virtually nothing to me. Trade deficits mean less than that. The deficit is concerning, but is not causing any problems right now.

[waauw]

I guess I should caveat this by saying that sometimes I look at the economy from a personal perspective - is my firm doing well? The reason for that is if my firm is doing well, it means my clients are doing well because they will spend money on tax services. If my clients are doing well, then the economy must be doing well. So my firm is doing really, really, super duper great!

As to the rest, jobs statistics mean virtually nothing to me. Trade deficits mean less than that. The deficit is concerning, but is not causing any problems right now.

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

[thegreekdog]

I guess I should caveat this by saying that sometimes I look at the economy from a personal perspective - is my firm doing well? The reason for that is if my firm is doing well, it means my clients are doing well because they will spend money on tax services. If my clients are doing well, then the economy must be doing well. So my firm is doing really, really, super duper great!

As to the rest, jobs statistics mean virtually nothing to me. Trade deficits mean less than that. The deficit is concerning, but is not causing any problems right now.

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

You're preaching to the choir my man. If you have a viable solution, I'm all ears. There does not seem to be any great rush by the Repocrats to solve those problems, so I'm at a loss as to a viable solution.

[AndyDufresne]

This is why TGD should leave his day job and put his skillz to use for the betterment of the country. TGD run for office and become our Mr. Smith!


--Andy

[thegreekdog]

This is why TGD should leave his day job and put his skillz to use for the betterment of the country. TGD run for office and become our Mr. Smith!


--Andy

I said viable option.

[BigBallinStalin]

I guess I should caveat this by saying that sometimes I look at the economy from a personal perspective - is my firm doing well? The reason for that is if my firm is doing well, it means my clients are doing well because they will spend money on tax services. If my clients are doing well, then the economy must be doing well. So my firm is doing really, really, super duper great!

As to the rest, jobs statistics mean virtually nothing to me. Trade deficits mean less than that. The deficit is concerning, but is not causing any problems right now.

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

You're preaching to the choir my man. If you have a viable solution, I'm all ears. There does not seem to be any great rush by the Repocrats to solve those problems, so I'm at a loss as to a viable solution.

It's an educational issue and an incentive problem.

The electorate is influential enough on politicians, but not enough of the electorate understand these issues and the processes. About half to most do not care enough to even vote, which is a problem beyond educational (it's an incentive problem).

2x2 grid:

_____________Votes_______Doesn't Vote|
Understands..|......|.......................|
D. Understand|......|.......................|
___________________________________|

(3) is the problem of political packages (e.g. I want Repocrat Ronny to reduce my taxes, but I don't want him to go to war. He's a warlike guy, but I value the tax reduction enough to vote for him anyway). If #3 is the case, then it doesn't matter if the electorate is more informed/educated (If this was predominately the case, then this would be the worst case scenario).


*By education, I mean a developed understanding of the political process--i.e. an understanding of self-government, of governance in general, and of comparable processes for attaining one's goals (market activities).

[DoomYoshi]

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

A future problem doesn't mean that there is a problem now. Labor force participation is a blip statistic. Before the gilded age, when the current problems started, no such stats were collected. Eventually people will wise up and we will bring back the serf system and titles such as "job" will no longer exist.

[Ragnars Wolves]

You hit it right on the head.....Obama is a community organizer from Chicago and is good at one thing.....Organizing people to do what he wants, in a city that has a history of corruption that goes back over 75 years. Is it a wonder that the debt is rising when all the head of the government wants to do is "Throw money at the problem". We can't fix our borders as we met SERIOUS opposition. When the Presidents daughter has to have 20 SS agents , whenever she goes ANYWHERE...C'mon.

We have 2 polarized sides and NOBODY is going to budge. I can go on and on, but like the other gentleman, MY business has shown growth in the last year, and I have hired almost 20% more employees. I DO feel sorry for my kids somewhat, but they are grown and can support who and how they want it done. It is my Grandchildren that I worry about. Just to be fair, I CERTAINLY was not happy with the last 4 years of Mr.Bush's Presidency either.

But please, don't just go by the "stats' as they are as skewed as the news is here. MSNBC is a joke and nobody watches it. CNN is GREAT when it comes to in the field reporting overseas, such as wars and military operations. So good in fact, that the opposition feel it is the best source of information they can get. Fox....The same story from the same view over and over.

All you have to do to support your position..is change the dial on the television.

From a guy that is SICK of the whole mess and can see it being worse the next go round.

[waauw]

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

A future problem doesn't mean that there is a problem now. Labor force participation is a blip statistic. Before the gilded age, when the current problems started, no such stats were collected. Eventually people will wise up and we will bring back the serf system and titles such as "job" will no longer exist.

If you say labor force participation is unimportant than obviously you do not realise what the economic consequences of this are. To pull my point to the extreme: what do you think would happen if the governement would lower the pension age to 30?

And serf system wise, really? If you mean a system of serfdom as in a central planning system, do you realise what the consequences are of such a system?

[waauw]

I guess I should caveat this by saying that sometimes I look at the economy from a personal perspective - is my firm doing well? The reason for that is if my firm is doing well, it means my clients are doing well because they will spend money on tax services. If my clients are doing well, then the economy must be doing well. So my firm is doing really, really, super duper great!

As to the rest, jobs statistics mean virtually nothing to me. Trade deficits mean less than that. The deficit is concerning, but is not causing any problems right now.

The problem with deficits is that they are sustainable for quite a while, but not forever. The longer you wait to solve your problems, the bigger chances are that things go bad and the bigger the potential problems.
If anything can be learned from the european crisis, it's that when things aren't sustainable, things can go bad extremely fast. Spain for example saw it's interest rates rise several percent in just 1 week at some point.

You're preaching to the choir my man. If you have a viable solution, I'm all ears. There does not seem to be any great rush by the Repocrats to solve those problems, so I'm at a loss as to a viable solution.

Do I need to suggest a viable solution? I do not have to give you one to be able to recognize danger on the horizon.
Nonetheless, there are solutions to solve this, but none of them are miracle solutions who are going to bring back the glory days. Not in a blink of an eye, nor just in a few years.
You don't pay off debts that fast. Just like with normal people, governments have to pay off their debts or suffer the consequences. I would refer you to what happened to Argentina for example.