i think to defer sir.

If you read my posts, I blame both republicans and democrats for the state we are in because they allowed the
Fed to create this bubble.

but if I contributed nothing for you, I apologize and leave this thread in peace.

the Repubs are blocking tax increase bills half the time. Frankly we need McCain or Nader in the White House otherwise the US will fall or we will just need a new election because both Obama and Biden will be killed for jacking up taxes (Biden more then Obama when it comes to tax increases). We need to say screw our debt problem at the moment and help the citizens before the government.

I have an odd feeling that if Biden becomes president it will be the fall of the Democratic USA. Remember throughout history Democracy has always fallen to a dictator than to a parliamentary system.

How has this gotten to a discussion about taxes? How does this have anything to do with the market meltdown? Anyways, the Fed had low interest rates which did promote more lending, BUT it did not promote the ARMs, which is the true root of the problem. The fact is, its a combination. There was no regulation of the ARMs, which was needed, there was corruption (small time and big time) that misled people taking out the ARMs, and there was BAD investment by firms that should know better and wanted to take the easy and quick way to get profit without looking at what the market was really doing. This is what caused the problem, taxes are independent of it.
Taxes can be discussed in another thread please. Lets keep this on topic with the mortgage fiasco and its fallout.

Part of the reason the economic problem is so bad is BECAUSE the national debt is so high (was a major trigger for the spike in oil prices as well as the run on the U.S. dollar worldwide).  If we don't fix it now, it will spiral out of control and not just temporarily cripple our economy, but permanently cripple it if we keep running the same kind of deficits we are running now.

I agree with what you are saying that tax hikes could hurt the economy, but the national debt actually has much larger potential to do long-term damage to our economy.

McCain also said the economy is fine...lol. And greed and corruption built up while republicans controlled the house, the senate, and the presidency.

So if you think Congress can fix every issue with Bush vetoing and the Supreme court being republican controlled your mistaken. I guess if ignorance will help you sleep at night.

Whether or not you want to believe its government corruption you can't blame the democratic party.

How much are you all really going to save on a tax cut? A few thousand dollars maybe? I am tired of people complaining about taxes. The government needs money to operate. Paying $20 extra dollars per pay check will not kill you, but that alone could do wonders in curbing things like corruption and helping those in need.

People hate the thought of having more of their money disappear from their salary, I know, but its all to help the system in the long run. Right now we need more government regulation. All of our jobs depend on that system, we aren't working on farms or in the factories anymore. Everything is automated, and human labor is becoming less and less necessary with more efficient machines and computers available. A good portion of us are working behind desks on computers, and if the system collapses were screwed.

If we can trust our government officials enough (its tough) I don't see an issue with paying a little more per paycheck. We can plan for that at the beginning of the year, we can't plan for these higher gas prices and we can't plan for a mortgage crisis of this magnitude. Inflation is also a huge problem.

I think we need to start building back up our base of middle class workers and make American companies work for us again. Seriously, these companies are just too big and have too much freedom for us in the US to compete. Ill gladly give up more money for taxes if we can have some faith in what the future can bring and the amount of risk thats out there. And hell, if we can end this pointless war (why are we there again?) thats a huge surplus of money right there (not counting the debt of course).

so do you think the fed should lower interest rates again?

I think it'll happen this week, but I don't think that's the right answer

Our country would (and will) cut taxes until America burns to the ground. You heard it here first.

"We were wrong. As a former FDIC chairman, Bill Isaac, points out here, the FDIC Insurance Fund is an accounting fiction. It takes in premiums from banks, then turns those premiums over to the Treasury, which adds the money to the government's general coffers for "spending . . . on missiles, school lunches, water projects, and the like."

The insurance premiums aren't really premiums at all, therefore. They're a tax by another name."

Betcha you didn't know that.

That's right folks - there is no FDIC insurance fund.

Just like there is no Social Security insurance fund, or Medicare insurance fund.

They are all accounting FICTIONS that our Congress has created and allowed because we keep demanding that they spend more than they have.

To keep us, and foreign bond investors (who must pony up $2 billion per day to keep this charade alive) from freaking out and saying "no mas!" they rob and steal every nickel from every nook and cranny they can so their "budget deficit" looks much smaller than it actually is.

Clinton never ran a budget surplus if you simply add back in the FICA receipts he stole to "balance his budget." Bush of course never even claimed to run a surplus. Every administration since the 1970s has played this game to one degree or another, and we, Idiot Nation, sit back and let it happen.


Quote from my guy from The Market Ticker Denninger.

Tell me, which presidents were in office on this chart when you see the largest rises in the national debt?  Reagan, Bush, and Bush.