Recession, 'whining' and wisdom

Perhaps we wouldn't be in the mess we are if the liberal media hadn't been pushing their doomsday scenario for the past eight years and if more people hadn't bought into it. It's been a self fulfilling prophesy as far as I'm concerned.

So what's wrong with whining? The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Just ask any 3 year old who knows exactly when to push the button to command all the attention that a flustered parent can muster and will eventually get what he or she wants. What Gramm is saying is "screw the American people, they're acting just like 3 year olds, and we adults (Republican governments) are not going to cave in."

Just imagine a John McCain administration, which would undoubtedly put the whip to the American people for all their whining. No giving them what they want. What Gramm said was brutal, and we'd better take heed.

I would like to invite Gramm to live on my SS check for 6 months. I bet his rich man attitudes would change fast.

Give me a break. Yes, fear has an effect on the economy. However, the flight of manufacturing jobs out of the US (that have not been replaced by tech as promised) is a real problem. Our economy has, for years, been propped up on a ridiculous housing market fueled by historically low fed rates and consumers spending into near bankruptcy (not to mention government deficit spending). An economy based on nothing but debt is not a real economy. The myth of our wonderfully strong economy was never going to last forever and as more people realize that there are real problems this "fear" is only going to get worse. No amount of optimistic spending is going to hold off reality forever.

Thanks Gramm. Thanks for Enron. Thanks for $145 per barrel oil and now thanks for this latest bit of gas. Who bought you a degree anyway? Isn't is past time for you to ride off into the sunset?

Hey, I thought a recession was when real growth was negative for two straight quarters. Doesn't that have any place in a discussion about whether we are in a recession? This article says real little to me, is your main point that Graham should be taken seriously. Well, you yourself show that his comments were totally off base. Is your point that people are spending because they have less money to spend, because that is a tautology. In short, I liked your title so I read the article, but now I feel like I just wasted 10 minutes of my life.

I agree that Gramm's comment were correct. Just read all the whinning comments made about his comment. The fact is that American's spent more than they could afford and now they are in trouble. The Iraq war had nothing to do with our poor economic situation. If anything, it prolonged it. Years of giving billions to other countries since WWII, HUD policies to give money to those who do not work, unions out of control, gas prices triple what they were, emerging economies throughout the world selling goods cheaper than us (we buy most of them), not having a viable mass transist system, and not having a viable alternative to oil is just a few of the reasons we are in economic trouble and will stay that way until we change the way we think and act. Excuses, whinning and lying will not get us where we need to go.

All this pseudo-scientific analysis of the nation's economic "mood" belies the fact that our poor are suffering and Gramm's statements constitute just another example of how out of the touch the GOP and its rich, white center really is. Tell a single mother of three children struggling to make ends meet that she is a whiner. Republicans like Phil Gramm and George Bush are despicable elitists who know nothing about the plight of the average American.

Sen. Gramm, the creator of the "Enron Loophole" along with Dick Cheney has always, been and still is out of touch with the average american. He is just another idiot from Texas.

My knee jerk reaction to the above article would be to say you're on the money, as I've been unemployed due to a car accident and taking care of a terminal parent.

Then I 'actually think'. Rare things these days as the idiot box and the media have replaced a person's ability to think and reason through for themselves.

My friend who was unemployed longer than I just got a new job last week. This week a former policeman got a new job. Maybe next week is my week?

Good news is hardly ever presented. It might get the final thirty seconds of a local news broadcast, or buried in section D page thirteen in the paper.

Doesn't take a genius to realize people are not saving, and money is being piped into some dodgy areas. So the havest would be bad times.

Then everywhere you turn on all five hundred channels and in the newspapers and websites is economic downturns and talk of doomsday. Perhaps the Senator is referring to the constant barage of garbage that would affect the mood of even the happiest person? Perhaps if all we do is talk about how terrible things are and do not do anything about it but complain that 'they' are not doing anything, we are selves are part of the problem?

Let's drill for oil, build new refineries, put no limits on businesses wanting to do coal for oil, build nuclear power plants, desalinate water, use solar, wind, and hydro power. Let's build those hydrogen cars.

What would happen if we became America again? The wealth paved roads in Dubai would need someone else's money as we would invest in ourselves, build jobs for ourselves, prosper and build hope for all nations. It all takes a change in thinking.

What else would you expect from a Senator from Texas? The rich old guy needs to get out of the ivory tower. Too many Republicans think the same as Gramn. It is concerning, that he is the economic advisor for McCain! This should be a wake-up call for the potential voters of McCain. This type of comments is typical of a Bush! Confident that Bush and Gramn are best of buddies. Remember the comment of Mother Bush during Katrina Hurricane regarding the people that had lost their homes.

Know who the biggest whiners are? Democrats, especially Obama, who are criticizing everything about America and Americans from not conserving enough to not speaking Spanish. And media which hype every economic negative and bury every economic positive. Example? The "housing crisis." Disregard the fact that 98 percent of mortgages are paid on time. Focus on the 2 percent which are not. Employment? Forget the 95 percent who want and have jobs and emphasize the 5 percent who don't. I don't speak Spanish and regardless of what Obama says, I'm not apologizing for it. I live in America, not Spain. And I think our country is a darn good place to live. And I'm a Democrat and I used to be proud of that.

Very good article; no finger pointing at one party or the other. In my opinion, which historical data seems to support, the free market where supply meets demand (I'm in the "demand side" camp) is still the best model for economic prosperity. I understand how many in the nation feel that the federal government should be brought into the mix to curb "bad" things from occurring; however, history shows that this is typically bad (expensive) policy. We Americans are an extremely intelligent, resourceful, and benevolent people. Allow and promote laissez-faire. Just ask those living in (formerly) third-world countries who are now experiencing amazing growth which economic model works best (based on lifetime experience not just theory). One the one hand, the U.S. was once the economic giant (role model) of the world but over the past decades have forfeited (or were taken) many market controls to the D.C. crowd (most of whom haven't been economists or mathematicians or business practitioners) and the (negative) outcome(s) have been counterproductive. On the other hand, see where other countries have come from the basement of economic viability that are on their way - using current economic indicators - to becoming economic juggernauts. And the 'steroid' used to pump up these countries' strength: open markets (supply/demand) and less reliance on (or interference, perhaps, by) the government.

Just sayin'.

My first reaction to the statement, "Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican, should be taken seriously for his remark that the nation is in a "mental recession" and that there are lot of "whiners" about the economy...", is to ask the author two questions: How much does he make? And, how many people does he support with his earnings?

My point is this, if the author, like Gramm, is making more than the majority of Americans and, like Gramm, has complete health insurance, then maybe the current economic conditions do seem mental - and those of us at the other end of the financial spectrum do seem whiny.

Maybe the author doesn't know people whose entire lives and employment choices are determined by a lack of health care, or the disappearance of jobs in this country, or the closing of business after business.

I do.

Maybe the author doesn't know a whole generation of kids whose parents never made it out of lower middle class, whose public school education has not prepared them to make a real living wage or get health insurance and who found the military one of very few job choices they had that could offer education and health care - but at what price?

I know many, many of those kids. They aren't whining. They're trying to do what they can for country and career.

But I suppose for the real elitists in this country, which under Bush has turned into the "have $50K+ jobs and health insurance" and the "have nots", it probably does look like not much more than an intellectual exercise. Sort of a, "Shut up and have some cake", attitude.

The real fantasy enters when the author says things like, "The housing-induced credit crunch came because banks found it in their best interest to take a hard-nosed attitude about lending", while completely ignoring the role Gramm and the lenders played in creating and profiting off of the economic disaster confronting average Americans now.

Gramm and McCain are wealthy beyond the dreams of most Americans. They have used unethical and even criminal political influence to become as wealthy as they are. And, of course, McCain married into his wealth. It has been decades since either of them has lived without health insurance paid for by us. And, while neither of them has ever voted against giving themselves pay raise after pay raise, they both have voted repeatedly to deny help to average Americans.

These are some of the very people behind many of the financial crimes and scandals that have brought us where we are today. To have them even imply that we are whining while they walk away enriched by their crimes is beyond insulting, it is grotesque. It is obscene.

If Gramm and McCain had to live for one year as most Americans have to live their entire lives, I suspect we would hear some real whining - from them.

For Pete's sake, the proof is in the pudding. They blow rhetorical smoke at us year after year after year, mouthing whatever platitudes they think will keep them in power, but behind the scenes everything they do is aimed at only these goals: keeping themselves richer and more powerful than the rest of us.

Without the corporate welfare, good ole boy patronage and golden parachutes that the rich buttress and protect each other with, neither of them could get a job beyond greeting shoppers at WalMart.

It's Niekirk, so it bashes Republicans.

No wonder he gets to write for the Obama Online Campaign Newsletter, aka "The Swamp".

Neikirk makes some astute observations. But the media is partly to blame as it has been bad-mouthing the economy for a long time now, which helps put people in a sour mood.
Clearly the housing market and high energy prices have had an ill effect on the economy and people's frame of mind.
I also find it interesting that Neikirk calls $4 a gallon of gas a "big tax on the country." Interesting because he is absolutely correct. It is time to begin drilling in this country, begin drilling ASAP, looking to clean coal, nuclear energy again, and continue the development of alternatives. It's also time to stop turning food into energy. The mere act of beginning this process will have an immediate positive effect on the energy market, consumers and the economy in general.

Phil Gramm and his associates are multimillionaires, and they are surrounded by friends and associates who are not only "not hurting," they are doing better than they ever have. Bush's tax cuts aided that comfort. So the 90% of Americans in the middle class or poor are completely out of their radar. Gramm is one of John McCain's closest friends, and his primary economic advisor. So yes, Phil Gramm does indeed "speak for" John McCain.
It really is up to us in the middle to stop this elitism, and if we don't we have no one to blame but ourselves. You want to talk about an elitist, look at Gramm's comments, not at Barack Obama.

Another example of McSame's bad judgement.

Phil Gramm knows all about economic hardship. After all, he taught economics before he became a politician 30 years ago.

All those "whiners" who are worried about losing their jobs and their homes should just shut up and max out the credit cards, right Phil?

I'll do my part. I plan to donate some of my "economic stimulus" check to the Democrats.

Tom O: GOOD IDEA! I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!!