http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081707N.shtml

http://www.forbes.com/ home/ commerce/ 2004/ 07/ 20/ cx_da_0720presidents.html

Comment by pete — August 17, 2007 @ 11:49 am

I agree. We should stop approving “loans” for the war of occupation in Iraq. That will help.

Lets see Tracy:

Your way, is just throwing money at the problem. No less expensive and it doesn’t do anything about the problem except keep share prices artificially high.

My solution actually entails doing something about it.

Oh, and why don’t you ask university students who take government loans whether it is such a bad idea to allow government to be a loan officer?

Your trouble is you hate government. You are an anarchist who thinks that because government does something it is always bad, whereas government, particularly when run by people who do not hate everything about it, has made massive contributions to America.

Comment by Bruce Gorton — August 18, 2007 @ 8:36 am

Of course a liberal approach of letting the government run the economy doesn’t work because government run economies don’t work….they never have. Letting the government be the loan officer is a bad idea.

Comment by m12 — August 18, 2007 @ 12:35 pm

Okay, first it helps the companies involved. They get a market for what would otherwise be bad debts (Thus reducing their losses.)

Then it helps the people who owe the debt, because they don’t go broke and instead a plan gets made to help them pay off the debt.

Third it helps the Fed itself, because ultimately, debt always gets sold at a marked down price – thus helping reduce the need for higher taxes in the future.

This is as opposed to flooding the finance market with billions of dollars which only helps the largely irrelevant share price. Companies only get the money made from selling their shares when they sell them.

Because a big chunk of your debt is with a nation which is a historic enemy of America, beating you in two wars, has a lose history with copyright, and is currently supplying goods (tyres, toothpaste, toys, hotel soap, sweets, sea food, pet food etc…) to America, which are downright dangerous.

Eventually America will put its foot down, and China will call its debt. It has a massive axe over your heads and no qualms about the welfare of its people. It is also a restrictive economy able to survive massive impacts and even benefit from them, as demonstrated by the Asian market crisis.

And no, your growth will not carry on forever, it never does. The economy corrects every now and then and you need to be able to fund the lean years.

Let’s check out the top 10.

How so? Because they led our nation into the wars of Korea and Vietnam, like Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson?

Because they unilaterally suspended habeas corpus like Lincoln? Or the Espionage and Sedition Acts like Wilson?

Or FDR’s court packing scheme?

Lefties whine about all these things……

Why? Do you think the economy will stop growing? Why is our debt so bad when Japan has 3x the debt we have relative to their GDP.

Of course a liberal approach, would be to have the government buy the debt, drop the interest rates on those loans and work out easier repayment options. But then this would help people

Help who, exactly?

Comment by m12 — August 17, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

Right now your markets are being held up by a reduced interest rate and high volumes of money being pumped into them from the Federal reserve.

Where do you think that money is coming from?

America’s credit card is being run up, in order to pump money into America’s finance industry without actually, clearing those loans.

The net result is that America has to pay more in interest, and eventually, will run out of credit. This, when it is seen in individuals, or other countries is called the debt trap, and you Republicans, have ever since Reagan been running America right into it.

Of course a liberal approach, would be to have the government buy the debt, drop the interest rates on those loans and work out easier repayment options. But then this would help people, which is totally

Good idea – that way John Travolta will have something other than passenger jets to aim at…

On what grounds, exactly? If Lyndon Johnson got a 1 ranking in Congressional relations for his strongarm tactics, Bush 43 deserves at least the 2 spot, if not the 1 in that category!

By the way, the WaPo published information on the preliminary thinking on where the current president will fall in these rankings and it’s not looking good. Most of the historians involved believe he will be in the bottom five.

Hahaha! Clinton is 41st in ‘moral authority’!

Check the most widely accepted ratings for yourself at this site: http://www.americanpresidents.org/survey/historians/

You’ll find that Carter is rated at 22nd, not the worst. Clinton’s rated at 21st and Bush’s dad is at 20.