American Economy Going Down No Matter What Bush and Barnanke Do

After months of denying reality and not facing facts, the Bush Junta and Federal Reserve Chair Barnanke are in panic mode as the US economy continues diving downward and employment with inflation only rises more. No matter what these guys do, the near future is written in stone. We are in a recession, perhaps not statistically, and the times will not be getting better for most people anytime soon. Inflation will only increase, unemployment rise, foreclosures grow in number, and home values and other assets decline.

The actions needed to address these problems will not be undertaken anytime anyway in the next 12 months plus. These actions, which should be taken promptly, could somewhat minimize the suffering and shorten the downturn.

-- A freeze in federal spending and no further interest rate cuts. A cut in expenses and salaries of all government employees with the exception of non-officer military personnel on all governmental levels to those that existed in 1990.

-- An increase in taxes on Fortune 2000 corporations and the wealthiest 10-15 % of Americans to cover the existing federal deficit.

-- Levies and import taxes on imported goods. Certain goods which are not of economic necessity for Americans would have greater levies.

-- Issuance of War Bonds to pay for American military forces and actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Middle East areas.

-- Extensions of unemployment insurance eligibility and increases to eligibililty of food stamps.

-- A three months moratorium on energy companies earning any profit. This would be accomplished by allowing the first $40 in home heating costs to be gratis for the months of February, March, and April 08.

There are other economic actions that could be taken such as a tax on Americans making investments outside of the nation, and on foriegners making investments on American assets.

But none of these are going to happen. The Bush junta is going to throw a few hundred dollars at you, hoping you will blow it on consumer goods being imported into America from other nations, most likely China. The Fed will keep cutting interest rates, driving away even more foreign investment in American dollars. The wars will continue to suck billions of dollars every month for seemingly imperpetuity driving up the deficit and the debt. All this and much more will continue to drive the American economy on an endless increasingly downward spiral.

It is difficult to speculate on the differing levels of how bad it is going to get. My guess on unemployment would be that is gets over 7 %, maybe 8 % in '08. And finances for everyone and everything from the big commercial banks down to the little people like me are going to get a hell of a lot worse with mass suffering and sacrifices by and for many.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/lindorff/056

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