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Home » Discuss » Archives » General Discussion: Presidential (Through Nov 2009) Donate to DU
 
FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 04:37 AM
Original message
They ain't heavy, They are our Brothers and Sisters
Not trying to be a Debbie Downer at this time, just making sure that no one is caught by surprise.
We can be upset and bitter about invocations, benedictions, inaugurations, and pastorbate till we are blue in the face. The fact is that for millions of Americans, their only hope will be sworn in on January 20, 2008. They are holding on by a very thin thread, and if we don't succeed, we are truly fucked.

The big boys ain't all saying over and over again, this is "the Worse Financial Disaster since the great Depression" for nothing!

The Bottom will fall out of the economy on Day 2 of the New Year!

After the Holiday season, the pink slips will be sent out....something that has been held off till after the New Year celebrations. I hope most are prepared and have done what they could to become Depression proof. For those who are, you are lucky if you escape. For some of us who have already been hit hard, we need to fasten our seatbelts. For the millions who don't have the luxury of escape and own no belts, this will be serious.

I mean to wish all a happy holiday, and will pray that what I am saying will not come to pass, but I think that it will. Anytime economists on both sides of the theories are swallowing whole the hook of a $850 Billion to a 1 Trillion Stimulus package, that ain't a good sign.

Reviving this economy is gonna take some real heavyweights to do some heavy lifting.

OVER THE PAST few months, Americans have been hearing the word "depression" with unfamiliar and alarming regularity. The financial crisis tearing through Wall Street is routinely described as the worst since the Great Depression, and the recession into which we are sinking looks deep enough, financial commentators warn, that a few poor policy decisions could put us in a depression of our own.

It's a frightening possibility, but also in many ways an abstraction. The country has gone so long without a depression that it's hard to know what it would be like to live through one.

Most of us, of course, think we know what a depression looks like. Open a history book and the images will be familiar: mobs at banks and lines at soup kitchens, stockbrokers in suits selling apples on the street, families piled with all their belongings into jalopies. Families scrimp on coffee and flour and sugar, rinsing off tinfoil to reuse it and re-mending their pants and dresses. A desperate government mobilizes legions of the unemployed to build bridges and airports, to blaze trails in national forests, to put on traveling plays and paint social-realist murals.

Today, however, whatever a depression would look like, that's not it. We are separated from the 1930s by decades of profound economic, technological, and political change, and a modern landscape of scarcity would reflect that.

What, then, would we see instead? And how would we even know a depression had started? It's not a topic that professional observers of the economy study much. And there's no single answer, because there's no one way a depression might unfold. But it's nonetheless an important question to consider - there's no way to make informed decisions about the present without understanding, in some detail, the worst-case scenario about the future.

5 more pages here---> http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/11/16/depression_2009_what_would_it_look_like/

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boppers Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 04:39 AM
Response to Original message
1. Buckle up, kids.
This ride is just starting.
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 05:16 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Did you read the article?
Edited on Wed Dec-24-08 05:16 AM by FrenchieCat
It does make one have to think, doesn't it?
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dkf Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 05:52 AM
Response to Original message
3. I agree 100%.
Of all the issues we face the economy has the largest impact on people's lives and on the true misery that many will suffer regardless of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation.

If pragmatism cannot supersede ideology in congress and in the populace, we will see more decisions like the Republicans refusing to bail out the automakers. At least Bush has a clue that he can't let the autos fail. Richard Shelby is willing to see some pretty drastic things happen in the name of letting the free market work.

I hope our ideology doesn't also get in the way of making the decisions that will keep our economy afloat to the point we can resuscitate it.





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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Many People are having a much harder time than in previous years right now,
And things will get a lot worse for them before they get better, according to most estimations.

In this season, those of us blessed with good health and fortune must be grateful,
and we must not forget those who are not.

I just want us to keep our eye on the prize that could help us all.

Happy Holidays!
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warrior1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 10:46 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Don't your mean 2009?
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 10:49 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. Yep....but I didn't notice till too Late to edit! :(
January 20, 2009!

Which is a date that can not come to soon for me.

:hi:
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BeFree Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:09 AM
Response to Original message
7. Pastorbate?
Thanks for the giggle. Hey, it's alright for a man to giggle, right?

&&&&&&&&

Yep, things are gonna get hairy, but I look forward to helping keep hope alive by reading yall's wisdom and knowledge splayed out here on America's best discussion board.
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #7
13. LOL!
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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:12 AM
Response to Original message
8. Its going to get a lot worse.

Millions of people are going to be let off by employers who didn't want to fire people over the holidays.


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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. My fear as well; an upcoming fact though.
That's why even those with some cushion aren't spending. They don't know how long it will take, so they are keeping what they have.

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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:23 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. And that's why the banks are not loaning as well


Its not a conspiracy or a power grab. They are scared.


Running a business requires two things liquidity and a profit. Most people don't understand that you can run up your inventories and assets and lose your liquidity. Therefore businesses are very much like the people you mention. If they fear a drop in liquidity then they will stop buying machinery and reduce their inventories. Of course the people that make machinery and supply them inventory see the drop in sales and they make further reductions and the spiral plummets until people believe that next month will be a little better than this month.

This will be Obama's biggest challenge of his entire Presidency, getting people to believe that we are on our way up. The longer that is delayed the greater the problem.

The one upside is that by the time he is sworn in every business owner and CEO in this country will be on their knees praying that President Obama has the right recipe to turn this around.
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K Gardner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:13 AM
Response to Original message
9. "their only hope will be sworn in on Jan 20"... Frenchie, I just love you :-) Merry Christmas and a
hearty K&R.
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 11:17 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. Imagine if it would have come out any other way......
how depressing that would have been.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

and Love you back! :hi:
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Balderdash Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 12:21 PM
Response to Original message
14. I can be upset about Warren and still support my President.
My President said that he wants to hear from us, he wants to hear from us even when we're not happy. He's hearing from some of us.
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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 12:38 PM
Response to Original message
15. Deleted sub-thread
Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
firedupdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
16. Normally, I would be at the mall right now just looking for something
extra to buy just to be in the spirit of the season...:crazy:

This year has been a major wake up call. Everything has changed and I know it's just the beginning. The major bright lining in all of this is the new team working under PE Obama have already started working on a plan to pull us out. As I write this 670.00 check for my son's tuition I hope and pray things get better soon!
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ecstatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
17. How does one become depression proof?
And how do we know this isn't just another Y2K like paranoia?
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 02:28 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. Depression proof could mean having parents with money,
or a job that isn't affected by the markets, like being a Mortuary embalmer of something. :shrug:
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azmouse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 02:25 PM
Response to Original message
18. My husband will find out in Jan if he still has a job.
Unbelievably there aren't many options for him if he loses his job and he has a Master's degree from Cornell.
I can't even begin to imagine how difficult things are for those with only a HS diploma.

God help us all!
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firedupdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #18
20. Amen to that! I'm sitting here with a Masters from Central Michigan
and can't find one. I just had this discussion with my son who is a junior in college telling me how he really can't wait to get out of school! I'm telling him you may want to be an eternal student at this point because you're going to get out of school up to your neck in loan payments while competing for jobs with people like me! Years of experience and starting over! God Help us is right. It's scary out here!
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knixphan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-24-08 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
21. Totally K&R!
And let's be there for each other!
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Hekate Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 05:21 AM
Response to Original message
22. Kick
:kick:


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Name removed Donating Member (0 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 08:15 AM
Response to Original message
23. Deleted sub-thread
Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.
 
Grateful for Hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 09:03 AM
Response to Original message
24. Kick
There were layoffs in my company just before Christmas. I thought this was horrible for those involved. I am hoping and praying that our nation will be spared some of the dire predictions I have been hearing.
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Zuiderelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 09:36 AM
Response to Original message
25. Gay people are losing their jobs as well... and then on top of it....
Edited on Fri Dec-26-08 09:38 AM by PelosiFan
most companies don't have domestic partner benefits, so even if they have a spouse will health coverage, they cannot share it. We all suffer in this economy, and gay people are truly fucked without equal rights no matter what happens. They are just as poor, just as ill, just as unemployed as straight people, and they have fewer rights.

So, yeah, we will "be upset and bitter about invocations, benedictions, inaugurations, and pastorbate till we are blue in the face."
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jumptheshadow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 10:27 AM
Response to Reply #25
26. And, on top of that...
those of us who are lucky enough to have health care benefits through our partners are paying taxes on them.

If President-Elect Obama wants to refocus us on the challenges we face, perhaps he can rethink his invitation to a bigot.

That's not to say that many people in the GLBT community (and I am one of them) aren't working their tails off to preserve their colleagues' jobs. I spent a number of hours this holiday doing what I can.

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Zuiderelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Dec-26-08 10:36 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. Yep. Taxes on the amount that the employer pays for the health coverage.
It amounts to thousands more in yearly taxes for one of us than it does for a straight married person. Not to mention that the part we pay is taken out of the after-tax amount, whereas a straight married person gets to deduct it from the before-tax amount, resulting in even fewer taxes for them than for us.

Then of course we can't file taxes together, so when one of us loses a job we don't get to claim the other as a dependent and save thousands of dollars in taxes like a straight married person would be able to.
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