For me the economy has been on the skids since 2000....

[LeftHander]

Anything that resembled a "expanding" economy was really GOP smoke and mirrors to keep the facade propped up until Bush was out of office. But the house of cards simply couldn't be maintained. The fundamentals of the economy were not sound. the GOP rather than fix the problems piled on big tax cuts for the rich and encourage Americans to take on way may more dept than could be realistically sustained.

So here we are now.

I just want everyone to remember that the "growth" created by the GOP over the past 8 years only benefited the super wealthy...Bush's "have mores", his identified base.

[Wiley50]

1. Me Too. Foreclosure Happened tp Me in 2002

Wife's company took SC's Bush-Gore Decision as a cue to downsize
Cut out my wife's well paid position and gave the work to her assistants at half the price
I had just had back surgury and, although I hadn't realized it yet, my career was over.

Savings got us through to spring 2002, but house wouldn't sell due to stock market crash that year.

Summer 2002: Foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce ( we had only been married since 1999)

[Ezlivin]

2. Chrome on top, rust underneath

This is governance via PR.

Don't worry about making things better; just focus on making people think things are better.

[Warpy]

3. The growth in "wealth" was a growth in numbers

generated by shoving paper around. This country no longer spins nor weaves nor does it make enough swords to hammer into adequate plowshares. It's all a numbers game presided over by offshore hedge funds.

Now those numbers have been cut in half first by the fall in the dollar and then by a fall in the stock market. Still the "export industry, starve the peasants" dogma remains in place.

Unless this changes, this country is over.