America Doomed

Bravo, Soros an Official America Doomed

George Soros declared that there is no bottom for the world financial collapse.  He equates what is happening in the U.S. and elsewhere to the collapse of the former Soviet Union.  For this, he earns an honorary America Doomed shout out.

This is exactly what America Doomed has been saying.  This crisis is severe, very severe, and worse than the Great Depression.  Unless the U.S. abandons the bankrupt notions of capitalism and Republican nonsense, there is no saving America.    The Government needs to embrace democratic socialism.  There is no other choice.  Citizens of the U.S. have to be provided food, housing, transportation, and health care while the government figures out how to provide all able-body citizens jobs and a living wage.  There is no other choice and the pain is going to continue and get much worse until President Obama and Congress recognize this fact; however, they still do not.

America is doomed.

Doomed Right On Schedule

America Doomed is right on schedule as the stock market makes new lows, unemployment increases, more money to insolvent banks, and inflation is even starting to ramp up.   Even though the economy is deteroiating many of the poor and oppressed in the country have been living this life for a long time.  For them they don’t even see the difference.  Yet, there are more and more people who are being pushed into the ranks of the poor.

The stock market is dismissing all of the government’s effort to stimulate the economy.  The stock market knows it will not work and will cause more and more debt.  The crazy capitalists on CNBC think that the government shouldn’t be tryingt to stimulate the economy and the capitalist system will pull itself out of the crisis.  Both the stimulus crowd and the non-stimulus crowd are wrong.  The non-stimulus crowd’s approach will only lead to a sharper and faster decline.  However, either path will lead to the same destruction of wealth and commerce in America.

Until people get jobs or guarantees which pay living wages, there will be no economic recovery.   The government should default of its national debt and guarantee every citizen basic housing, food, transportation, and health care.  The U.S. dollar should be abandoned and replaced with a new voucher system to obtain basic necessities.  Jobs should be created to provide services and everybody is available for work assignments.  For some it will take years for the government to figure out where they can work.  In the meantime, basic necessities will be provided for every citizen.

Right now there is still way too much conservative thought controlling the country.  Just look at Congress, Treasury, and even Obama and the continued idea that American capitalism can be saved.  These ideas have doomed the country and continued allegiance to the same will continue the pain.  American capitalism is dead forever.

Soon, there will be fervor to feed and house people — basic necessities.

America is doomed.

Crooked Rich, Corrupt Phil

Today, the U.S. claims that 52,000 Americans have been hiding money at UBS illegally and violating U.S. tax law.  There are $14.8 BILLION in assets.  These are rich people, cheating the U.S. government and Americans.  What do you bet that many are Republicans?  These crooked Americans are not paying their taxes and using foreign institutions to evade taxes.

Another little factoid about UBS: remember Phil Gramm — the idiot who got laws passed that allowed derivatives to be issued by financial institutions without regulation?  Well, good old “Americans are a bunch of whiners” Phil Gramm works for UBS.   Phil was also #2 on Time Magazine’s list of the 25 people who caused the financial crisis.  What do you bet that good old Phil is among the 52,000 with hidden bank accounts? Surprise, surprise!

If the U.S. obtains these tax records, let’s throw these 52,000 people into jail.  I hope it includes most of the Congressional Republicans.  If it includes a bunch of Democrats then that is ok as well.  Throw them all in jail for evading U.S. taxes.  What chance is there of that?

America is doomed.

NY Times Doomed

Today the NY Times announced it was cutting its dividend to conserve cash — they are also selling some assets as well.  All that might work temporarily.  The hand writing is on the wall at the Times and it is just a matter of time before it is going belly up.  The last decade or more has proven that it is a bad idea for news media to be for profit companies.  Look at Fox News which is so bias because of their profit mantra.  Now, on the other end of the political spectrum we have the Times fighting for its life.

It is time to nationalize the news and convert these companies into non profits; perhaps, like the BBC.   Let the news organizations concentrate on quality journalism that is non-partisan, unbiased, and objective.  Let all the partisan puts their spin on it with talk radio, blogs, and interviews.

The day of for profit news in America is over.  Unfortunately, there are lots of companies that are going to have to go belly up before America can build a better news media.

America is doomed.

Domestic Terror For Poor

This is an interesting article that portends what is likely in store for the U.S. in the near future.   As the rich are continued favored in society and the poor are oppressed, there is little option left for the disenfranchised:

A new and possibly more dangerous generation of Greek extremists is escalating attacks against police and symbols of capitalism, years after authorities believed they had stamped out domestic terrorism.

Expect to see protests on college campuses within the next year.  These protests will be significant because students are just starting to realize that even with a college education, the prospects of their future is not good.  Not only will the students have massive debt when they leave college but their prospects for a job which pays a living wage will not be good.  The national debt will continue to grow and there will be an outcry that the younger generation has been screwed by the nation. Meanwhile, the rich will continue to prosper.

It will start on the college campuses and then proceed through the society.

America is doomed.

Red States Should Turn Down Stimulus Money

It seems like a great idea that Red States (those who voted for McCain and/or against the stimulus bill) should not accept the Federal Government’s stimulus money.  Bobby Jindal from Louisiana has already suggested he might turn it down.  I think that is a great idea.  Sarah Palin in Alaska should do the same thing  — it would fit perfectly with what good old Sarah believes.   All of those Red States where Republicans voted against the stimulus should turn down all the money.  That includes Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, the rest of the South, and others.

Come on, red states, turn it down.  Just think of how many people might leave your state if you turn it down.  In fact, those will be exactly the people Republicans want to leave — democrats.  Then, red states will have an even purer red state.  What a great idea for those red states.

Not only will turning down the stimulus money fit right into the Red State Republican ideology, it will leave more money for the Blue States.    In fact, this could be a wonderful precedent for the future.  If you don’t like the Federal Government spending money, then just don’t take it.  I love it.

America is doomed.

Understanding the Fed

Today, the Fed declares that the short term is horrible and the long term is good.  The only prediction to even consider is the short term.  There is no such thing as a long term forecast other than to say “in the long term we will be dead.”  Certainly, do not make decisions based on a rosy long term forecast because between now and that long term forecast many things will happen that cannot possibly be in the forecast.  The forecast will be incrementally updated and for each update consider only the short term forecast.

For example, last year the Fed was saving that the second half of 2009 would be good.  Now, they are saying not so good.  Today, they are saying 2010 will be good.  Let’s just wait and see what they say in January, 2010.

Everything is in free fall even if it is in slow-motion.  Lots of talk about stopping foreclosures by reducing payments to 31% of income.  Well, this doesn’t work for the people who have lost jobs and there are going to be many more job losses going forward.  These job losses are going to happen because companies want to maximize profits and care little about preserving jobs.

America is doomed.

Most People Should Never Buy a House

Only people who can pay cash or have an unquestionably secure income stream should buy houses.    Everybody else should rent and live as cheaply as possible.  Those same people should advocate for rent control housing and safety nets to prevent being evicted if they lose their jobs and income.

Calling owning a house the American dream is nonsense because this dream is only possible with stable income.  For many decades people were employed by companies and could reasonably work at the company for life.  In this environment they could take out a loan and have a reasonable assurance the loan could be paid off.  This is not the case any longer.  Few jobs are secure.  Ask the 20,000 California state workers who will likely be laid off in the next few weeks.  Ask the millions who have lost jobs in the last six months.

America is doomed.

Obama Disappointing After One Month

The honeymoon is over for Obama and the results are disappointing.  Obama is trying so hard to be bipartisan that he is neglecting the people who elected him.  People voted for real change, not just a more polite person with the same bankrupt policies.   Obama is still favoring the rich and neglecting ordinary Americans.    Where is the universal health care?  Where is the reduction in troops?  Instead, Obama’s first military decision was one that Bush would have made: 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan.  Where is the laws to help workers unionize?  Hopefully, Obama will understand that he is being duped by Republicans and start to act like the person that a majority of voters elected.

My suggestion is for Obama to forget about the Republicans.  Make the Republicans filibusterer anything they don’t like in the Senate.  Americans will understand exactly what the problem is.   Stop placating to the Republicans who will always privilege the rich and special interests over ordinary Americans and humanity.  Forget the stock market — let is crash.  Increase taxes on the rich.  Nationalize the banks and autos and anything else that needs government help. Default on the national debt.  Create jobs and put people back to work at nationalized, non-profit companies.  When people work they pay taxes.  Continuing with these same bankrupt policies will lead to destruction and blood in the street.

America is doomed.

Why Many Jobs Are Never Coming Back

Many of the job losses in this economic crisis will not be coming back, ever.   America in 2009 is very different than America at any other time.  Technology has matured to such a point that many jobs that previously were done by people are being done by computers or fewer people.   Just a handful of humans can run a web site that use to be dozens, if not hundreds, of retail stores employing many people at each store.  The complexity of maintaining those stores required even more people.  Yet, today this can all be replaced with a web site, distribution center, and delivery services (like UPS, Fed Ex, or the US Postal Service).   Those jobs are never coming back.

So … maybe those retail jobs were not any good anyway.  Likewise, for banking with ATMs and online banking replacing thousands of bank tellers and loan officers.  Those jobs weren’t good either.   Likewise for office workers who are being replace with email, databases, and web sites.  There are many examples.

So … how about high tech jobs?

Today, with free software there are literally hundreds of thousands of people working for free developing software and giving it away for nothing.   Software engineers haven’t even been around very long — 40 years is a stretch.   But, today, much fewer numbers of software engineers are needed.  Plus, it can be done from anywhere, like India where salaries are much lower.   So, most of those job losses are not coming back either.

Music industry has been decimated.  Likewise, for newspapers and magazines.  Same will happen with TV and movies.  Actors are cheap, really cheap these days.

Manufacturing has been sent overseas for decades.  In fact, the U.S. has an uninterrupted downtrend in the number of people employed in manufacturing since the 1950s, not even accounting for the increases in population.    Even family farms have been replaced with large corporate owners.

Jobs which require lots of education are available but students will come out of school with large debt.  Nonetheless, this is the area people should pursue.  However, there can still be problems.   For example, stem cell research is an up and coming field, but because U.S. policies many of these jobs are being done in places like Singapore which is more enlightened as the U.S. lets the crazy religious people cause stem cell research to be off limits.  Even if Obama reverses this, many of these jobs will never come back to America because they know that Republicans could just reverse it all in the future.

America Universities are great and are educating hundreds of thousands of foreign workers.  However, there is a glut in the number of people who want to teach in Universities.  Just how many places can a Ph.D in History work?  Community colleges are cheap and are educating many Americans but they are so dumb down that the education at these colleges is dubious in many cases.  Important programs, like Nursing, are so impacted that it takes years to get into those programs.  State budget problems will likely make the problem even worse in the future.

People need to just think about jobs in their career area and identify how technology is eliminating jobs.

America is doomed.