"We're going over the edge"

[willing dwarf]

This from Krugman on his blog at the NY Times:

A Grim Morning

Double plus ungood news on multiple fronts this morning. The credit crunch is getting worse: LIBOR jumped again, the TED spread is at a new record. Bad news on employment: payrolls down 159,000, average work week down, official unemployment rate flat at 6.1 percent but broad measure (U6) up from 10.7 to 11

link: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

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I know there are people around here who see the need for gov't intervention as another fake crisis, and I too have grave doubts considering the messengers, but if Krugman says we're going over the edge, it feels to me like we're sliding down into the crack of doom.

Let's hope the US economy can make like a phoenix and somehow emerge with a fresh strong new perspective on the tired old earth despoiling shape of pre September 08 capitalism.

[Mist]

1. I'm not sure anyone at this board thinks something shouldn't be done. It's just what

that something ought to be. Many of us feel the economy would benefit more from modest borrowers being shored up a bit rather than Wall St. high-rollers being bankrolled again, on nothing but their word that this time, they'll try to get it right.

[willing dwarf]

5. Wouldn't it be great if they really could do both?

I know, we've been over this furrow a hundred times, but it still feels like fresh ground. -- If the govt had acted on behalf of all of us last year, then the gun that's pointed at our heads now would be a little easier to acede to.

[kentuck]

2. Oh, we are going over the edge alright...

but the question is will this bailout help or hurt the fall yet to come? The fall is coming regardless.

[kenny blankenship]

3. This is not a drill

and it's not just the U.S.

[SmokingJacket]

4. I agree that we're slipping into hell, but

it hasn't been sufficiently explained to me how the "rescue package" is going to do anything besides give a blood transfusion to a patient that's bleeding from like a million sucking wounds.

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

6. Payrolls down 159,000

What many people overlook is that the population of the country grows every month. Anything less than a job-gain--a job gain--of about 80,000 to 100,000 per month is an even greater shrinkage of the work force than the experts are saying. That's why we've been in a "practical recession" for many months now. When was our last job growth of 100,000 plus in a month (...I can't remember). Again, most people think of these numbers in static terms, but the nation continues to grow rapidly in population and is anything but static.

[bemildred]

7. It's what Mr Obama says: "They need to own their failure."

Unless that happens, we will just be saving their asses for the next round.

[ShortnFiery]

8. Krugman lost his credibility for me during the primaries. I read his columns with a large grain of

salt. :eyes:

[paulk]

9. his credibility as an economist?

or as a pundit?

they are two different things.

[girl gone mad]

11. He lost some credibility when he said..

there was no speculation in the oil market and that the price was all demand based.

Since, we've learned that not to be the case.

I think he's right more often than he's wrong.

I do agree that action should be taken, but I disagree that this is the right action.

[SmokingJacket]

12. Yeah, I used to worship the guy.

But he's lost me on several points recently. He was really annoyingly pro-Hillary -- it's fine that he supported her, but he could have done it without denigrating the person who actually became the candidate.

The idea that the oil market is just "demand-based" is ridiculous.

[BurtWorm]

13. He lost his credibility because of his attack on Obama's health care policy?

Does that make him less credible on the econonic crisis? How so?

[Waiting For Everyman]

10. Maybe we could - if weren't being held for ransom

[MadHound]

14. It's not that people around here don't want something done, we do

However we also want a better deal. This bailout plan does nothing to address the underlying causes of our economic problems, and its implementation will actually cause a greater economic crisis than if we simply do nothing. Our bond ratings will be trashed, and we'll have no way of borrowing the money we need to run government. No money, no Social Security, no defense, nothing.