When in debt up to your eyeballs, get a snorkel…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 2:47 PM Permalink

I recognized long ago that the Republican Party, the party of fiscal responsibility, was going to bankrupt this country come hell or high water. They are succeeding beyond their wildest dreams and to the detriment of every person living in America today or in the years ahead.

And it's far worse than anyone could have imagined.

From the Times Online comes this article titled, "Top economist says America could plunge into recession," which I can only suppose is dry English wit for, "America is in such deep in sh*t that auctions of individual states may ensue."

Losses arising from America’s housing recession could triple over the next few years and they represent the greatest threat to growth in the United States, one of the world’s leading economists has told The Times.

Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, predicted that there was a very real possibility that the US would be plunged into a Japan-style slump, with house prices declining for years.

Professor Shiller, co-founder of the respected S&P Case/Shiller house-price index, said: “American real estate values have already lost around $1 trillion [£503 billion]. That could easily increase threefold over the next few years. This is a much bigger issue than sub-prime. We are talking trillions of dollars’ worth of losses.” […]

“Over the next five years, the futures contracts are pointing to losses of around 35 per cent in some areas, such as Florida, California and Las Vegas. There is a good chance that this housing recession will go on for years,” he said.

Professor Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance, a phrase later used by Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said: “This is a classic bubble scenario. A few years ago house prices got very high, pushed up because of investor expectations. Americans have fuelled the myth that prices would never fall, that values could only go up. People believed the story. Now there is a very real chance of a big recession.” […]

Last week, new numbers from the S&P/Case Shiller index showed that house prices had declined in October at their fastest rate for more than six years, with homes in Miami losing 12 per cent of their value.

How long would it take to count three trillion dollars?

I'm fairly sure that Everett Dirksen once famously stated, "You take a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money."

I do not recall his political affiliation, but I'll bet he's spinning in his grave at what these Republicans have done and the harm they have wrought and will wreak on the populace of, "The richest and most powerful country in the world."

It is inarguable that the Rethugs did not do this all alone, so there is plenty of blame to be shared by all politicians of any ilk, but bush alone has spent more money than all preceding presidents, as well as borrowing more foreign money.

If there are any math wizards reading this maybe you could tell me how long it would take to count three trillion dollars. I'm sure the time necessary to count that much money would exceed my life span and the life span of every American alive today and their children and grandchildren and, oh, you get my point.

I have long maintained that we will never really discover just how badly our country has been damaged until bush is gone and our new president finds where all the bodies are buried.

Labels: Budget, Bush, Conservatives, GOP