What gets me is that we ( USA) see this problem with debt...16 trillion...and that Obama just does not take it seriously. Never a peep out of him about getting it under control. Another debt ceiling increase will be before congress in no time and someone needs to say...HELL NO !!!!!

I am confused. All of the Obama election ads say we have turned the corner and job and blissful economic times are just ahead!! He singlehandedly saved the Auto Industry and Banks are now making record profits in the U.S. The anti-Romney ads are just short of armagedon.

I am trying to stay positive but all of this is so confusing?? I have gold buried in my back yard and plenty of homestyle beans. Good to go........

The Breeze

Learn about our economic history first, Debt ceilings have been around for quite sometime and pushed by every party. As to Obama, Oh he talks about it all the time, but the radical conservative will do nothing to find a way to stop and reduce it with him. They just want him gone. Then they can raise YOUR taxes and lower the Rich's, send more jobs over seas , yours include, eliminate welfare food stamps and unemployment and social security and medicare and medicaid, Then YOU got nothing But the streets . That's what the elite republicans want, They don't want to help you. When they take over YOU will get no free rides my friend , you are not in the 1% group. And if you tell me you are you are full of it, because a 1% doesn't spend their time writing on the newsvine, they are making more money

Seven- Its because people are stupid. If the economy is bad then all we want to hear is good news. So if you tell them a little good news they will eat it up like candy. Look at msnbc. On monday they said the economy is turning around because of some made up metric going up...then Tuesday theres an article saying the stock market is falling and forclosures are on the rise. Its all lies.

It is not only Greece, Spain, Italy, but the rest of the world will come down crashing. The debt level is just UNSUSTAINABLE, period. This is a numbers game and the game is OVER.

The Breeze, you are spot on!

We can pretty much thank the international banking cartel ie, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the FED for the mess we're in. The interest they charge for the illusionary money they loan to governments is so high that there isn't a way to pay it all back. Seems their calling in their loans now. It won't be long before they repossess any countries dumb enough to borrow from them. They won't be happy until we're all serfs grovelling in the muck for peanuts.

Relax everyone. Remember:

"There is no crisis that the capitalists can't solve as long as the workers are willing to pay for it." V. Lenin

We can thank ourselves for the situation we are in. We continue to vote for whatever politician says we can have whatever we want and we don't have to pay for it. Until we change how we vote, the debt situation is just going to get worse (until we are another Greece - then a solution will be forced on us be creditor nations like China...and I don't think they will care about the "99%").

You can't blame Obama for US deficit. Democrats get the reputation as party of 'tax and spend,' deservingly or not. Well at least the Democrats want to raise taxes to pay for necessary entitlements and discretionary spending, less likely to contribute to debt and deficits.

It's the GOP that has lied to the gullible public with the ILLUSION that they don't have to raise taxes and still maintain the same services to people. It's utter illusion and disaster. Actually cutting taxes and launching costly wars has made fiscal outlook worse.

This US debt problem is this the product of GOP policies starting with Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 who are presidents 20 out of last 30 years.

Clinton raised a little bit of taxes to 39%, and US eliminated budget deficit in 1997. Obama wanted to raise taxes, but Republicans have succeeded in erecting a gridlock on that.

If Obama wins a second term all restraints will be off. He will reward the unions with benefits and powers that weill bring the country to its knees. You will see regulations on drilling that will stifle the industry. Health care costs will soar and inflation will be doble figures - although he will still say it is 2% sinc food, gasoline and energy are not included in his figures.

This lying incompetent is driving the country into ruin and ina second term he will fulfill his mentor George Soros' mandate to destroy Uninted states capitalism. And like every other Marxist country all will be on the same economic stage - poor - except for those inside the beltway of course. They will continue to thrive.

High oil prices and Iraqi wars have contributed to the mess.

Despite economic mess at home, Saudi agents are busy choking Iranian oil prices and manipulating oil prices higher!

For most of them problems in Syria and Iran are more important than problems at home.

The worlds central banks ,Fed. Reserve, Bank of England,Royal Netherlands, Warbourg UBS, can absorb a Greek default; they cannot absorb a Spain or Italy also default, the American taxpayer is on the hook for around 6 Trillion in Guarantees issued by the federal reserve(using future social security taxes); it will cause a major financial crisis in the United States.

Night Hawk

They have given him options, the problem is those options require him to reduce his out of control spending and he is unwilling to do that, therefore the answer, this time, must be a resounding He!! NO!

For two years his party had control of 2/3's of the Government, over 9 months of that with a filibuster proof Senate! He used this time to further increase our debt and deficit with idiotic legislation like PPACA.

Night Hawk

They have given him options, the problem is those options require him to reduce his out of control spending and he is unwilling to do that, therefore the answer, this time, must be a resounding He!! NO!

The 1%ers still own the land you pay rent on, and the corporations you buy from. All that would change is the currency with which you pay them.

Bob1,

The 1% succeed because they are much better at the financial game and they generally work much harder than the rest of us. So, in answer to your question - they will be fine if we go through another depression.

It's the other 99% that will suffer...

EU and Euro should go to the ground.

Most of the nations are oil importing nations. They are hard hit.

Instead of solving problems at home, their leaders just like monkeys have been jumping all around and meddling in Syria and Iran and manipulating oil prices higher.

Is it the time for sanctions on Iranian oil?

It is not our greed but the greed of biogted Saudi beasts, oil companies and their agents.

Iraqi wars and economic mess were due to them.

Now Iran and Syria are being invented. Is not too greedy of them to put sanctions on Iranian oil?

Mind you: Iranians can buy nukes from Pakis or N. Korea.

Throughout the world, the everyday working person has to once again become an actual working person, assuming responsibility for their well being and the well being of their families. We cannot continue to assume that others are going to take care of us or the obligations that we incur. We have created a world where if you look hard enough, everyone has a valid reason to expect a free handout, and the ones that truly suffer are those who are in the direst need of assistance. The more we have on some sort of government subsidy, the fewer workers there are to produce goods and services, not to mention paying taxes into the system to the benefit of the whole society. What has happened in Greece, and potentially in other European nations, is that those who do not produce and contribute back into their nations have outnumbered those who do. Many of you would like to scream that austerity didn't work....heck, it never got a chance. Too little, too late....you cannot reverse years of drain on the economy of a country in a few short months. Instead of holding the course and trying to keep moving towards productivity and solvency, the French people have decided to elect (their choice) somebody who promises everything, but has no resources to fulfill those promises, an extremely, obscenely wealthy person by all accounts, who has managed to get the "kiddies in line with lollipops and promises of ice cream" I would worry more about France than Spain and Italy at this point.

Ray, I agree we need major reforms, especially in the tax code. And I like the Forbes proposal with the simple flat rate, no loophole tax, especially the "generous earned income" exemption for the lower income taxpayers. Call me thick, if you want, but I just don't think we need tax laws WAY more business friendly. Corporations like GE are paying no income tax, corporations and banks are sitting on a ton of money. I would just like someone to explain to me (without the party political BS) what exactly is so unfriendly for business. Because I have to tell you, its long past time to deal with the debt and the political gridlock that has become Washington DC and our elected officials.

Ray Chuang, Italy maybe, Spain not so much. Just take a look at how exposed their banks are for property developments that have zero to no commercial value these days. Imagine the worst real estate market here in the USA and then multiply that numerous times. Spain's economy has for decades relied largely on tourism (approx 11% of GDP) and their automobile industry. However they are still plagued by unemployment levels that are astronomical for their youth: approx 24%.

When you rely on tourism and the rest of the world is in financial crisis, there is nobody to come and visit you or your country and spend their dollars. Not so hard to understand.

Is that when he will reveal that he is the Sith Lord and the Jedis get slaughtered?

LOL!!! And the "Death Squads"...........

I don't think that will happen. A Tea Partier will cast O's "One Ring to Rule Them All" into a volcano. Then everyone will stand around wondering what REALLY needs to be done to solve these problems, because Willard Romney isn't offering up any solutions either.

The biggest pig in Europe is Germany. They benefit more than any country from the euro while other countries like Greece, Spain and Italy are hurt by the euro. The southern European countries definitely got themselves into too much debt, but it is time for Germany to show some real leadership and help to fix this mess before the tsunami comes crashing at their doors. And it will. If the economies of the other European countries collapse, so will Germany's, which is overly dependent on exports. The problem with the Germans is they aren't used to leading, only following, as they have done ever since the end of WWII.

Do you mean - the children of Nazi Pigs? or Nazi Piglets?

But here's the huge difference: Spain and Italy have the industrial and agricultural infrastructure to produce their way out of a recession if regulatory and income tax reforms are enacted to encourage more economic activity.

You're ignoring something here. That is, those countries can only sell their products if they're competitively priced. Unfortunately, they're sharing the same currency as a vastly more productive Germany, which makes their own products too expensive. They need regulatory, tax AND monetary reform, which won't happen as long as they're part of a currency union controlled by Germany.

Gaith you genious Germany is the one propping up the Euro because they actually MAKE things. My car is German, my wifes car is German, theyre both financed by German banks at a lower rate than any American bank would loan. Germans do things right. They're the only socialist Country that isn't falling apart financially. Heck google their National budget, its actually legible to the every day person. Its not a cluster like ours is. Youve got it backwards.

And Barry if you think Germans make things too expensive consider the Volkswagen.

Yea, among major economies, Germany is the most competitive. Even their manufacturing has really been doing well in the high-end areas. Their innovative mind has also helped the economy. But the Germans do yearn for a bigger playing field, thus the euro zone which should be fine after some years of adapting, just like a marriage which takes time to make it work.

Hey Pigotry. Please take your racist remarks somewhere else and seek professional help. Seems to me you have unresolved issues with the Germans. Get over it, have a pitty party and be done with it.

Umm. Nothing Pigotry said was racist...He merely said they are the most competitive, which I agree with. What American car company can compare to a BMW or a Volkswagen for the price?

Hello that guy down south. Pigotry said and I quote "Do you mean - the children of Nazi Pigs? or Nazi Piglets?"

I would call that racist. I think you only looked at his later comment. I personally do not have a problem with this comment, but if political correctness does not allow comments related to other races or religions, I don't see why it should be ok for us to insult the Germans or the Arabs for that matter.

Oh....yea I didnt notice that one...

thatguydownsouth:

Ever owned a German car - outside of warranty?

Even Korea easily bests German makers in terms of reliability.

I'd rather have a Chrysler product.

Maybe you should do some research concerning the reliability of the German makes.

We had 3 VW's in our family which would change your opinion of German auto manufacturing in a hurry.

Gaith you genious Germany is the one propping up the Euro

That's only half the picture. If the Germans were still on the mark their currency would be much higher and their economy would suffer because their exports, which they are overreliant on, would decline dramatically. Conversely, the euro has made the exports for Italy, Spain and the others much more expensive than if they were still on their old currencies. No country stands to lose more from the collapse of the euro than Germany. I say let it happen, then we'll see how high and mighty the Germans are.

Wait wait wait. You're saying the Germans are overreliant on exports? This is a global economy that we are in, Countries are the new corporations. Thats like saying Walmart is reliant on sales! The same could be said of China, if we stop buying their crap then they will suffer.

PeteMt, Ive never had a car that was nice once the warranty expired. German parts are imported so they're expensive. Same as Japanese parts.

Everyone seems to forget the the financial woes of Mercedes, conveniently hidden by the common market and the Euro, darn near sunk Chrysler when the two merged into what was to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Chrysler lost its surplus, took on a load of debt, and then lost the rights to a goodly number of the jointly developed cars that were produced during the partnership.....The Germans appear to be good at using everyone else to their best advantage.

@Sue

Exactly right. Germans are VERY good at using everyone else to their advantage. The reason they are an economic powerhouse is because they are bound to the same currency as less competitive countries, therefor boosting their own power by using lesser countries as a sort of "buffer."

Also an interesting note about the E.U. None of their leaders are democratically elected. They cannot be removed by the common people, yet they are the very ones that are holding countries hostage that should not have been in the Euro in the first place.

The goal of the E.U. is to effectively eliminate democratic process in all participant countries. Therefor the economies of all countries under the E.U. no longer have individual power to change their countries economic policy.

Note that many leaders in the E.U. are communists. Also it is a German who sits in one of the highest positions in the E.U.

Let them collapse, go hungry for a while, then remind them that in the real world people have to earn their food. Theyll come around.

I say let the banks collapse. It is largely their fault for buying and selling govts like it's a commodity. When the banks fall, there is no more 1%. We start over. It'll be interesting to see how many "Romney's" who live in the "house on the hill" survive.

Theyll just restructure with a different name and a different marketing slogan. Then buy the loans from the collapsed banks at a discount, but charge you the same rates, which results in big bonuses to them. You'll never win unless you are one of them.

i believe they have Roger. If I understand correctly, it doesn't bode well for us! Google IMF and Special Drawing Rights. I believethey want this collapse to use as an excuse to replace the American Dollar with these CDR's as the Worlds Reserve Currency!

@tedcrawford

You are correct on that. The only thing standing in the way of the enactment of CDR's is the power of the American dollar, which is diminishing every day.

The goal of the E.U. is to eliminate democratic process from individual nations, especially regarding economic policy. This gives the E.U. complete control of the economic policies of every member country, and as such, severe leverage on the economies of those who don't join.

The E.U. is not a democracy, its members cannot be removed by democratic means. They are a group of politicians and bureaucrats who feel that they have the "knowledge" to lead all nations. They will sacrifice everyone and every country before they go down.

And here's the fun part.......guess how they are going to pay for those CDR's?.................

.........American's will pay for them with our taxes!!! Fun stuff right.

Normally they would not be able to justify this, but the fact is many European nations blame us for the global financial crisis. If the dollar does take a huge enough hit to cause another economic collapse here, it is very likely the E.U. could leverage this CDR policy into place.

The only thing that worries me is that my generation (Millenials) will have to have 80% income tax, 80% corporate tax, etc to pay off the debt and the benefits of the retiring baby boomers for the rest of our lives. All the while the Congressmen that did this to us will be dead of old age or protected by some random b.s. immunity clause.

So the people who worked and brought this country to where it is now (both good and bad as is always the case), but the people who built this country post WWII, the business, the industry, the consumer goods, the infrastructure, and who also paid into Social Security all of their working lives are expedable??? That is what you imply. The government has been raiding these funds for years. The public has elected to turn a blind eye. The government has stretched the definition of Social Security so far that the bands are about to break......Everything gets lumped into the communal pot which was supposed to help sustain the retirment of all the people who created the world that you live in. Aside from your literal physical existence being tied in some way to a baby boomer, everything that you enjoy also came from the body of their work life. Most of us fully expect to die with our boots on, because the handwriting was on the wall years ago, that things couldn't continue this way.....the well would run dry because too many were using and nothing was being put back in.

@Sue

You are half right. But the fact is that the Baby-Boomer generation is also responsible for alot of the mess we are in now. Yet the only thing I hear from baby-boomers is that it is not their problem. They pin everything on the younger generations who had absolutely nothing to do with this governments policies in the first place.

They call us lazy, self-entitled, and say we have no sense of responsibility. But keep in mind those people are the biggest hypocrits there are.

The reality is the baby-boomers are the most self-entitled. They are the CEO's who think they deserve $50 million a year (talk about self-entitled). They are the one's who were to busy working to raise their kids properly, then blame their kids for not turning out right. (talk about backwards and hypocritical.) They enacted dangerous policies that led to this economic collapse yet they say the reason is because Gen X&Y are lazy. (talk about not taking personal responsibility.)

Funny how you talk about the younger generations wanting to throw the baby-boomers off the bus, when it was the baby-boomers generation that did a poor job at policy making, ensuring fair pay and equality(look at where that is now), and even a poor job at raising children.

Baby-boomers are the generation of Greed, pure and simple. And they call young people with no opportunities lazy, and blame us for the economy, pathetic. (Not all baby-boomers BTW, but definitely that generation)

jrto77 like your post times a million.

Well the progressive liberal trickle up poverty plan is even worse. It was the Bush era tax cuts that saw the greatest increase in economic growth and it was not for the rich. Guess you are too young to remember the Clinton-Era tax HIKE. However if the the tax cuts are not re-newed you will know them soon.

@proudamericanveteran

Wow! Who's your pharamacist? That must be some primo stuff!

" The inharent vice of Capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inharent virtue of Socialism is the equal division of misery " Winston Churchill

I once remember the redistribution of wealth being described and spreading the misery equally around. Those who were angry and cheated go the satisfaction of angering and cheating others....Nobody really profitted, and the cancerous nature of envy became more visible rather than less.

Well I would not take any advice from your "economist". Apparently he/she does not understand macro-econmics. Printing money does nothing for you but de-value your currency. Why do you think the price of oil has gone up? Because the U.S. keeps printing money!

Think I am wrong? Look at Zimbabwe, Germany 1939, etc.. they are all examples of runaway inflation and de-valued currency. You should have lived through the Jimmy Carter years.. Now that was inflation!

..a little bit of inflation can be a sacrifice people are willing to make IF the economy comes back to life.. then later the economy can be strong enough to deal with inflation, which hopefully won't be the runaway inflation the world has witnessed in Zimbabwe or 1923's Germany.

The price of oil didn't go up because we keep printing money. The price of oil went up because Bush and oil moguls wanted to take in more money. Consequently and partly because of that we got into a recession. I think your cause-and-effect logic is flawed.

Pigotry

With $16 Trillion in deficit?? Good luck with that!!

You are valid in the notion that by doing tax sponsored, government bailouts, the banks were artificially protected from sharing in the risks of the recovery process. And likewise, it is also true that continually printing money with nothing valuable to back the currency is going to devalue the currency in a global market. We are not producing goods and services that we can export, and the nations with which we might trade don't have the money to buy them either. The price of oil is aggravated by the devaluation of our economy and our currency, but not necessarily caused by it. As all of the liberal thinkers like to point out, we are the largest consumer nation for fossil fuel (possibly soon to be outstripped by the sheer size and numbers of Chinese) and as such, we are the world's biggest customer....while we do not produce enough to satisfy our usage needs, we become hostage to the volatility of a world market. Up until now, based on the strength of the dollar, we have been squeezed a bit, but not squashed-our prices have gone up, but due to economic strength, up until now, we have been able to absorb it and move forward. Now, it isn't as easy to absorb.

Do you remember that Obama attended a conference in Europe soonn after his election where he enjoined them to do as he was doing and spend themselves out of their problem? They laughed him off the continent! Borrowing from China is not the worst case scenario - unfortunately. He is also printing paper money that has no backing, just as Germany did after World War I. We are already seeing the ensuing inflation even Obama tells us it is less than 2%. They don't include gasoline, food and energy price rises as they claim these are too volatile. Who among the middle class and poor consider these as not being inflationary even while being necessary.

A second term for Obama would unleash him with no future accountability and will destroy this great country!

Finally! Someone with common sense who understands whats happening!

I have often wondered if anyone else ever thought that we, as a nation, as a consumer nation, a capitalist nation, are the world's best customers...for goods, services, travel, tourism....but now we don't have the surplus capital to spend. They hurt, and in turn, our economy hurts. A return to American self sufficiency doesn't sound like a bad solution...as it is what enabled us to mobilize in WWII and also allowed us to expand and build after the war, putting everyone to work.

Do you realize that as a society we have decided that it is not fair to expect somebody to earn their living? In the past, when it was suggested that people receiving unemployment aid and welfare be asked to do some sort of community service in exchange for the money, goods, and services that they receive, an huge outcry rose up that it was demeaning, unfair, etc.....Well, for those of us left working: Do we eat if we don't work? Do we have a place to live? Do we get job training, retraining, schooling for free? We pay for it as well as our taxes paying to support those who think it is unfair, insulting for them to be asked to give of their time and labor to benefit the community that they live in.

That would be PIIGS. Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.

Perhaps you missed it but Ireland has begun to turn their economy around. They reduced their tax levels and almost eliminated their Capital Gains tax and Companies are flocking to their shores! Hello! Hello the White House! Is there any intelligent life left in there?

The last time I had occassion to speak to a customer service representative on a product warranty matter, imagine my surprise when I was speaking to somebody who spoke fluent English, but with a serious Irish brogue......Jobs that might have been here.

How about a python in the bankster's rear end? Time to take the losses and find a better way to make money.