Liberal Dream Over: We can't join EU because debt is too high

Too bad the Republicans and Bush put us into this situation. We had a surplus last time Democrats were in charge. But they kicked them out because they had too much sex.

Are Democrats making cuts to balance the budget NOW or are they on a runaway spending spree which dwarfs what Bush spent? Bush's worst deficit was $455 billion, Obama's FIRST budget deficit is around $1.75 TRILLION
 
No one forced any abandoning of your manufacturing sector, you just didn't do it well enough (ie: British cars) or cheap enough like with goods in China. Consumers freely made their choices.

and who put those choices on the shelves for consumers to choose?
Corps played a major part. However we are ALL to blame as consumers as well. Also the cheap Chink stuff made the economy look better than it was during the Bush presidency full of stagnant wages once inflation was figured in.
 
Are Democrats making cuts to balance the budget NOW or are they on a runaway spending spree which dwarfs what Bush spent? Bush's worst deficit was $455 billion, Obama's FIRST budget deficit is around $1.75 TRILLION


Actually, it's still Bush's deficit. Obama hasn't passed a budget yet.

Oh, and this talk about balancing the budget right now is insane.
 
No one forced any abandoning of your manufacturing sector, you just didn't do it well enough (ie: British cars) or cheap enough like with goods in China. Consumers freely made their choices.

We've been following the wrong economic policies for decades. There is no intrinsic reason why British manufacturing could not have been competitive with, say, German industry.

Consequently while Germany and even France (who produced shit cars for decades) have a manufacturing base we make cars for foreign firms who tend to shut down when things go economically pear-shaped.
 
We've been following the wrong economic policies for decades. There is no intrinsic reason why British manufacturing could not have been competitive with, say, German industry.

Consequently while Germany and even France (who produced shit cars for decades) have a manufacturing base we make cars for foreign firms who tend to shut down when things go economically pear-shaped.
Well, America does like the Mini, they shouldn't be going out of business any time soon.
 
Are Democrats making cuts to balance the budget NOW or are they on a runaway spending spree which dwarfs what Bush spent? Bush's worst deficit was $455 billion, Obama's FIRST budget deficit is around $1.75 TRILLION

First we have to fix the mess Bush made, which will require the debt get worse for a bit, then as it did under President Clinton, the debt will decrease.
 
Well, America does like the Mini, they shouldn't be going out of business any time soon.

They're produced by BMW. I think they've already cut production but they're not shut yet, which is nice.
 
Last edited:
We've been following the wrong economic policies for decades. There is no intrinsic reason why British manufacturing could not have been competitive with, say, German industry.
It's not policies though, it's just how things ended up, one could say why couldn't Germany have the financial services strength of Britain? German engineering is reknowned and London is a natural financial hub because of it's history, experience and mastery of the world's business language in English.


Consequently while Germany and even France (who produced shit cars for decades) have a manufacturing base we make cars for foreign firms who tend to shut down when things go economically pear-shaped.
France produces shit cars sure, I don't think I've heard anyone say that about Germany, not over here anyway.

Germany carmakers are announcing layoffs like the rest to if that kind of Schaudenfrëude makes you feel any better:
www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32423435_ITM
www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=18276
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060602.IBVW02/EmailTPStory/Business
 
It's not policies though, it's just how things ended up, one could say why couldn't Germany have the financial services strength of Britain? German engineering is reknowned and London is a natural financial hub because of it's history, experience and mastery of the world's business language in English.



France produces shit cars sure, I don't think I've heard anyone say that about Germany, not over here anyway.

Germany carmakers are announcing layoffs like the rest to if that kind of Schaudenfrëude makes you feel any better:
www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-32423435_ITM
www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=18276
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060602.IBVW02/EmailTPStory/Business

I'm not going to get into this in depth as it would take a long time and be very dull. What i'm getting at though is the whole ethos that has run through consecutive British governments in the post-war period.

How did a destroyed Germany manage to resurrect itself after WWII? And why didn't we learn anything from it? Why have we been so willing to let our manufacturing industries go? Why haven't our schools encouraged kids to explore engineering and sciences rather than media studies and sociology? Why did we never invest in providing world class infrastructure?

It just goes on and on and on.

Failure to answer any of those questions has led us where we are - in the worst position of any developed country in the midst of the biggest recession of the last 60 years.

Still, what you gonna do? Just grin and bear it i suppose. I can't see anyone with any answers among the current crop of short-sighted politicians we have to choose from in this place. But a chap can still dream...
 
First we have to fix the mess Bush made, which will require the debt get worse for a bit, then as it did under President Clinton, the debt will decrease.

I'm sorry but there are so many things in error with this assesment that I find it hard to fathom that anybody would actually believe it.

President Bush did not single handedly create the current economic crisis, if you're looking for culprits the Federal Reserve, Congress and the American People themselves can lay claim to the lions share of the blame for this, secondly you cannot cure an economic crisis caused by inflationary monetary policies and excessive debt with more excessive inflationary monetary policy and debt. The failure of FDR's similar domestic "recovery" agenda should have made this crystal clear to anyone that cares to pick up a history book and paid any attention to what FDR's own treasury secretary had to say on the matter (I wonder if Geithnar will mouth sentiments similar Morgenthau's in front of congress at some point, will be interesting to see).

The one thing that you are right about is that this mess does need to be fixed, unfortunately our current trajectory is headed in the opposite direction of actually accomplishing that objective, unless of course one is only concerned about the short term and doesn't give a fig regarding long term consequences (like our merry band of politicians in Washington seem to do).
 
I'm not going to get into this in depth as it would take a long time and be very dull. What i'm getting at though is the whole ethos that has run through consecutive British governments in the post-war period.

How did a destroyed Germany manage to resurrect itself after WWII? And why didn't we learn anything from it? Why have we been so willing to let our manufacturing industries go? Why haven't our schools encouraged kids to explore engineering and sciences rather than media studies and sociology? Why did we never invest in providing world class infrastructure?

It just goes on and on and on.

Failure to answer any of those questions has led us where we are - in the worst position of any developed country in the midst of the biggest recession of the last 60 years.

Still, what you gonna do? Just grin and bear it i suppose. I can't see anyone with any answers among the current crop of short-sighted politicians we have to choose from in this place. But a chap can still dream...

The generic degree in America seems to be business, which at least isn't sociology (and we still get too many people having useless degrees). I too wish America would lean more towards engineering - and that financial firms wouldn't snatch all the brightest engineers up to slice and dice imaginary financial implementations into being (which then fail and cause worldwide depressions).
 
Are Democrats making cuts to balance the budget NOW or are they on a runaway spending spree which dwarfs what Bush spent? Bush's worst deficit was $455 billion, Obama's FIRST budget deficit is around $1.75 TRILLION

I just want to clarify here that Bush's real defecit, if accounted for in the same way as the new budget, was 1.5 Trillion+. See, when we put his 700B stimulus, plus the wars he started into the budget, and not some weird Enron style off the books spending, we come up with the real figure.

Come on Dano, this is Cypressesque of you.
 
Back
Top