As this election season wears on (and on and on) I really believe that we need a new FDR and neither candidate is even close.

Note: I didn’t think Hilary was it either.

We don’t need a new FDR, we need a revival of the militant labor movement of the thirties, to put the fear of revolution into whoever gets elected. That’s what made the New Deal, and it’s the only way we’ll get a Newer Deal.

Hoping for the magical leader to come along is not a strategy. (Admittedly, hoping for the magical class consciousness to materialize isn’t a strategy, either.)

christian h.

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

In other words, you’re right, I’m wrong!

Why did Nancy Pelosi make our gas prices go up?

I would be worried but soon we will be able to drill in several Alaskan parks and this will make our oil problem go away, and it will show the damn hippies.

would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Well, you’ll have to come to the corner of State and Monroe in Chicago, where said mimeographed newsletter is passed out every Tuesday afternoon. Also, Al Gore is an Alien.

But at least he rebuilt New Orleans, right?

First thing Obama does as president? Remove anyone with a degree from Regent or Bob Jones or whatever. Second thing? Force RenewAmerica to be a pay site. So much wingnuttery for free has fried all our brains lately.

Also,

we need a revival of the militant labor movement of the thirties

And do you have any solutions that could, you know, actually happen?

do not expect anything resembling a honeymoon period if you get elected.

Especially from the right. Every day will be a new “terrorist fist jab” from the “respect the office” crowd.

The only problem with needing a militant labor movement, and the leadership it can create, is that such a movement doesn’t come along without the people to be involved, a majority of America, being so fucked over that they can overcome the petty bullshit that inherently divides them, as well as the wedge issues driven in by the fuck-ers to do the same thing. That’s pretty damned fucked. It took the Great Depression last time. It’s going top have to get somewhat worse than folks pissing and moaning about filling up their SUVs to do it again.

What’s that Lassie? Timmy fell down the well? No? Every fucking bank stock is in the tank? The Republicans have ruined the economy? And it doesn’t look like they’re going to be able to hold off the repercussions ’til after January and blame the Democrats? We’re totally fucked?

Oh.

The firstest thing President Barry Hussein X should do is appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and try all of the crimes committed by the Bush Crime Family. This special prosecutor should answer and report only to AG John Edwards.

LOL, yeah. Then I woke up.

And do you have any solutions that could, you know, actually happen?

I didn’t claim I have a solution – certainly not short-term. All we can do is struggle on, with no illusions. One of those illusions is that some politician will come along and get the job done for us.

By the way, a revitalization of the labor movement is possible. Small steps in that direction are happening in the UK and in Germany, for example. Even a little would help a lot, I think.

Investors this summer have been placing their bets on an Obama presidency, and for the most part that hasn’t been good for the market.

The banks suspected he might be elected, too, which is why they approved all those bad loans in the last decade or so.

wealth redistribution.

As opposed to what the last eight years of letting the wealthy shake out Middle America by its ankles and Hoover up every penny has been…

Honeymoon periods suck. Bad timing and all…they ruin the sex.

What this country needs is another Enron or Tyco to instill confidence in the market. Or something…

…they are voting with their shares by tossing financial, health insurance, manufacturing and high-dividend stocks into the ash can, and are growing skeptical about energy companies as well.

I’m no economist, but so what? Does it actually matter which industries people invest in? (serious question because I don’t know) Is the Market going to fail because people aren’t trading stocks in financial and energy companies? One would think they’re investing in other areas of the market, no?

I’d hazard to guess that investors flocked to IT companies in the late 90’s because they were attractive investments, regardless of Bill Clinton’s penis. That’s not what caused Ford and GM to tank. Or is it? (the IT companies, not the Clenis)

The Democrat’s rhetoric on taxes and health care is frightening people in the investing classes over what critics call ‘wealth redistribution.’

In other news: Why hasn’t Obama healed race relations in this country yet? Oh sure, give me that excuse of “he’s not even the President yet!” If he was really going to make this country better, he’d single-handedly fix the economy, heal racial divides in this country and give me a shiny new Mustang that runs on the power of imagination before he even gets to the convention in Denver!

It’s only “wealth distribution” when the unwashed masses are getting fair pay for their work and are shouldering a fair share of the tax burden. Of course, under these scenarios, the extremely wealthy pay more taxes, but still end up making more money after taxes than they do when they and the govenment are both squeezing the proles for all they’re worth, because – doh! – the proles actually have money to spend and it keeps the economy perking along. But it’s not near as much fun having all that money unless everyone else has nothing and has to bow and scrape for the crumbs from the table. This scenario is what we call “business as usual.”

Larry Kudlow has been blaming Obama ever since Kudlow was forced by reality to give up his Goldilocks speeches.

What is wrong with that man? He looks like he was carved out of spam and then spit-polished.

By the way, a revitalization of the labor movement is possible. Small steps in that direction are happening in the UK and in Germany, for example.

Okay, I’m down. But see- not only would you have to deal with the obvious antagonism from the right, you’d also have to find some way to remove all mob influences…elsewise you’re just giving an inordinant amount of power to some other kleptocrat. May we all live in interesting times.

Investors this summer have been placing their bets on an Obama presidency, and for the most part that hasn’t been good for the market.

Without giving him a chance to explain himself in detail on the campaign trail or at the Democratic National Convention, they are voting with their shares by tossing financial, health insurance, manufacturing and high-dividend stocks into the ash can, and are growing skeptical about energy companies as well.

Yes, because we know that the bad economic reports, saber rattling between Iran and Israel, surging oil prices, and collapse of financial companies all over the world within the past month had absolutely nothing to do with the current market’s decline.

D. N. Nation, I agree completely. As long as the labor bureaucrats are in charge (speaking generally – individual union leader may well be real good guys), and their economic interest more aligned with the bosses than those they allegedly work for, we’ll get nowhere.

Funny story from Germany: the boss of the biggest rail workers union, who refused to call a strike last year, is now personnel director for German Rail. And planning to lay off lots of people. Fucker.

This scenario is what we call “business as usual.”

This is also what we know as “Zero Sum Economics”. If one installs as “leadership” people who truly believe that burning another man’s dollar is just as good as having one more of your own, the results are somewhat predictable.

Ripley, Blue Buddha,

It’s all the Clenis’ fault. Everthing.

Don’t they teach you people anything?

I had a flat tire the other day. Yep, AAA said, it was the Clenis Effect at work. I ran over a nail, I told him. It was a Clenis nail, he said. The construction worker was so busy thinking about Clenis and Monica that he dropped the nail. Yep, it’s the Clenis Effect, alright.

You know, I am the one who birthed the Clenis™ over at Eschaton way back in 2002. He was my own little internet meme.

Forget about a “honeymoon”. Obama is to blame for everything even before the ceremony.

Oh, and Jennifer, I’m going to need some independent confirmation on that Clenis thing. Maybe The Sadlys could start adding a little thing to every post, like they do with the “Shorter Concept”. That’d do it for me.

We don’t need a new FDR, we need a revival of the militant labor movement of the thirties, to put the fear of revolution into whoever gets elected. That’s what made the New Deal, and it’s the only way we’ll get a Newer Deal.

Too bad regulation is the main reason for the economic downturn. Maybe if you read the Wall Street Journal you’d understand.

Me – several blogs have it documented, among them General JC Christian and either Corrente or First Draft. But whatever. It was my gift to the liberal blogosphere. Except that now I see rightwing blogs use it as well.

Too bad regulation is the main reason for the economic downturn. Maybe if you read the Wall Street Journal you’d understand.

Yes, without regulation the economy would be gangbusters because all companies would be making money hand over fist like Enron did….er…ok, like MCI was…no…aw fuck it.

I call fake troll.

Lazy fake troll, at that. One freakin’ word, that’s the argument? Sigh. The youth of today have no work ethic.

I am the one who birthed the Clenis™

Umm, far be it for me to say, but isn’t that doing it backwards?

Jennifer, I myself invented “Bag of Dicks”, but do I ever get any credit?

I agree on the honeymoon period – he’ll take over in a crisis. I actually think he can handle it and keep his cool, but it’ll still be a crisis.

It’ll depend on how many democrats there are in congress – if he gets enough majorities then he can pass things easier. I rather imagine ACTIVITY will be quite a panacea to people (even if its not the best).

I do NOT expect Obama to get any kind of break from the right-wing however. I expect them to be literally against everything he does.

It’s way too fucking serious in here this morning. Not one bit of profanity so far and no godamn poop jokes either.

What the fuck is wrong with you people? I blame Brad – all that whining about being depressed. Christ, get it into your thick skulls; it’s only a mental depression.

ℙℴℴℙ ℙℴℴℙ ℙℴℴℙ ℙℴℴℙ ℙℴℴℙ

Nevermind about the economy. What I want to know is what happened to Jon Markman’s head.

Me: i came up with “Cooler full of Cock” but nobody gives me any credit. Nobody uses it either, so, there’s that.

poop!

Nobody uses “poke of peckers” either. What the Hell is up with that?!! Damn monopolistic dick-baggers.

Cheap labor is good!

Class does not exist!

Buy an iPod!

Viva la Revolucion!

What’s that Lassie? Timmy fell down the well? No? Every fucking bank stock is in the tank? The Republicans have ruined the economy? And it doesn’t look like they’re going to be able to hold off the repercussions ’til after January and blame the Democrats? We’re totally fucked?

It’s nice to see Lassie working for the side of good for a change.

We don’t need a new FDR, we need a revival of the militant labor movement of the thirties, to put the fear of revolution into whoever gets elected. That’s what made the New Deal, and it’s the only way we’ll get a Newer Deal.

Repeal Taft-Hartley
Its the only way to revive organized labor.
I’d join a resurgent IWW.

So everything that goes wrong in the Obama Administration …

that’s Clinton’s fault too?

I kinda like how that works …

Yeah, it’s only natural that Wall Street is filling its Armani pants with shite today over someone who hasn’t been in the Oval Office yet, & won’t be for another 6 months or so … it goes without saying that this downturn has NOTHING to do with having a despised dolt in said office, giving out $600 hush-money “stimulus” checks while printing greenbacks like a sailor with a belly full of grog on shore-leave, steadfastly refusing to go after the same Wall Street Cabal that has screwed their own market-scam into the dirt by being a tad TOO greedy to keep track of the real books, issuing vague know-nothing reassurances every bit as convincing as Nixon’s “I am not a crook” spiel, trying to find new & exciting ways to sell America’s ass to Beijing, & literally throwing money off the back of a C-130 into the fiscal black-hole that is “Operation: Enduring Deficit” … makes perfect sense to me, alright.

“the investing classes”?

To wit, the investing classes are better known as: Rich people, very rich people, super rich people, and ungodly rich people. The people who hold the lives of 90% of this country in their hands and who have been known to discard them in order to grab more money.

Me – well, I for one have credited you for “Bag o’ Dicks” on at least 2 or 3 occasions. But you know, at some point we have to let go and just accept that everyone is aware of all internet traditions – attributed or not.

Jennifer, as long as you are aware of my priceless contributions to internet culture, I don’t care about anyone else.

But seriously, you should have actually trademarked Clenis. That shit is ubiquitous now.

Well, it took me all of .0002 seconds to Google up a chart that showed the vast majority of the top 5 investment banks’ political donations in this election cycle have gone to Democrats (with the exception of Merrill Lynch.) Mr. Markman should get on the horn and tell them how frightened they are of Democrats, because the people writing the checks there seem to have missed the memo.

Yeah, this MSNBC article is really dumb. He has one example–a dividend ETF that’s declined since June. There’s no evidence that Obama caused the decline, and he can’t get any actual investor to go on the record and say they’re selling because they’re scared of Obama. WEAK.

I claim the phrase “Secretary of Undo”. Nominations are now in order. His/Her first job will be undoing the Department of Homeland Security.

Jennifer, I’m in awe!

The only thing I’m known for (due to my reluctance to get up early) is Butt Crack of Dawn, and I don’t use it enough to really get it going.

we need a revival of the militant labor movement of the thirties

You’re right. An army of zombie union strikers would indeed scare the sh*t out of the Republicans.

I have read a lot of stupid analyses of how the stock market and “the investing class” work, and this one is right up there with the Laffer Curve. The securitized mortgage crisis started this bear market and the oil price run up revved the engine but then, as always in the market — up or down — herd mentality took over and it became, “Sell, sell, while you still can!” The “investing class” — if by that he means informed people who devote considerable time and energy to studying and operating in the market — are following Mr. Potter’s advice (“Don’t you see? Potter isn’t selling, Potter’s buying!”). But the number of people who react emotionally and thoughtlessly — the panicky Building & Loan investors — ignore George Bailey and sell out.

I invest and I welcome an Obama presidency. Ideally with universal health insurance, strong unions, demilitarization of our foreign policy, reduced carbon dioxide emissions and renegotiated trade agreements. All those policies promise improvements in our economy and significant investing opportunities.

Oh, and as the inventor of the “Wingnut Face Mullet,” I say Mr. Markman has a bad case of “Fuckwit Mohawk.”

chuckling at wobbly zombies.

B-R-A-A-I-N-S

okay, I’m down.

You tell lies thinkin’ I can’t see!
You can’t cry cuz yer laffin’ at me!

D’oh! Stupid link.

Bush is going to leave this country with two unfinished wars, record oil prices, negative real wage growth, and enormous budget deficits.

All that, plus he wants billions more to support mortgage lenders who profited from the subprime scandal they’re now going broke from.

“As this election season wears on (and on and on) I really believe that we need a new FDR and neither candidate is even close.”

For those who really believe this, I suggest you read something about FDR. When he ran in 1932 and during the first two years of his term, he was very pro-business, and tried to cater to their needs as much as he did to workers. It was only years later (see the “second new deal”) that Roosevelt realized that he could not serve the interests of the rich, and help the people at the same time. Forced to make a choice by his degenerating popularity running up to the 1936 election, he chose the side of the people. It is after this point that most of his most progressive legislation happened.

… they are voting with their shares by tossing financial, health insurance, manufacturing and high-dividend stocks into the ash can….

Best news I’ve seen all week. Well, maybe the manufacturing dump isn’t so good, but if every health insurer went belly-up tomorrow, I bet actual health providers would be ecstatic.

By this same logic, wouldn’t it be fair to blame the dot com collapse (which started happening in the summer of 2000) on George W. Bush?

A basic understanding of economics, not to mention, you now, simple causality, would clearly suggest that if Obama’s popularity is up, he’s the beneficiary rather than the cause of economic woes. But this isn’t even close to the first winger who has seriously made this suggestion, nor will it be the last. Do they seriously believe the economy was going all sunshine and lollipops before the black guy started getting popular? And that people are selling stock now not because of the crappy state of the economy now, but something that *might* happen in 6 months?

I’m curious: what period of the economy should Bush be held responsible for? Is he to blame for any of it? Or did it instantly transfer from being Bill Clinton’s fault to being Obama’s fault in January 2008?

Worst since ’91? Who was president in 1991? Wasn’t his name … Bush?

Radical labor revival is a good goal; without the threat of revolution I imagine FDR would actually look rather like Obama (without the benefit of having been born in an era in which Keynes was standard reading).

The big obstacle I see to it is that most actual labor (i.e. not white-collar dickslapping) is designed to use a mobile, disinterested semi-skilled workforce. The Starbucks/cashiering service sector relies on systematic job insecurity, essentially useless skills performable by a trained monkey, and a certain labor ressentiment among the laborers.

Long story short, we’ve got the same job in front of us as the Wobblies did organizing the hobo economy of the American west (before hobos were a clowning trope, they were the 19th-century equivalent of today’s youth labor).

On the plus side, Starbucks/McD/etc are typical abusive employers – they’ve never had to deal with serious organization of labor and will make all the stupid mistakes the American union has existed to exploit for the past century.

“I’m curious: what period of the economy should Bush be held responsible for? Is he to blame for any of it? Or did it instantly transfer from being Bill Clinton’s fault to being Obama’s fault in January 2008?”

Good question, Concerned. The answer (as I believe has already been mentioned) is that both Clinton and Obama are equally responsible for all of the mistakes of the past seven and a half years. Clinton because the markets have been reacting ever since to his blowjob policies; and Obama because the markets have been anticipating his terrorist fist jab election since January 2001. It also doesn’t help that Jimmy Carter wore a sweater was president during the late 70’s.

Not to mention Adlai Stevenson using three-syllable words mainstreaming radical economic ideas. (And big bald-headed Dhimmicrat queerness, to use respected historian Karl Rove’s phrase.)

And Johnson gave the vote to coloreds goes without saying.

Well if obama’s gettin elected I’m just throwin all my money away.

barry ritholz of big picture was on it the “lets blame obama for a bad stock market” thing earlier this month.

and the thing he wrote at the end of the post is pretty damn funny.

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_luskin/luskin200310160844.asp

I got to that link from the J R Dieckmann article at the Renew America site referenced below. It is an ad for a book written in 2003 called “The Bush Boom” written by Jerry Bowyer. It led to the link above, where the book was reviewed by Donald Luskin at the National Review. If they still have copies lying around, I don’t think they’ll be selling.

Read through a couple of this book’s short . . . chapters and you’ll quickly discover a couple of amazing things. First, you’ll realize that you really can understand economics. Bowyer makes it simple — and fun. Second, you’ll realize that things are nowhere near as bad as the media and the liberal politicians are telling you. In fact, Bowyer’s work shows that we could be on the verge of an historic boom.

….the good news is that the very boom that Bowyer predicts and argues for so persuasively will be the thing that cures the deficits.

When you’ve had your fill of jargonized econo-dogma designed to make you suicidal (and vote Democratic just before you slit your wrists), treat yourself to a helping of Bowyer’s plain-speaking optimism. And here’s the best part: The more people who read The Bush Boom, the quicker the boom will arrive. Optimism and truth work that way, you know.

So maybe if people had read it . . . . Because, you know, it’s all psychological.

Me:
Jennifer, I myself invented “Bag of Dicks”, but do I ever get any credit?

In an attempt to rectify this, I will sign all of my future posts thusly:

Genius who came up with “Bag of Dicks”? That would be Me.

That should do it.

Me:
Jennifer, I myself invented “Bag of Dicks”, but do I ever get any credit?

That should do it.

Invented the bag of dicks!? Someone isn’t familiar with ancient Greek philosophy.

Didn’t I see him presenting a giant lollipop to Judy Garland?