StreetScooby

Well said. Except for dreamdancer. We are all engines of karma

And that's a never ending balance. Well regulated vs. over/under regulated. Alot of this balance is dictated by how well educated a society is. We are all engines of karma

I don't think markets are perfect, but they are the only proven mechanism that's been able to increase living standards for a society. In order for markets to work, there must be many sellers and many buyers. When that gets out of whack, it's no longer a market as defined, and issues can arise. We are all engines of karma

25% is taxed. Start getting much over that, and it's confiscatory. We are all engines of karma

Let's hope that Obama is gone, and we have representatives that emphasize fiscal responsibility. Not only do we have to get our deficit under control, we need to pay back over $14T dollars. Liberals have confused "the right to pursue" goods with "the right to" goods. True rights are those that don't cost other people's money. Our government should focus on providing a framework for markets to work. Everyone should have an opportunity to get a job, based upon their merits. First and foremost, your responsibility to society should be trying to take care of yourself and your family. We are all engines of karma

Last I looked, China owns about $2T of our $14T debt. We are all engines of karma

Agreed. This would shine a whole new light on what it means for due diligence with respect to counterparty risk. We are all engines of karma

In the short term, because of this downgrade, not really. There was a huge flight of money into US government bonds on Friday. We're still the safest bond, and the world knows it. An awful lot of that perceived safety is directly related to all of our aircraft carriers. If the Obama administration policies are carried to completion (e.g., Obamacare), then we're going to be in trouble. We're borrowing an enormous amount of money, alot of it on short terms. As soon as the interest rates start going up, and they will, our interest payments are going to explode as we have to continue rolling over debt. We are all engines of karma

How do you think people get rich in America? By and large, they take risks and work their ass off, for a very long time. They commit their life to it. These are the people who produce jobs and growth in GDP. The government doesn't do that. I care very much what happens to the "rich". If their hard earned money is confiscated, then who's going to put the effort in required to build and own a company? Then, when that happens, where is the government going to get its money? We are all engines of karma

I've just finished two very good books on this topic. The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Predatory-Lenders-Bankers-America--/dp/0805090460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312630208&sr=8-1 This book discusses the subprime origination business, and it's impact on the crisis. May Roland Arnall and his colleagues burn in hell for eternity. The rating agencies could have shut this down in a heartbeat, but they wouldn't do it. Likewise, as states realized the extent of the fraud, they were prevented from doing anything about it by the federal government, largely because of Alan Greenspan's refusal to exert his authority. All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis http://www.amazon.com/All-Devils-Are-Here-Financial/dp/159184438X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312630360&sr=8-1 This book does a good job covering all aspects of the crisis. The entire supply chain was rotten, from subprime through to dealers and the government. You have to ask yourself, who was buying these shitty bonds? In no small part, it was FNMA and FHLMC due to the insistence of Barney Frank. We are all engines of karma

I think we should stop defending European democracies and let them pay for their own defense. We are all engines of karma

My take from this article was that not only is federal government too large, state and local governments are too large. Here's an overview of poverty in America: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2004/01/understanding-poverty-in-america What liberals call poverty in American would not be considered poverty anywhere else in the world. We are all engines of karma

Links, etc., that show this? We are all engines of karma

The numbers show that ALL of the revenue from corporations and millionaires+ would have to be taken. There wouldn't be anything left for them. We are all engines of karma

Either way, the federal government is spending far too much money, and there aren't anywhere near enough taxable revenues to cover that. We are all engines of karma

However much Bush grew it, Obama is growing it even more. We are all engines of karma

According to this: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/hist.pdf Interest payments are projected to rise from 186B (2009) to 562B (2016). We are all engines of karma

Maybe I should have phrased that differently. The 70% is just to cover the deficit. That would be on top of what they're already paying. So basically, Obama wants to take ALL of it. Raises the questions: 1) Is he familiar with these numbers? 2) Is he knowingly advocating this? Either way, I'm inclined to conclude that Obama isn't very good at math. Maybe that explains why he hasn't proposed a budget (...I know, that's the duty of Congress). We are all engines of karma

Thanks, Mike. So, just to cover the 1.5T deficit you'd need to tax all corporate profits and all taxable income from millionaires++ at 70%. Well, that's not going to happen. What other "viable" sources of taxable income are there in the USA? By "viable", I mean a revenue stream that can realistically address the size of this deficit? We are all engines of karma

Can someone find info, and post it, on the amount of money made by millionaires and billionaires? We are all engines of karma

I remember him saying he "wanted to roll the dice with FNMA and FHLMC". And he's the one rewriting the law? Just bring back Glass Stegall. We are all engines of karma

Thanks for the link. Here's another link from that article that presents a summary: Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures./ In no way am I endorsing Bush here. My point is the federal government has a massive spending problem, and it must stop. Taxing our way out of this isn't going to work. If anyone disagrees with what this is showing, please speak up, and provide links that can back up why you're disagreeing. We are all engines of karma

Could you provide a citation for your figures. I'll go and try to track mine down, also. Thanks. We are all engines of karma

I'm sitting here wondering why more lefties haven't made comments. Guess these facts would get in the way of their normal insights We are all engines of karma

Bush ran deficits of about $100B per year, while Obama is running that per month. To compare the two doesn't make sense. We are all engines of karma