The 2018 US Mid-Term Elections Thread

[PocketZeven]

Georgia.

They are going to court in the case of Georgia. I was just reading Trump's Statements about Florida and doesnt a claim by the Potus need to be taking seriously and investigated?

 

[TexRex]

I was just reading Trump's Statements about Florida and doesnt a claim by the Potus need to be taking seriously and investigated?

I don't know what Trump has said about Florida, and under normal circumstances I would say claims absolutely ought to be taken seriously and investigated--by Obama, absolutely; by Bush, absolutely; by Clinton, absolutely; by Bush, absolutely; I think you get the idea--but it's become apparent to all involved that claims made by Trump are baseless, imbecilic ramblings and pandering to his base who are so happy to accept what he says as gospel.

 

[the_boy]

This part caught my eye. First of all, how could you do anything but reduce spending after those bailouts. Seriously, those were insane amounts of money. And corporate bailouts are more of a left-leaning thing than a right-leaning thing. Think of it as welfare applied to the corporate world. There's another version of this which is done with respect to large vs. small companies. Large companies get hit with more overhead than small ones for the same reasons high income people get hit with more overhead than low income people - socialism. The government deciding that certain entities should not go out of business/bankrupt/etc. is very much not a right leaning idea.

Yes it was a lot of money, annual spending went down after the bailouts (it was necessary), now it’s going back up.

Nobody likes welfare (corporate or individual). Welfare isn’t a left or right thing, it’s a safety net for our economy.

 

[Danoff]

Yes it was a lot of money, annual spending went down after the bailouts (it was necessary), now it’s going back up.

Nobody likes welfare (corporate or individual). Welfare isn’t a left or right thing, it’s a safety net for our economy.

....pretty sure it's a left thing.

 

[mustafur]

The bailouts were not a good thing, stealing wealth from the rest of the public to help a few elites who couldn't run their business properly isn't what I call a good idea.

The government debt was already incredibly large, and instead of allowing a hard reset they decided to go for the full meltdown in the future when debts get soo large the interest payments will be large enough to shut down the government, force interest rates to climb and then collapse the private sector.

 

[samurai8juice]

The bailouts where not a good thing, stealing wealth from the rest of the public to help a few elites who couldn't run their business properly isn't what I call a good idea.

The government debt was already incredibly large, and instead of allowing a hard reset they decided to go for the full meltdown in the future when debts get soo large the interest payments will be large enough to shut down the government, force interest rates to climb and then collapse the private sector.

I disagree.

It's easy to say that, but there was systemic risk throughout the entire system. Much much easier for the government to pump liquidity into the financial system than it is for it to just completely reset and start over. And a hard reset isn't going to be that good. The economy entirely runs on credit. No/weak institutions = no credit. Credit became tight with the bailout. Just imagine how tight it would've gotten if more financial institutions failed with little to no government support.

And I wouldn't call it stealing wealth. They weren't really spending tax dollars on the bailout...they were spending whomever's dollars they were that went into government bonds. And supposedly, in the end the government profited on some parts of the bailout. Can't say for sure if they profited on the entire thing, but I highly doubt it.

At this point I don't think anything can be done about the deficit (for it to become significantly reduced or nearly balanced). You can play with the numbers and raise taxes but that just won't be enough. And no politician is willing to mess with social security or medicare because that would be political suicide. Cutting military spending isn't realistic since for that to happen we'd have to reduce our global role or completely neglect the military in general...which is not going to happen.

 

[mustafur]

I disagree.

It's easy to say that, but there was systemic risk throughout the entire system. Much much easier for the government to pump liquidity into the financial system than it is for it to just completely reset and start over. And a hard reset isn't going to be that good. The economy entirely runs on credit. No/weak institutions = no credit. Credit became tight with the bailout. Just imagine how tight it would've gotten if more financial institutions failed with little to no government support.

It's not Safer its kicking the can down the road, the problems that occured in the GFC haven't been addressed and with most countries running much lower interest rates then before the GFC they have less to no means to counter it the next time it happens.

The hard reset would of been worse 100% in the short term, but you would of avoided what is about to come and it's much worse then the GFC ever could be, the domino effect this time is going to be massive, alot of western countries have debt through their eyeballs with low interest rates and high bank lending the only thing stopping the country from going into Meltdown, we await the time when debt can't be paid in a major economy and the domino effect will go from there as banks have to go tighter to limit losses and that effect makes the situation worse as the economies will stop as they have a consumer based economy that requires lending and credit.

And I wouldn't call it stealing wealth. They weren't really spending tax dollars on the bailout...they were spending whomever's dollars they were that went into government bonds. And supposedly, in the end the government profited on some parts of the bailout. Can't say for sure if they profited on the entire thing, but I highly doubt it.

It is stealing wealth, use tax money your stealing wealth, print money you steal wealth by reducing the value of the dollar. Bail-ins are even worse but most countries around the world didn't do that, but are coming around for this idea in the future, literally theft is all a Bail-in is, Taking your money in your bank account and just giving you stocks in a bank in return with no choice in the matter.

At this point I don't think anything can be done about the deficit (for it to become significantly reduced or nearly balanced). You can play with the numbers and raise taxes but that just won't be enough. And no politician is willing to mess with social security or medicare because that would be political suicide. Cutting military spending isn't realistic since for that to happen we'd have to reduce our global role or completely neglect the military in general...which is not going to happen.

The Fed is trying hard to undo the massive mess it's made by trying to get interest rates as high as possible without breaking the economy to give countries a ''softer'' landing when the next crash happens, but it is too little too late at this stage. Brace for impact I would say, the debt Trap has gone well past the point of correction.

The messed up part about it, is democracy has done this, Term limits and forced short term planning has created this behemoth, but that's what you get with the least worst situation.

 

[PocketZeven]

....pretty sure it's a left thing.

I am pretty sure its is a moral value thing. Not neccesarily left or right.