The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.

Those years of unilateral republicans certainly were devastating. That’s why they don’t get to control shit anymore!

Dino… you make that outlandish claim as though ours was the only economy to shrink.

The recession is a global one. Our share of it was neither the first nor the worst in this chain.

Get real.

The economic calamity started here thanks to Wall Street. Our reach is vast and powerful.

Remember, it’s your side that says when America catches a cold the rest of the world gets pneumonia. Well, we gave the world typhoid this time. Harkens back to my thoughts that America is a bit of a cancer on the world and humanity.

Conservatism is pretty much based on greed and self-interest, proudly so. They speak often of “harnessing the inherent greed in people”.

Actually, greed and self interest are two different things. Greed is wanting more than you need even if it is detrimental to others. Self interest is another way of saying you care about your reputation. If you are a butcher, and want to stay in business in a small town like i live in, you will produce quality meat at a good price or you will go out of business. My company has to produce a good product or we will go out of business. One of our major competitors made a defective product and now they are gone. Self interest is common sense. I have yet to see that liberals are so altruistic that they do things for free or without expecting a return on their efforts.

You, Dino, are the poster boy for the fact that Dems are just as greedy and worried about self interest as anyone. Don’t you remember your great words when I pointed out the seniors were turning against Obama because they were afraid of him taking away Medicare. Your words were, “Fuck the Elderly if they vote Republican”. You have no real concern for the elderly, you just need them to vote for your party, if they don’t, “Fuck them”. Greed and self interest, you have it in spades.

I see we’re back to the blame game.

Like PP I can only laugh at this, excuse me while I laugh!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I called my wife over and she had a good laugh too! Pot meet kettle.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

The economic calamity started here thanks to Wall Street. Our reach is vast and powerful.

Wrong again, ignorant little dinostem! It started with the Dem social engineering, wasteful social spending and market-rigging in the home loan market; it’s all Dem.
The Dem social engineering chickens finally came home to roost.

Those years of unilateral republicans certainly were devastating. That’s why they don’t get to control shit anymore!

Nice try sock puppet the dumbocrats have quadrupled the debt since they took over the presidency in 2009.

…it only started when he took the lead in the polls, remember?

That was the stock market freefall, little buzzy. A recession is two or more quarters of negative economic growth, and we have had nothing but negative economic growth since Obama was elected.

The recession started due to liberal policies. It was inevitable that this house of cards would fall.

Higher gas prices led to higher prices for all shipped goods. The higher gas prices were a direct result of lower supply and greater demand, not just in the US but in India and China and other countries. If liberals had not stopped the development and production of our own natural gas and oil for the past 30 or so years and if we had been allowed to build nuclear energy plants and oil shale this would not have happened.

The push for increased home ownership especially for people who could never qualify before led to mortgage lending shennanigans that caused the housing collapse when the ARMs adjusted and cash strapped families could not afford the increased loan payments.

Liberal entitlement programs have grown unsustainable as the liberals have brainwashed the people into believing that it is the governments responsibility to provide them with basic needs. I worked in a school lunchroom for 5 years so was privy to who received free lunches and breakfasts. Children who did had parents who brought them to school in new cars. The kids wore expensive clothes and shoes and always had a couple of bucks in their pocket for treats from the snack shop. These people had the money for these things because of the handouts they got from taxpayers and most of them didn’t actually qualify for free lunches, they lied on their application.

The fraud of stock options as bonuses and accounting lies and manipulations caused a lot of the problems in the stock market. Most of this creative paperwork was used in an attempt to avoid onerous capital gains taxes.

Liberal policies all of them.

The higher gas prices were a direct result of lower supply and greater demand,

More bullshit, the higher gas prices were a direct result of SPECULATION and GREED by investors. There is no doubt about that, it is a proven fact, even Faux News will admit that.

More bullshit, the higher gas prices were a direct result of SPECULATION and GREED by investors.

Where’s the proof, please? India and China were buying up every barrel of oil they could find on the world markets. And China, in partnership with Castro’s Cuba, is drilling for more oil less than 100 miles off the Florida coast.

The “delusion” here is the idea that you know anything at all about markets and economics.

Those years of unilateral republicans certainly were devastating. That’s why they don’t get to control shit anymore!

62% of our budget are entitlement programs! What party pushed those through again?

Why is “Greed” such a bad word? Watch the movie Wall Street Gordon Gekko(Michael Douglas) gives a great speach about “Greed”. I’m greedy and admit it, I want a sports car, but right now can’t afford it, but I strive to get there. “Greed” is what drives our economy we all want to make money so we work, some harder than others, some smarter than others. We all want what’s good in life, just some of us want to be rewarded for hard work, and not just to have it rationed to people who don’t have the same drive.

Why unwelcome, you ask?

Rodney,

Of course this is only rhetorical. There really is no reason for anyone to ask anymore. We know only too well!

And can somebody tell me why Obama is pictured on a report that reflects what happened under Bush’s watch????

I see that Singapore is now the global force behind global markets now…

What are you talking about?

Singapore is the financial capitol of the Pacific rim and one of the world’s most important banking centers, because it is largely unregulated.

That’s a fact, not an excuse.

The bright side is that the economy is getting worse less quickly.

Gee…who was in Congress in 2008…was it…Obama and the Democrats?

Are you really making the argument that Obama is pictured because he was 1 of 100 Senators. You are so full of shit your eyes are brown.

Typical SAB dishonesty. Bush wasn’t responsible for anything in his first year of President or his last year of President according to you guys. Bush, the 6 year President.

Bush, the 6 year President.

Six years of economic growth and protection from terrorism.
Much better than the current President is doing.

The problem is that “greed” if understood as simply the desire to better one’s lot in life does not disappear from the human psyche regardless of the form of government we live under. In the old Soviet Union, people still wanted a better apartment or house, a car, nicer clothes, more food, better education, more money, in short all the things that it is normal for any human to desire. In that system though, the only way to obtain those things was if the government said you could have them. And if they can give, they can take away. This is the power that those on the left are willing to give to the government, while those of us on the right prefer to have the freedom to pursue our dreams and suceed or fail on our own efforts. In any system, there will be those that have more or less than you. The question is, are you willing to do what it takes to achieve your desires, or is your desire to have someone take it from another by force and give it to you?

I see we’re back to the blame game.

Coming from you, Dino, that comment is laughable!!

Please hold, while I do so… GAHHHHAHAHAHAHA!

You have done NOTHING except BLAME republicans, conservatives, Bush, Reagan, et al for every conceivable social and economic ill that matters to you.

The bright side is that the economy is getting worse less quickly.

That is a good thing no matter your political persuasion

My worry is the things that seem to be ignored, yet are coming whether we want them or not; higher credit card defaults, another wave of mortgages that will have to reset, commercial real-estate, etc.

Mistakes made in the past, but will not just go away.

I hope I am wrong about those things. I really want to see this as a true bottom.

That’s the draw of liberalism and why it appeals to a higher intellect that operates beyond the base instincts of the brainstem.

The “draw” of liberalism is that allows those whose sanctimony outweighs their ability to compete successfully a means to express their self-righteousness while compensating for their lack of more tangible success in other endeavors. Its the rhetorical version of Special Olympics, paid for at the point of a gun, by those who compete and win in the real world.

If liberalism appeals to a higher intellect, why wouldn’t these people like Oprah,the Baldwins, or any of the other hollywood/limosine liberals not just donate most of their income to charities, or give it back to the government. The reason is they want to be able to tell people how to live, I just want to make a living and strive for goals I set. These people don’t want to give up the life they live and neither do I, even though I can’t afford a 5 milliion dollar house or 100 thousand dollar cars. Some of the same people you will put up as champions of the liberal cause are anything but, they are in it for the money too. Which makes them “Greedy”.

Greed is a normal facet of humans. Yes, we all have it just like we all have lust, envy, anger, etc.

You are right as far as you went, yes these evil desires are in every human heart since the fall of Adam. While many people are able by their choice (will power, character, etcetera) to resist these temptations, most of us are only delivered from them by being Born Again as Christians. But, you are right that even in Christians, even in good people with the inner strength, character to do what is right, these things do exist in every human heart – yes, mine as well.

The difference is that conservatives see it as a feature, liberals see it as a flaw.

That is your biased opinion, but the record shows that liberals see every sinful act of man as something to be tolerated, praised and often rewarded. I have not heard you ever decrying liberals when they are caught engaging in greed, especially among liberal politicians or even acknowledging thier failures.

Conservatism is pretty much based on greed and self-interest, proudly so. They speak often of “harnessing the inherent greed in people”.

Again Dino, these things are based on your prejudices and are not based on fact. Greed and self interest in building fortunes represents the fuel that runs our economy. No greed, no desire to accumulate wealth and the economy must fail. The difference is channeling those impulses in a lawful, honorable, positive and decent way to produce jobs and prosperity for every person willing to work. Take away the avarice and entreprenurial spirit of your fellow Americans, where will the jobs come from, where will the wealth to buy products and services and the taxes to create those social welfare programs you are so fond of come from?

By cultivating and encouraging selfishness and greed, two of the ugliest, darkest and most unpleasant components of the human psyche, conservatives create an unpleasant, coarse and ugly culture where trust and honesty are in short supply.

Again, while there is some truth to your charges about the dangers of cultivating and encouraging greed, it is not the liberals that have been the counterweight, the opposing pull against the excess of greed and selfishness. Liberals only produce a lazy, unproductive lower class, and an atmosphere of gross immorality that appeals to the lowest nature of man. They only know how to sit on their haunches, put their hands in the pockets of hard working Americans and fool themsleves into thinking they are being compassionate.

No, my friend, it is conservatism that resists excesses on greed and selfishness, until recent decades by their belief in Natures God and the pains of hell for those that in pursuit of wealth rob, harm and demean their fellow man. Further, they resist excess in greed and selfishness through law, knowing that such people don’t just steal from the poor, but from honest hardworking people striving to succeed.

Yours my friend is a faulty view of the world! Tell me, what socialist nation has ever produced the prosperity for even the poorest among them that our greedy, capitalistic society has created? Which of those nations have given more in charitable giving to those in need around the world, or sacrificed more in lives and comfort for the oppressed of the world?

You are right abour greed and selfishness, they are terrible sins, but you failed to look in the mirror and judge the moat in your own eye, your lifestyle that is destructive and that has turned Nature’s God away from this nation. Judge yourself first, then it will be much easier and more clear when you judge others.

Shelfisness and greed are good things, they are requisite for basic human survival. If everyone gets evertything dolled out to them by a ruler, why would you work hard if there are no rewards? I could go back to working a 9-5 job that is mindless and easy. But in your world someone who has proven his/her self as an asset to the company should just shut up and go with what the government decides to pay them.

Obama can shuck and jive all he wants because it wont change the hard numbers. He’s a miserable failure and race divider. It has become apparent that the “Obama Stimulus” has not worked, and shows no sign of ever working. Unemployment — the professed reason for the stimulus in the first place — is now at 9.5% and will break 10% within the next few months. Credit remains tight and industry is still fumbling. All thatnks to a lack of leadership starting in the WhiteHouse. The Poser-n-Chief is no better than Bernard Madoff with his own shell game.

Gee…who was in Congress in 2008…was it…Obama and the Democrats?