Democrats and particularly President Obama have been taking a lot of heat over the stimulus bill. Now, a lot of people that complain about the stimulus so loudly try to attribute the TARP bailout somehow to Obama too. Despite the fact that Obama was not President when the economy crashed and the banks were bailed out suddenly it is all his doing.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke has given Americans a glimpse of the ugly truth about their future job prospects. Simply put, companies have found that they can shed workers and rely on technological advances and overseas factories to operate with a lot fewer U.S. employees.

DEMAND Side vs Supply-side Economics. Thom Hartmann challenging Wayne Root (Libertarian Party)

Thom Hartmann talks with John Perkins author of Hoodwinked and Confessions of an Economic Hit man

In this climate, GDP growth can turn positive but companies are reluctant to hire. Full recovery will not resume spontaneously based on household or business demand, and the only source of increased demand to break the cycle is the government. One of the most widespread and mistaken assumptions is that this bleak future is just baked into the cake. Because of the legacy of the financial collapse, and the limits of deficit spending, supposedly, we are just stuck with it. You hear that in testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and it is repeated mindlessly by the media.

How about a program modeled on the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression only with a more specific focus: converting our power grid to clean energy to break the backs of oil and power companies that blackmail our economy, and in the case of oil, demand our tax dollars and the lives of our troops to increase their assets?

Unemployed Americans Should Hunker Down for More Job Losses. .... Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening. While the official unemployment rate is already 10.2% and another 200,000 jobs were lost in October, when you include discouraged workers and partially employed workers the figure is a whopping 17.5%.

The United States is in open competition with the same countries from which we buy our goods and finance our government. These countries supply our consumption while simultaneously competing fiercely against our companies in international markets. Nations like India, Japan and China, along with trade blocs like the European Union, rail against “protectionism” in the U.S. because they do not want to have their unfettered access to our market tampered with.

..for countries with similar GDB

With the budget deficit now hitting a record of $1.42 trillion lets not forget that in the first 3 years of office ,George W.Bush blew a budget surplus of $5 1/2 trillion, enough to pay off the deficit, pay the war in Iraq, pay for health care reform and still have $ 1.1 trillion left over.

Gerald Celente is one of the world’s best trend forecasters. In the following 4-part radio interview, Celente blasts current political and economic “leadership” as beholden to large corporate and financial interests. As I’ve documented, professionals who work with economics are using unprecedented harsh language in attempt to get Americans’ attention to the loss of trillions of our collective dollars. His comments include (paraphrased): * “Too big to fail” banks are anathema to real capitalism. * US economy is like a ruthless mafia ripping-off the American public. The US is being looted. * US economy is no longer capitalism, it’s oligarchies and fascism. * We are witnessing the greatest heist in American history, and the banks are doing it. * “I don’t like getting raped. I don’t like my money going to Goldman Sachs.” * “Do you have eyes to see and a mind to understand? These crimes are an affront to my intelligence.” * Bankers are money junkies lying to get their money fix. We have a criminal gang of money junkies dealing scams to get money from us. They never have enough. And for what? For gambling. * This is no different from the French Revolution. * The money junkies are in for a shock. The second American Revolution has begun. * They are not my political leaders; they are political hacks. We are going back to royalty and serfs.

According to a new poll by Winthrop University, Southerners overwhelmingly support government programs to create jobs and assist cash-strapped states. With the unemployment rate at 10.2%, the highest rate since April 1983, Southerners, like all Americans, see the economy as their main worry. Southern Democrats strongly favor government-backed initiatives to spur economic growth, with 94.5% favoring such actions. Interestingly, 53.4% of Southern Republicans also support such actions.

Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a plan for higher payroll taxes on the upper-income earners to help finance health care legislation he intends to introduce in the Senate in the next several days, numerous Democratic officials said Wednesday.

The first of what may be many strikes hit San Francisco's Class A hotels when workers launched a 3-day strike against the Grand Hyatt Union Square, one of the city's largest and most luxurious. The contract with the workers' union, Unite Here Local 2, expired on August 14. Since then, Local 2 has been trying to bargain a new agreement in the middle of an economic depression, in which hotels complain of reduced revenues. The luxury hotel chains demand changes in eligibility for the health care plan that would eliminate coverage for many or place it economically out of reach. Hotels want them to pay $35 per month this year, $115 per month next year, and $200 per month the year after. Aurolyn Rush, a PBX operator at the Hyatt, says, "With what we make, we can't afford that. Many of us would have to go without healthcare entirely." [Note: Well, here it is, the supreme example for Universal Healthcare. All unions are going to become dysfunctional, if some aren't already.]

"The editor of the Industrial Worker, Diane Krauthamer, spoke to Noam Chomsky at his MIT office in Cambridge, MA, on October 9th, 2009. The Industrial Worker is the official newspaper of the IWW (the Industrial Workers of the World), a radical union."

Unemployment surged from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent last month, its highest level since 1983. At the same time, the economy lost 190,000 more jobs. That means employers have eliminated 7.3 million positions since the recession began in December 2007. As dreadful as they are, the headline numbers understate the severity of the problem. They also obscure an even grimmer fact: Unless there is more government support, it will take several years of robust economic growth — by no means a sure thing — to recoup the jobs that have been lost. The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. [T]he numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

Historians sometimes debate over whether history makes the man or the man makes history. Leaving aside the sexist construction of the question, I think, manifestly, it has to be both. Almost all the great presidents served during time of great crisis, usually war. But that doesn't guarantee their place in the historical pantheon. You have to also meet those challenges of your time. Lincoln is widely considered America's greatest president. His predecessor, James Buchanan, is generally thought to be the country's worst. Both faced the same crisis of Southern secession, but they responded to it very differently, earning their respective places in history. On the other hand, had the civil war come twenty years earlier or later, we'd hardly even know their names, except as the answer to trivia questions. "Who was the first president from Illinois?!" "Who was our tallest president?" And so on. Obama could be Lincoln - or better still, FDR - if he wanted to be. He has chosen instead to be Buchanan. Faced with crisis scenario after crisis scenario, the candidate of 'change' repeatedly and instinctively homes in on the weakest, most centrist, most useless response possible. His stimulus bill probably stopped the economy from continuing its free fall, but it leaves the country stuck in months or even years of unyielding recession at worst, and jobless recovery at best.

PARIS (AP) -- Despite signs of an economic revival gathering pace around the globe, the millions of people laid off during the worst recession in 70 years are unlikely to see relief any time soon as joblessness is still climbing in many of the world's largest economies. This week the European Union forecast unemployment in the eurozone will rise to 10.7 percent in 2010 from 9.5 percent this year. Unemployment rates in the 30 wealthy countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development range from a low of 3.5 percent in the Netherlands to 18.3 percent in Spain, according to September figures.

That's the beauty of the proposal of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. A new levy on goods made in ways or in nations that ignore greenhouse gas caps doesn't merely discourage American companies from moving jobs to countries whose domestic laws tolerate pollution. It also economically advantages green products/companies/nations, raises revenues for clean energy innovation and -- most important -- appreciates the borderless nature of the crisis. "Carbon dioxide emissions expand if a company closes down in Toledo, Ohio, and moves to Shanghai, where the emissions standards are weaker, " Brown says.

there is another reason high unemployment may excite investors. Current layoffs are likely, for many workers, to be permanent. A recent report that productivity-work output per worker-was up at a 9.55 annual rate in the Third Quarter, is an indication that those companies that haven't shut down operations are making or doing more with fewer workers. That kind of thing happens in recessions, because as joblessness gets worse, those workers who still have jobs become more docile and are willing to be worked harder by management. Of course, you get more on-the-job injuries, more stress-related illness, etc. along with that kind of speed-up, but over the shorter term, it looks good on the books if you're cranking out more product with a lower payroll.