Oh no, looks like secret socialism plans are working.
The economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years, fueled by government-supported spending on cars and homes.
The Commerce Department’s report Thursday delivered the strongest signal yet that the economy entered a new, though fragile, phase of recovery and that the worst recession since the 1930s has ended.
BUT…BUT…BUT…BUT!
So any sign of improvement means every single policy is good… got it.
Hmm, I do want to clarify, this is good news. I am just deriding the context into which Oliver is framing it.
No, but it kills the whole “socializm will destroy our very being” argument.
The conservative/GOP’s screams have been centered on the fact that Jobs weren’t created the second President Obama put the ink on the bill.
Now that we are seeing signs of progress (job loss rates slowing down, Wall Street’s indices slowly recovering, and now the GDP showing positive numbers) the conservatives want to look at the glass half empty all of the time.
This is slowly biting them in the a$$, one day at a time.
Screw that, libs. As Neil Cavuto would say, time to thank the former President for the Bush Recovery.
Not to mention, who cares anyway? A flag was “desecrated” in a video. IN A VIDEO. A FLAG!!!!
Shorter durablend and nutroots chameleons: “And reminding you, jobless recoveries are good food.”
But whenthe Bush cabal was doing it, that was OK, right?
The best showing in 2 years? You mean when Bush was President? Gee, I don’t remember Oliver touting it at that point.
This is good news, BUT (and yes a BUT is deserved durablend) this is short term gain. Auto sales have slumped badly since the end of the cash for clunkers and once the tax credit runs out on cheap homes, that will slump too. Long term, sustained growth is what is needed and that won’t happen with short term ’solutions’ like these.
Except the plunge the economy took was on Bush’s watch, and thanks in large part to conservative theory of non-regulation.
De-reg theories that Democrats were all for when things were going well.
They sure were, and they were totally wrong. Democrats should learn never to embrace conservative theories on economics again.
Of course it had nothing to do with de-regulation since de-regulation does not equal people not paying their mortgages. Which of course stemmed in large part from Democrats putting the boots to lending institutions to lower standards for those applying for mortgages.
But if you want to keep believing your fantasy, by all means, go ahead.
Which of course stemmed in large part from Democrats putting the boots to lending institutions to lower standards
False.
“Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.”
“Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.”
Herbert Hoover, right?
So it’s Obama’s fault when things are going downhill on his watch, but when things turn around (or begin to, still early, I do admit that), you guys wanna say, “well how do we know it’s because of his policies?”. I want to respect your point of view, I really do. Please convince me you’re not just bitter your team lost.
Naw, Joey, they’re just saying “Despite the last few months of good news I just know Obama is going to fail because… look how many other things I got right over the past eight years!”
Hey, what’s a few more trillion on the national debt, eh?
Unless of course the money’s spent on turning the Middle East into glass–that’s A’OK
So are you saying you agree, as long as it isn’t spent on something you think is unnecessary, or that you think any debt is good debt?
Government spending on domestic priorities during a private sector contraction: good
Government spending poured down a foreign fuckhole: bad
Capitto?
Government spending is an evil. A necessary evil, but an evil. It should always be kept to a minimum. With the best of intentions, the best you will ever get out of government is an inept solution. That should be taken into consideration when deciding whether to act.
“Hey, what’s a few more trillion on the national debt, eh?”
Well shit, lets throw another Lipton Tea Party and make our feelings known. We will not tolerate any more debt. (Unless it’s debt under a Republican President, then it’s cool.) No tea parties to protest thousands of troops dying in unnecessary wars, nope….no tea parties to protest tourture….nope, no tea parties for Bush stimulus plan…nope. Really makes a lot of sense. Geez, and I wonder why the Republican base does not get taken seriously?
No, it’s never cool, regardless of who’s President. Now do you have a rebuttal based on merit?
Denniger –
“Motor vehicle output added 1.66 percentage points to the third-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.19 percentage point to the second-quarter change.
Current-dollar personal income decreased $15.5 billion (0.5 percent) in the third quarter.
Personal current taxes increased $4.8 billion in the third quarter.
Taxes up, income down. And…
Disposable personal income decreased $20.4 billion (0.7 percent) in the third quarter.
That’s worse. A lot worse. Disposable personal income decreased in nominal terms q/o/q by 5.9% while in real terms (inflation adjusted) it decreased q/o/q by 7.4%! That is an enormous swing in purchasing power and not in the right direction!
…this report sucks and on a drill-down appears to be full of outright lies.”
It’d be great … if it were true. Unfortunately, Obama’s got a history of fudge the numbers in order to make things look better than they actually are.
Farris’ never ending parade of spectacular link fail marches on. The article Farris links (with the words “fudge the numbers”) says exactly the opposite: “There is no evidence…”
Also Farris: How would Mr. Obama go about fudging the GDP?
My rebuttal based on merrit it this. If Republicans care so much about the national debt like they say they do, where was the outrage when Bush was doing it? You get NO credibility whatsoever when you complain about it NOW, but stood silent during the Bush years. Tell me why NOW you decide it’s time to speak up on how “offended” you are at the increase of the debt. Tell me where your base was 2 or 3 or 4 years ago? Did you not notice? If you want to plead ignorance, fine…plead it. Don’t jump on your soapbox now (or is is a tea box) and yell from the streets that our debt is too high. It was high when George Bush made it high…but you didn’t speak up then. Great job concerned citizen….yeah.
Irrelevant. You were responding to me, an individual, and I was also against Bush’s spending, so your comments are moot.
Bush wasn’t “doing it”, at least not to this extent.
And even then, Conservatives WERE complaining about earmarks, Medicare D, et al. You just weren’t paying attention.
IMO big spending by government is fine so long as it results in bigger benefits.
It’s amazing to me that anyone would claim we’ve pulled out of the recession when unemployment soars and all we’ve seen is government money prop up banking and wall street. In fact all the cash for clunker, cash for appliances, cash for houses, that is going on is just creating another series of bubbles. And given the current economic climate those bubbles won’t last. Greed will overwhelm them and they will burst leaving yet another huge mess for gov to sweep in and say, “Let me save you.”
Yay, rich people are making money again!
Shame about the rest of us, we aren’t seeing any of that money. Are wages are still going down. Our jobs are still disapearing. So glad Goldman Sachs has gotten back to it’s old ways, though. I’m sure that’s going to help the economy.
OW is a fucking moron sometimes, and a clueless one at that. Cheering the economy right now just makes you look like a douchebag.
Con commenters want the economy to fail
On the contrary, jr. We want the unemployment rate a lot lower; or at least back to the point at where Obama said it would go no higher if we passed the stimulus.
You can understand that, can’t you?
soullite:
May I suggest you read the blog more frequently. This post is an “in-joke” which you apparantly didn’t get.
“Bush wasn’t “doing it”, at least not to this extent.
And even then, Conservatives WERE complaining about earmarks, Medicare D, et al. You just weren’t paying attention.”
Did you (Conservatives) protest in the streets? Did you go to town halls and yell and scream about it then? I am just curious how YOU were complaining about it back then? Just shaking your head “no…no…” or were you doing that same things YOU are doing now?
Is there a dollar figure I should be watching for that ignites when YOU feel the need to protest in the streets? Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending an increase in our national debt. I don’t think anyone (left or right) likes the notion and I truly believe that the long term goal of this spending is to get us back to where we need to be. Will it work, I don’t know. I am not an economist, none of us here are (if one of you is…my apologies). I want the economy to be fixed. You say your guys think they know how, my guys say they think they know how…one of the sides has to try something, right?
If that were true, it wouldn’t be happening.
Venezuela’s GDP is also rising, it’s called inflation.
Venezuela’s GDP is also rising, it’s called inflation.
If you mean to say that the current rise in our own GDP is attributable to inflation, you could make your point more convincing by citing CPI data. It’s readily available, sir or madam, so get to it! Chop, chop!
What’s clear is that the GOP totally over-played it’s hand on the economy. To criticize Obama’s handling of it when memories of Bush II impotently saying nothing while Wall Street and middle America burned were still fresh in the minds of many people was a mistake. Obama still hasn’t been in office for a year, and he has three years after that. (Effectively 2 to 2 and 1/2 in political terms for 2012.)
Let’s face it: Obama’s no dummie, and he knows how to pick decent people that know their shit when it comes to the economy. Did the GOP really think that within 3 years things would still be as bad as they were at the end of Bush II? Did they really have so little faith in the resilience of the American markets? Did they honestly hope, along with Chairman Limbaugh, that Obama’s plans to stimulate the economy would fail?
The GOP will probably realize some mild gains in 2010, but they’ll get annihilated when it counts in 2012. And as much as I think Obama has done a good job on the economy so far, even a president that did nothing would probably be looking good come 2011 (relative to the dark days of the Bush Recession, at least).
“And as much as I think Obama has done a good job on the economy so far,”
Name one thing that the president has done to improve the economic situation in this country that hasn’t added to the national debt.
Restored confidence to the markets with his calm and assured manner.
Do you remember the sheer, panic-filled looks we got from Bush as the economy plummeted? I sure do. It was the definition of “deer caught in the headlights.”
And your main bro Dick Cheney once lectured us about how “deficits don’t matter.” Was he wrong then as we wasted billions a week in Iraq after blowing the Clinton surplus? Really? Well my, where were all those super-serious teabag protests then?
And even the WSJ admitted that Obama’s stimulus package created jobs. Government spending to do such during a time of high unemployment is a good investment, because people with jobs help pay down the debt. People w/o jobs? Not so much.
“Restored confidence to the markets”
To what markets and how? Bernanke and Geithner just threw billions at Wall St. to backstop their bad debts. The banksters just pocketed the money. There is no confidence in the markets anymore.
“deficits don’t matter.”
Cheney was wrong and there is no better way to get people’s attention to a crisis than having 1/2 of their wealth disappear in a few short months.
“Obama’s stimulus package created jobs.”
You’re really going to crow about 25,000 jobs created in the last year when the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.6 million to 15.1 million, and the unemployment rate has doubled to 9.8 percent?
Why is it no can refute the points william is making? After all Obama’s unique blend of fascism and socialism is done working it’s way through our economic system everything should be just perfect. The economy will be purring like a finely tuned engine, wages set at an equitable level, critical decisions made by governments and unions guiding our car companies, the pace of research and developement in the medical fields rapidly increasing while a vastly more efficient health care system implements the solutions, solving matters of life and death as never before.
Our money buoyed by unprecedented levels of debt, a vigorous bulwork against inflation. Our quality of life based on conservation and an ever increasing price of energy looking better and better. With all these good things happening won’t someone please discredit the gloom and doom that william is spreading. Oh wait, he’s telling the truth and the rest of you are bullshitting yourselves about Obama’s economy. I guess that must make it much more difficult.
I think you just answered your own question.
Why is it no can refute the points william is making?
Because william inhabits an alternate universe where the simplest axioms like “up” and “down” are all turned on their heads. Only one from that specific universe would hold the requisite experience to school him properly.
Because our economy was doing so darn good under George W. Bush.
You people are pathetic.