Medical Odditiess last blog post..Liberty Medical Supplies

During that depression there was much displacement of people. People moved across the country in the US and there was a huge shuffling of people between urban and rural areas. At the time, the US and other parts of the world were sparsely populated enough to handle that kind of movement of economic refugees.

A year ago, in the middle of 2007 we had an estimated 6,602,224,175 people on earth. If large numbers of people do find themselves needing to migrate to survive we will see a very different dynamic.

I don’t blame GW for our problems either. Bush has had it hard. Nine-eleven wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t his fault that Saddam spent eleven years flipping his finger at the UN resolutions. Our strategic interests were at stake and Bush stepped up to the plate. It costs big bucks to conduct a war. Consequently, oil prices have sky-rocketed to well over a hundred dollars a barrel - good for for rebuilding Iraq, but not so good for American consumers at the pump. But good that our oil interests in the mid-East are secured, and we had better make sure it stays that way, or else Americans will learn mighty fast how the rest of the world lives. But not so good for inflation. With the prime rate low, and oil prices high, the cost of everything will spiral upwards to ???? - who knows?

The housing bust is the one area where I absolutely agree that the media is hyping our economic problems in the wrong direction. Houses weren’t artificially inflated to satisfy some fat cat in a bank - like the newspapers and TV would like us to believe. Prices went up to meet demand. Simple. Sellers stubbornly wanted more for their little piece of paradise, and buyers were more than willing to pay the price. That’s not artificial - it’s called FREE MARKET. Banks made the loans because they are in the busy of making loans. If they had done otherwise - they’d be out of business.

Now back to this issue of Republican vs. Democrat the next time around. If McCain gets the presidency - I think he’ll strive to keep interest rates low - but that won’t be possible because it’ll drive investors out of the money market sector. So he’ll probably raise taxes to cover his growing nut, and of course, give the liberals a bone with a few entitlements. But that’ll be a problem too. Because as taxes go up to match government spending - the dollar will lose even more ground. If Hilliary or Obama get the nod, they’ll screw up the thing even more than Big John, because they’re both driven by entitlements. Socialism. More and more taxes will taxes will drive us off the economic cliff into a free falling recession.

The bottom line is that it’s a bleak future we face. I for one, would like to see reduced spending in the mid-East, higher interest rates, tighter mortgage underwriting standards, reduced incentives for corporate CEO’s, more environmental controls, a strong military, funding for the space program, etc. My wish list goes on and on, and I’m sure I’m not alone. But I don’t exactly see how all of that is possible. Of course, not unless we’re willing to give up our economic power to the Eurodollar.

Normal network news, cable news, and talk radio feel they have to keep to things that can be at least a little bit sensationalized to hold onto their audience. They may be correct in that.

It’s sure much easier to attract people when you are reporting on whether a pop star is shopping bra-less or a politician is paying for hookers than it is to cover complex, constantly changing, economic news. When it comes to this stuff there are a few good economics blogs out there but London’s Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal ate more than up to the task of keeping people who want to be informed up to date.