Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

And the budget grows…

As Obama bails out AIG and Citicorp and  probably all the automobile companies,  we are still not sure where the new jobs will come from… or if they will come at all. We wait to see the massive hirings to fix bridges and highways or the “shovel ready” projects from the states get started.

Yes, It’s been about a month and only a couple of weeks with the legislation in place. However, saving AIG seems to be much more important than employment, and maybe it is.

The huge budget doesn’t bother me… budgets and expenditures (yes, and debt, too) have grown before… and it always seems like it’s much more than we can afford. But we seem to get through it and create a whole new world with a new economy as a point of accomplishment. If, this time, we adjust the startling differences between the extreme upper class and the society supporting middle class then we will probably not be so worried a decade from now.

Meanwhile, we have to listen to the outrages blared out by Rush Limbaugh (who, as I said to my wife, gives fat men a bad name). To hear him insult everyone from John Kerry, to Harry Reid, to Nancy Pelosi, to Barack Obama is to wonder how the Republic Party (which, of course, is the opponent to Limbaugh’s tacit insult, the “Democrat” party) ever achieved power in the first place. As a symbol, he shows them to be, well, just not nice people.

And when times are hard, nice people score big.

But, back to the creation of jobs… we are wondering where employment will go. This piece by Devilstower in the Daily Kos proves prescient, I think:

What does it show? Under Democratic presidencies, job creation goes up. Every Democrat who followed a Republican did better than the Republican who preceded them. Every Republican who followed a Democrat produced fewer jobs than their predecessor.

And before anyone jumps on the “but that was because they got all the jobs that were started up under the previous administration,” notice that where Republican followed Republican, the second administration came out worse than the first. When Democrat followed Democrat (for which we don’t have nearly enough examples) job creation improved in the second administration.

I have no doubt that Obama will carry on the Democratic tradition.

Under The LobsterScope


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 27 Comments

27 comments

  1. Barr

    I’m not sure AIG is more important than job creation.  First off though, I love this site.  This is my first visit and it’s very easy to navigate.  Secondly, I think if the government is going to pour another $40 billion into AIG, why not take that $40 billion and setup mutual funds with AIG for every tax payer?  That’s real investment.  Buying up worthless bad debt is not investment.  All it does is make people cynical and less likely to invest their income into AIG or any part of the market.  I’m a prime example.  I stopped all my allowance deductions to AIG this week.  I’ve lost 60% of my portfolio.  I’m not sure what else to do.

  2. anna shane

    the banks are not trying to help, I don’t know what they’re trying to do but it isn’t help.  to help they need to unfreeze money and lend it to new borrowers with good credit.

    Some stories – Wells Fargo is avoiding canceling my home equity loan, I suspect so they can show statistics that not everyone is without credit. But, I want it cancelled, I paid it off and they should use that money to lend to others.

    A small business owner friend had her business line of credit cancelled, due to a banking error, but too bad anyway, and she had great credit. Same bank. Me, I can’t close it, and her, she can’t have any that she needs to keep her employees working.

    Third story – a non-profit wants to pay off their million dollar mortgage and wants to negotiate a reduction in their pre-payment penalty, but no dice.  They want that loan on their books, not free money to lend to some other business that needs it to keep going and growing.

    Our bankers don’t get it, their job with our bail out billions is to loan, if they’re going to keep on freezing, what’s the point. They want the big freeze? (looks like it, the fools)

  3. Steve M

    AIG is our biggest client.  Every time you guys bail out AIG, you’re saving jobs at my office, that’s for sure!

  4. creamer

      Steele would proably tell you that those were not real jobs.

     I’m unsure about AIG. I suspect there are some powerful people who would lose a lot were AIG to fail, and that might be whats driving policy. Maybe I’m parinoid. I also wonder how much more punishment mutual funds would take if we just took over the banks.

  5. John Allen

    Supposedly, they insured against risk so banks and investment companies that made bad investments are putting in claims. If AIG tried to pay off all of those claims they would already be bankrupt. The government loans have helped them avoid bankruptcy. They have also been making partial payments to claimants instead of the full amounts those companies should have gotten.

    AIG has many divisions that are still profitable. It looks like those will be spun off and sold and the money used to reimburse the govt. Unfortunately, with the market the way it is now none of those companies can be sold for anywhere near what they are worth.

    Another unfortunate aspect of all of this is that AIG is so big and so involved internationally that it would drag down foreign markets and banks if it fails. That is what scares all of the people in the know.

  6. HappyinVT

    We wait to see the massive hirings to fix bridges and highways or the “shovel ready” projects from the states get started.

    Today speaking at the DOT Obama said the administration has identified 200 projects that are ready to start in the next few weeks.  They have also come up with a logo to identify those projects as being directly tied to the ARRA much like FDR did with WPA projects.  (I didn’t see his remarks myself; I’m relying on what David Shuster subsequently reported.)

    Obama is also traveling to Columbus, OH Friday to appear at the Police Academy graduation of 75(?) cadets who would not have continued on without ARRA money.  Slowly we are seeing some slight results.

    I’ll leave it to people smarter than me to defend/criticize the AIG bailout.

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