baird

If This Is a Recovery...

Taking away Social Security and Medicare is obviously nuts but what could improve the situation would be a relative reduction in benefits which could make a dramatic difference in the long term viability of both these programs.


On Nov 15 12:27 PM bbro wrote:

> You want to take away social security and Medicare go ahead ( good
> luck getting elected too)....the last time the world you dream of
> existed was in 1893....
> good times for all.....

Poisoning the Green Shoots

This incredible experiment on planet earth obviously has no precedent, we've had the pedal all the way down and now it's through the firewall. It ain't complicated folks there's way too many of us and that's growing quickly to what "final" number who knows. And everyone wants to live the "good life" not just the clueless in the developed countries. It's not complicated but of course we still don't get it, without question we're way beyond sustainability and far into defcon omega or whatever is the ultimate alert status. Very sad prognosis and worst is it didn't have to be.


On Jun 07 09:35 AM fran wrote:

> greed and excessive population growth do influence this earth greatly.
> huxley covered such a situation in his book-"brave new world". a
> model does exist to ameliorate the poison, but brings with it other
> ailments as tradeoffs[ SOMA, FEELIES, HATCHERIES, etc].
> come to think, we've almost socio-engineered our way there with little
> forethought. or is there more forethought/plan than we realize?
>
>
> could THE CLUB OF ROME still exist?

Looking Back in Order to Look Ahead

FEB,

I too am very puzzled about why Afghanistan makes any sense, even less than Iraq. Large scale military actions to eliminate "terrorist" strongholds will always be counterproductive, whatever Obama is he's not stupid, go figure. Maybe just a head fake to let everyone know he's not "weak" but I suspect that for all of O's feel good exterior inside he's about as tough as they come.


On Apr 04 08:51 AM Ferdinand E. Banks wrote:

> Some of this is very interesting. After reading the latest Newsweek
> I came to the conclusion that the big oil price increase contributed
> more to the bad news than I thought, however that price has now descended
> to a healthier level, and President Obama seems to have mobilized
> the enthusiasm of the people in the back room for a problem solving
> exercise.
>
> At the same time, his desire to continue the war in Afghanistan strikes
> me as insane, and I hope that the other G20 participants try to talk
> some sense into him. I also hope that the promise to give money to
> the IMF (and probably the World Bank) was only a promise and not
> the real thing. If they really need money they can sell their headquarters
> in Washington to the Hilton Hotel people and
> operate out of a toilet in the White House.

WSJ: Kansas Furthers Already Atrocious Market Myths

Yes and the 6-9billion unit gorilla no one will talk about is global population. While it's true that population trends in the developed countries are flat to down most of the world is undeveloped where birth rates are high and death rates are down. The argument that after the planet is all "developed" population will stabilize is specious at best, by that time we're all cooked.


On Mar 24 08:25 AM chistletoe wrote:

> The key to Wall Street's sales pitch is
> the very basic assumption that over the long haul, growth is inevitable.
>
>
> Now that the planet has reached or exceeded the maximum human population
> which it can support, and food and water supplies are threatened,
>
> now that oil and other forms of energy have reached and passed<br/>their
> peak production,
> this is a highly suspicious assumption.
>
> for generations to come,
> one can reasonably predict economic retraction.
> Where, then, should one invest?
>
> Not stock. Not bonds.

Pension Shortfalls: Yet Another Time Bomb

China,

It's not just the unions, it's all of us who refuse to face some very simple problems in arithmetic, apparently we prefer to scream at each other across the political/philosophical chasms like school children in the locker room. Look at the projections for just social security, medicare and medicaid at about 2040, it's not difficult to understand we either have to reduce the rate of growth of these and any future health care programs and/or raise contribution limits or go bankrupt. It's not complicated, it's a matter of having a bipartisan intelligent adult conversation, but that's very unlikely to happen unless we the people require it of our "leaders"


On Mar 25 09:27 AM China Expert wrote:

> Lets face it..... the unions "want" and the politicians will "give"
> until the very last day when the problem because a national catastrophe
> !
>
> Neither the unions, politicians or public think about future problems
> since their only focus is "ME" and "NOW" !