US Already in 'Recession' - Bill Clinton

Yep- it's not just an economist here and there claiming this news now- But Bill Clinton agrees that we are already back in recession.

Former President Bill Clinton told CNBC Tuesday that the US economy already is in a recession and urged Congress to extend all the tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year.

And he wants to keep the tax cuts- until AFTER the election.
Gee- I wonder why?

"What I think we need to do is find some way to avoid the fiscal cliff, to avoid doing anything that would contract the economy now, and then deal with what's necessary in the long term debt-reduction plans as soon as they can, which presumably would be after the election," Clinton said.

I predicted last winter that by election time- we would be back in recession, and it looks more and more like that's exactly what is happening.

Read the whole article here.....
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-already-recession-extend-tax-134719049.html

Might even be a world recession, look how much oil has gone down recently.

BearMtnHIB wrote:

Former President Bill Clinton told CNBC Tuesday that the US economy already is in a recession and urged Congress to extend all the tax cuts due to expire at the end of the year.

And he wants to keep the tax cuts- until AFTER the election.
Gee- I wonder why?

Just a guess, but the tax cuts don't expire until the end of the year and he wants them extended after that. In both cases, the November election will have already happened. Whether they are extended or not, they will still be in place through the election.

It's not as nefarious as you make it sound.

I found this part of the article interesting:

Clinton said overzealous Republican plans to cut the deficit threaten to plunge the country further into the debt abyss.

As for being BACK in a recession, I personally don't believe we ever got out of the one Bush warned us about (although he used the word "depression"). The Great Depression lasted more than a decade.

I believe many mistakes were made while trying to come out of the depression. I hope there are enough open minds in Washington to look at history and to not repeat the same stagnating type of policies.

The US is unique to the world economies because of the freedoms that we have (or still have left)... I think we are much more capable of dominating in every sector of the world economy if we go back to what worked for us in the first place. Manufacturing however will be the toughest hurdle.

Manufacturing is definitely a must for any economy.....what I don't want to see happen is to bring the wages and the benefits down to the level of a China, or India.....we need to make American products worth the added cost, but limit the difference in the cost of American goods and those of other nations by using our trade agreements to impose tariffs on imported goods. I know, tariff is probably a dirty word, but making manufacturing jobs a low wage job means our goods are no better than cheap Chinese goods, made by relatively unskilled workers with cheap materials. That is not what made us great.

archer wrote: Manufacturing is definitely a must for any economy.....what I don't want to see happen is to bring the wages and the benefits down to the level of a China, or India.....we need to make American products worth the added cost, but limit the difference in the cost of American goods and those of other nations by using our trade agreements to impose tariffs on imported goods. I know, tariff is probably a dirty word, but making manufacturing jobs a low wage job means our goods are no better than cheap Chinese goods, made by relatively unskilled workers with cheap materials. That is not what made us great.

I agree, we need to follow more of the German model of high quality products. We can't compete for the cheap stuff so we have to be the leader in inovation and high quality. IMO, the biggest barrier we have is the lack of incentives for manufacturers to keep their business here. There either has to be lower wages, or lower fixed costs like taxes... a flat tax of some sort that is fixed so businesses can project future costs and investments. We should be rewarding the producers that succeed in growing, the more they produce and the more people they hire at decent wages, the more breaks they should get. All of our financial problems could get under control if our government was as friendly to our own businesses as it is to foriegn countries that we give aid to. I know this sounds like some right wing taliking points, but nobody can deny where the revenue comes from. We just have to come to an agreement on how we can increase growth without strangling that growth with higher costs of doing business.

One problem is the one size fits all approach to taxes on corporations.....some actually do create jobs, and do manufacture goods and/or services. Some just manufacture money for their investors, no job creation involved. And, as briefly discussed in another thread somewhere, small businesses create 1/2 the jobs in America, yet 90+% of small businesses make less than $250,000/year. These business owners are not getting the same bennies that large corporations do.......why not? are they not just a smaller version of GE?

I cannot say it often enough or loud enough....our tax code is broken, it is unfair, it is clumsy, overblown, and ridiculous. But....it will not be fixed with some simplistic plan like 9/9/9 or a flat tax......we need a careful, well constructed income tax plan for the future. That encourages entrepreneurship in all income levels, that encourages manufacturing at home and punishes (yes, punishes) companies that go abroad for their raw materials, then assembles their product here and call it "made in America". We also need to work on incentives in personal income taxes....reward those who further their and their children's education......reward those who want to leave the 9-5 job and open their own business, reward those who want to work to get off of welfare/unemployment but find that by adding to their income they are worse off because welfare and unemployment are an all or nothing deal......

So much we could do better.......but we don't. It doesn't make for snappy election slogans.

I am a buyer and people are really souring on low Chinese quality and deception.

But back to the recession talk, Rush thinks it is a trial balloon for the Obama administration to reach a settlement with the Republican House that will only repeal the highest income Bush tax cuts. For example, only if you earn over a million, will your taxes increase.

I think Obama and Boehner would both like a big legislative win leading up to November and this would be a compromise that both can call a victory.

archer wrote: One problem is the one size fits all approach to taxes on corporations.....some actually do create jobs, and do manufacture goods and/or services. Some just manufacture money for their investors, no job creation involved. And, as briefly discussed in another thread somewhere, small businesses create 1/2 the jobs in America, yet 90+% of small businesses make less than $250,000/year. These business owners are not getting the same bennies that large corporations do.......why not? are they not just a smaller version of GE?

I cannot say it often enough or loud enough....our tax code is broken, it is unfair, it is clumsy, overblown, and ridiculous. But....it will not be fixed with some simplistic plan like 9/9/9 or a flat tax......we need a careful, well constructed income tax plan for the future. That encourages entrepreneurship in all income levels, that encourages manufacturing at home and punishes (yes, punishes) companies that go abroad for their raw materials, then assembles their product here and call it "made in America". We also need to work on incentives in personal income taxes....reward those who further their and their children's education......reward those who want to leave the 9-5 job and open their own business, reward those who want to work to get off of welfare/unemployment but find that by adding to their income they are worse off because welfare and unemployment are an all or nothing deal......

So much we could do better.......but we don't. It doesn't make for snappy election slogans.

Small businesses do get a number of advantages, escaping a lot of regulation like Sarbanes Oxley, many paperwork nightmares. The company I am working for have been expanding very fast in the last two years, going from 100 to almost 500 employees and the extra hoops we have to go through as we grow are expensive and onerous.

This just in.... in response to Clintons plea to extend the Bush tax cuts- The White House says it will not support any extension of Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest.

Obama is finding his socialist policies are in direct conflict with the will of the people- he seems to be on the wrong side of almost every issue these days. I think America deservs a president that is on the right side of these issues. Clinton wants the tax cuts extended- because he knows what will happen to the economy if they are not extended- Obama could care less.

President Barack Obama will not extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, even temporarily, past their January 1 expiration, the White House said Wednesday as it coped with the fall-out from comments by Bill Clinton.

"We should not extend -- and he will not extend -- the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of the American people. It's bad policy, it's bad for the economy, it's bad for our fiscal picture," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Asked whether that applied to a short-term extension, Carney did not hide his irritation: "He will not — could I be more clear? — he will not support extension of the upper-income Bush tax cuts."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/defense-over-clinton-statements-white-house-says-not-171140159.html