The nearby chart is an update of one I showed on this page in early July. It depicts how the stock market over the last year and a half has followed a path eerily similar to that of 1937. This week corresponds on the chart to mid-August 1937, when the cumulative effects of massive hikes in personal and corporate tax rates, severe monetary tightening, and aggressive business-bashing by the Roosevelt administration tipped the economy into the "depression inside the Depression." From there, stocks were in for the longest and second-deepest bear market in history.
That same protectionism attitude seems to be the same sediment that caused this the frist time we were coming out of it. And, as it was explained to me, that is the problem. Knee jerk reactions because of what we are coming out of could cause another fall.
This part of the article was very interesting to me as well. Do not get me wrong, this happens on both sides but HOW are we supposed to do the best for our country when you have to play this kind of politics and do things for political reasons rather than the best solution to the problem. If you look at it purely by politics it is an interesting game they play but damn it sort of makes me sick. If we could find a way to take this kind of stuff out of the equation, think of what we could do. But I realize it is how the game is played.
When a bill comes before the House in the lame-duck session later this year, the games will really begin. House rules allow Mrs. Pelosi, as speaker, to offer legislation under what's known as "suspension of the rules," which limits time for debate but requires a two-thirds majority to pass, rather than a simple majority. If Mrs. Pelosi offers a bill under suspension that excludes the highest earners, there's little chance she'll get enough GOP votes for the supermajority she needs. That way she can blame Republicans for the defeat of an already doomed bill many Democrats oppose, shaming the GOP for "voting against middle-class tax cuts."
Yes, it DOES happen on both sides... And you're right--If that could be taken out of the equation a lot more could get done... But unfortunately, it IS how the game is played, and both sides have raised it to an art-form.
LJ you are right they spend many, many hours and spend so much money on finding a way to play those games and just think of where that time and money could go. As I said it makes me sick.
