Americans don't see the economy as a problem, and many will not be able to retire. I have a related post from last month on my blog.

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/159

One big problem is that small businesses have no room to maneuver and mature in the "big business mafia" economy that Bush Co. has constructed. Our entire economy has been reduced to a handful of big businesses like Exxon, Chevron, Haliburton, and Walmart.

Where are all the small businesses? After all, they are typically the primary sources of innovation.

"I am the blogger formerly known as clarkuistador"

It is a constant worry - with two jobs I manage to save and have no debt except a mortgage. But how to pay for a college education when most liberal arts colleges this year are $30K or higher?

The country seems to be in a state of denial - even after having witnessed the poverty in New Orleans that has become such a crisis.

Blue State of Mind

repealing FDR's New Deal and, of course, reversing anything Bill Clinton may have advocated or started. In other words, let people totally fend for themselves and damn the results.

that Bush/Cheney EVER had the slightest regard for "lesser souls" than they? The fact of the matter is that available resources--the Clinton surplus and then some--WERE allocated appropriately, in their view. They got their tax cuts, designed as they wanted them and benefiting who they wanted to benefit: their compatriots in Highland Park, Texas.

General Clark's egalitarian views are both distinctive even among the democrats and attractive in a society that is becoming more like Brazil with each passing day.

The $8 trillion deficit/debt couldn't be a bigger issue. We had tax cuts for the rich and raided Social Security to pay for it. Did it stimulate the economy and pull us out of the dot.com recession? I doubt it. Meanwhile, our economy functions based on buying and selling each other houses with mortgages financed with money from China. Jobs are busily being outsourced overseas and remaining jobs are given to illegal immigrants, who believe they should be given work visas for doing these jobs. They probably should, but the point is work in America is going to cheap labor, not a living wage. Our economic world is turned upside down and those who have profited the most such as Haliburton and the Pharmaceutical Industry (think medicare drug law) are laughing all the way to the bank. It's a disgrace. We have the most bloated Federal Government we've had in ages and what do we have to show for it? A classic example...Dept. of Homeland Security has a $40 billion budget and what did we get? A color code and the keystone cops pretending like they'd know what to do in a disaster. China called it right after Katrina struck. China said, "a government has a duty to the people." Since China owns a big chunk of our debt, they should be concerned about what goes on in the USA. As for Social Security going broke, Dennis Moore says if they raised the cap on all income that would take care of the problem. It's time for our governemnt to recognize they have a duty to the people. The jig is up when it comes to the handling of our economy and "there's going to be hell to pay at the end of the day!" Les Miserables

It's the Virtuous Circle v. the Vicious Cycle!!

So many intertwined issues challenge us- access to affordable health care, affordable housing, decent wages, job skills, investing in people. Education. The American Dream is in great peril now that w's disastrous economic policies are coming home to roost.

The states have been starved of tax revenue & the squeeze is on the indigent, the working poor & middle class.

Several members of Congress- mostly or all Dems from both the House & the Senate today went on record with their strong & moral views regarding one of the first (literally insane) actions Bush chose to take after Hurricane Katrina. He waived the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees prevailing wages for federal work in the afflicted area. This law has been upheld by every President, Republican & Democrat since it was enacted.

In this case, as most Americans come together, trying to route resources into the hands of these people rather than into Dick Cheney's jingling pocket, it is especially grotesque that Bush handed yet another no-bid contract to Halliburton because our neighbors need every advantage we can extend to them- and wages are often low in some of these areas anyway-they need more, not less, to get back on their feet.

for General Clark to outline some of his draft ideas on the potential solutions to this lack of economic leadership?

I think this is a really important point too. We'll become more productive as a society and community when all of our members are contributing their best.

For instance, how days of work are lost by people who are ill but who don't have health insurance and can't afford to get the level of medical care they really need?

Helping those less fortunate is not only the right thing to do, I think it's also the smart thing to do.

Don't we owe it to ourselves to be all that we can be as a people of faith? To reach out and offer hope and opportunity to the least among us? - Wes Clark

It's not enough for the Democratic party to just stand up for the average worker, the party has to persuade the workers (and that's almost all of us) that the government is there to protect our interests against industry and ensure we are represented in the national economic discourse. For some reason, Democrats have allowed the Republicans to claim that the government has no right to meddle in the marketplace on behalf of the workers (but has every right to do so on behalf of business because it's "good for America"). Democrats have to challenge that idea and explain to people that our democracy cannot succeed unless the government promotes a strong vibrant middle class, and a lower class that can make ends meet. THAT's good for America.

How much of the real estate market, the wealth it's generated, may be factored into the growth of our economy?

I've been fortunate to have many in my own family become professionals with higher graduate degrees, as engineers, doctors, architects and lawyers. Yet, I've witness that they've prospered more financially from flipping properties than serving their own clients. I understand that approximately 40-50% of the housing market is driven by "flippers." As a witness, I've seen their gains. They've become 'players', who've benefited greatly in a grossly skewed Bush-elitist housing- and real estate-based economy. Sadly, in consequence, the American dream of owning a home has become a nightmare, flipped to the dark side of destroying basic housing needs. This has clearly become an economic burden which has penalized the middle class.

Bush's tax welfare for the wealthy elite and his domestic economic policy are simply an attack against the overwhelming majority of Americans who seek the most basic of all their needs -- a place of shelter and security that they can call "home."

_______________________________________________________________________
"Debate, Dialogue, Discussion, Disagreement - that's not wrong -that's not unpatriotic, that's one of the highest forms of patriotism and love of country, and we need to say it!" - Gen. Wesley Clark (US Ret.)

Bush's economic policies of Tax cuts and more tax cuts have benefitted the rich and that's about it. But that was always the plan, so there is no surprise for me in seeing these results.

Bush's economic platform is every person for him/herself, unless you have rich parents, then it's inherited wealth that will get you through.

As long as corporations have as many rights as citizens do, we are only going to sink deeper into the sticky Faciscm doo.

The problem of course is that we are not allowed to call things what they truly are in an environment where so many have been brainwashed into thinking that "business" is always a good thing. That's what the GOP has been drilling into the brains of Americans for quite a few years now.

And "Small" business are used by this administration to cover for the real benefits derived by the Giant companies. It's always small business this, and small business that. What I will tell you, as someone who owns a small business, small businesses have not prospered in Bush's America.

It is all very transparent and sad, but until we start calling things what they are, and forcing folks to understand that big business don't work for the interest of citizens, the mentality of our culture will not allow us to visit the real solutions that could be had.

Bush = Big Government/bad ---->Big Business/Good

=============
"decent wages, education and health care for every American is "not just an opportunity, but a right."--Wes Clark

The repukes and their bankruptcy legislation will be sticking it to the poor in an even more cruel way in the near future...meanwhile airlines can declare bankruptcy to get out of keeping their promises to their workers and wealthy families are getting out of their estate taxes.
GREED rules the day.
Democrats should be able to easily win elections with so few power elites having resources. STand up to these bullies and liars.
They are eliminating the safety net with glee.

I don't think enough people understand or even pay much attention to economic issues. I saw a poll in the NYT Magazine back when Bush was first elected that said that 19% of people believed they were in the wealthiest 1% and 39 percent believed they one day would be.
Here in NY, we have a mayors race this year. When I talk to people I know - artists, musicians, writers, liberals, people who protested Bush and the war - no one wants to do anything about Bloomberg. They say that he's pro-choice and pro gay rights, which is fine, but he's a big business, tax cut, corporate welfare conservative. Not many people seem to get that.
I've always thought that for the neo-cons, the social issues are just for manipulation, pandering and control. It's the economic issues thay care about. What they really want is real old-fashoned feudalism. Sure, that do it indirectly by filtering it through the federal government, but it adds up to the same thing: taxing the serfs to pay the wealthy.

The world is always going to be ruled by people who want to rule the world.

A subject that I would really like to see some economic leadership on is the issue of the outsourcing of jobs in this country. It is disproportionately effecting the middle and working class and these jobs cannot be replaced once they are gone. We no longer have our old manufacturing base. People are told to "re-train" themselves, forgetting that the jobs they had taken from them were jobs that they already "re-trained" for after the last lay-off.

This global race to the bottom is going to leave everyone losers. People out there understand this and want some answers, a plan, a vision of how we can keep the country economically healthy both short and long-term. The Democrats need to give them those answers and seize the issue instead of actually helping along this policy with votes that reward the very companies that engage in this behavior or speaking in vague and useless generalities.

Factor in the Katrina rebuilding effort and our economy won't know what's hit it. So far, according to the WAPO on the 15th, Bush will ask for more money as what has been appropriated will last until the first week in October and those "advising" seem to be the CATO Institute and other Republicans. They are talking about a social safety net and it's all borrowed money that's been spent in the $8 trillion debt/deficit already. We have to rebuild the Gulf areas, but to do it without talking about where the money will come from and just saying cut spending like they always do, just isn't going to work. Bush has come up with more spending programs that Clinton ever dreamed of having. They need to kill most of them and end the tax cuts for the rich. It's time for the rich to sacrifice along with the rest of us. That medicare drug law needs to be put on hold and repaired. It's only good for the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Paul Krugman needs to be given the authority to fix this economic nightmare.

People are feeling emotional right now about being let down by this president. Betrayed and ashamed. Including Republicans. Talking dispassionately about the economic disparities that this Administration has encouraged doesn't tap into what needs to be said right now. I mean, in the debates between Gore and Bush, they both acknowledged that Bush had a plan to cut taxes for everyone who pays them but with the rich being the biggest beneficiaries by far. And people still didn't see that as a reason to vote against Bush.

Yes, it may be a time to talk about economic inequality. But this isn't the way to talk about it, I think. Talk from the heart, talk from your anger. React to the shame. Feel the outrage. And if you're going to talk about economic inequalities, those feelings should be in that speech, too. I think if people like Joe Scarborough were hearing that leadership post on tpmcafe, now -- I think you might convert a couple more Republicans.

I'm really glad to see you addressing this issue and I hope to see even more--both from you and from all of us.

My father was a house-painter with a 10th-grade education. We were poor to working-class, depending on the state of construction trends and on weather--work was not to be found at all, at times. We moved around to follow construction; I went to 14 different elementary, middle and high schools. We lived in dumps and seedy motels and fought off the cockroaches (except for the albino one on North Beach that my mother felt sorry for and wouldn't let us kill because it was so vulnerable due to being conspicuous). We often had to move in with relatives. Going to the grocery store when we finally got some money after Daddy got work was a big delight.

My two brothers and I all managed to make it through college and to have professional careers. However, that was due solely to the fortunate convergence of several different factors that smoothed the way to our upward social mobility. Part of it was the fact that my father was so stung by his lack of education that he pushed us to get one. Part of it was we were smart and white.

Even so, we were isolated from mainstream middle-class culture; that led to several strange anomalies that nearly derailed us or provided a drag on upward movement. We knew almost nothing about scholarships or even of their importance: thus, with the full blessing of my education-hungry family and despite the fact that I was second in my high-school, I skipped taking the National Merit Scholarship Exams because we won a trip to Miami Beach and I wanted to go. Another example: I was so removed from middle-class culture that I was married, twenty-seven-years-old, and about to give birth when I first heard about health insurance. My husband mentioned that we had it. Turns out we had had it for three years--my husband hated paperwork, so he had never mentioned it before. I asked to see it and he drug out the policy and I was stunned. I actually didn't know such a thing existed.

Mainly we three siblings made it through college with Veterans Benefits and Lyndon-Johnson-era student loans plus jobs and a little help from home. It took a long time--in my case until I was 38 to get my first college degree. In the meantime, we worked at jobs that were somewhat dead-end, but not to the extent they would be today. There was a little more wiggle room back then for rising through the ranks and relatively the pay seemed better than it does today. Further, what money we did earn seemed to go further than it does today.

My point is--I don't think any of us would make it were we starting out today from the position we started from. That gives me great pause because I know how hard it was even then with a little bit of wind at our backs. And my heart is still back there with the working poor in some seedy motel.

Their position and that of the truly poverty stricken is far worse today. We Democrats need to awaken to the great social need and isolation of the poor. I have noted great reluctance to face this head on, even among middle-class Democrats, so thank you for opening this dialogue.

Bush economic policy has been disastrous for more than just the middle class. It has isolated the poor even further from mainstream culture and has squashed the hope that existed back when I was young and poor. Please, let's bring back some of that convergence.

as we see with Enron/Anderson "cooking the books" but what concerns me more, General Clark, is the apparent "manipulation of the stock market!"

Could you comment on this report, Move over Adam Smith: the Visible Hand of Uncle Sam from www.sprott.com by John Embry and Andrew Hepburn of Toronto:

Government Intervention in Stock Market is Detailed by New Report, GATA Says
Tuesday September 6, 8:30 am ET

MANCHESTER, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2005--A major Canadian financial management firm that a year ago published a compilation of evidence of central bank manipulation of the gold price has just done the same in regard to the U.S. stock market and has reached a similar conclusion.
The new report is titled "Move Over, Adam Smith: The Visible Hand of Uncle Sam," and has been published by Sprott Asset Management of Toronto. It was written by the firm's president, John P. Embry, and his assistant, Andrew Hepburn, and concludes that the U.S. government has intervened to support the stock market so many times that "what apparently started as a stopgap measure may have morphed into a serious moral hazard situation, with market manipulation an endemic feature of the U.S. stock market."

http://tinyurl.com/d7882

For Clarksanity in 2008

Media, corporate as it is, doesn't report the truth of inflation when they comment on the economy. That is why Americans don't understand that it is inequitable for the middle class and poor.

This is such a vital issue and one I'm grateful we're concentrating on here on the blog-site.

I've been amazed and horrified by the comments of some relatives and acquaintances to the recent hurricane and a well-known response to it by a television commentarian popular with extreme conservatives who has stated on air that the circumstances of hurricane victims in New Orleans is their own responsibility - that if they'd focused on education and work and evacuated as ordered they wouldn't be in the circumstances they are in now. It's their problem, not the government's. This completely ignores the common good and the responsibility of OUR government to ensure some measure of the common good.

I sincerely hope you will continue to speak out about the common good, General Wes. Thank you for supporting ALL Americans.

Leadership means lifting people up. --Wes Clark

I think mentioning the email sent out by the RNC here , which was sent out on Sept 1st is needed. We need to use this push for making the tax cuts permenent at a time when people were literally drowning in NOLA to show how out of touch the republican party is with the common american values.

Sen Reid made some headway with a statement included here

DNC Chair Dean also had a press release linked here

Sorry these are not direct links. But this attempt by the RNC to move on their goals and not adapt to the situation on the ground, shows the blinders they have on when it comes to all issues facing our country whether it is Iraq, national disasters or the failed economic recovery.

The looming economic crash, based on the convergence of sky rocketing energy costs, the new bankruptcy bill, the changes in credit card minimum payments and the federal interest rate leaving litle wiggle room, will destroy the discretionary income of a large portion of the middle class. Without the money or credit to keep consuming, the crash will only get worse.

I'm glad you are looking at economic leadership, it's going to be an intergral part of the fight in the mid terms.

that the Bush Administration, with a complicit Republican Congress, has expended all its energy to insure that the rich, the powerful, and the crony gets richer and more powerful at the expense of the poorest, sickest, and most helpless of Americans. To me, this Government's actions over the last 5 years has been nothing less than mean spirited and uncaring.
Thank you General Clark for your public discussion of what is economically wrong in America

is adding fuel to the fire of our deficit-based economy. I hope that Congressional Democrats (and, dare I say, responsible Republicans) will start asking some hard questions about spending. Lately, it seems that any information surfacing about the beneficiaries of this or that million. But no one is asking the hard questions.

Thank you, General Clark, for focusing on this issue.

The General gets it right.
Competence--What a concept!

Here in Mexico, traditional weekly market days have become open air bazaars for Chinese goods. Craft markets have also been bludgeoned to near extinction by a flood in the past couple of years of Chinese goods. The prices are so low that Indigenous artisans cannot compete with cheap trinkets peasant resellers buy for their market stands. The Chinese are now ready to pour money into the Mexican economy, as it already has in the Canadian economy, following agreements reached last week. The Chinese already own much of our own debt. I am absolutely at a loss to think anything but that the Chinese will soon own this hemisphere.

What on earth can be done, General? What are the answers?

"It's time to protect our nation and take it forward. No party can do it better." - Gen. Wes Clark to Arkansas Democrats, 8/13/05

I'm not very literate about Economics, but was wondering how the rebuilding of New Orleans would be implemented. I wonder if this will be done by large companies "imported" to do the work (as in Iraq) or will those displaced and most affected by the storm be given opportunities to participate - with jobs and with a voice in the plan.

From my admittedly naive perspective, I've thought that perhaps much work in Iraq could have been done more economically by Iraqis than what has been paid to US corporations. It seems like that would not only have improved the unemployment picture but given the Iragis a greater sense of ownership sooner in the process.

With that in mind, I hope the reconstruction of New Orleans includes a significant role for those Survivors who want to be involved, and I'd appreciate General Clark's thoughts about this.

Incidentally, Survivors in Houston have been organizing! They've created a "Survivors Leadership Group." I was very impressed by their efforts and sent an e-mail message about it in response to a DriveDemocracy e-mail that included a link from the NAACP encouraging survivor communities to organize and have their voices heard. The e-mail was posted by the recipient on the Drive Democracy blog. The only thing he left off in the post was my signature line with a link to www.securingamerica.com . . .

The U.S. government has been keeping a lid on the brewing problems with China because of the delicate situation which has the Chinese Central Bank holding billions in U.S. dollars and treasury bonds which Washington fears they might stop buying or sell off.

China has been instrumental in helping the U.S. government bank roll its national debt and consequently, this reliance on the Chinese to support has America up against a rock and a hard place.

Meanwhile, the United States is financing its ever ballooning budget deficit, which is officially reported to be $412 billion in 2004 up $35 billion over 2003.

Adding to the overall debt problem is the trade deficit shortfall of $575 billion with China accounting for the greatest imbalance last year of $150 billion. So all told, the nation spent $987 billion more then what it brought in over 2004.

General Clark, would you please speak to the problem China poses to our economy, at this time? Everything I'm reading is frightening. I would appreciate hearing your views on this subject.

Thank you.

http://brillig.com/debt_clock/

Wes Clark - You are the leader we all deserve to have!

--
Kevin

..................................................
Washington Woman
http://washingtonwoman.blogspot.com

Writing about, thinking about and being active on issues that affect women, children, society, the enviroment and a little

Why is "tax and spend," paying as we go, considered a horrible thing, while "borrow and spend," accumulating debt for our children and granchildren to pay off, considered "fiscally conservative?"

The GOP definition of "fiscal conservatism" involves stinginess on social programs, infrastructure, job training, urban development, veteran's benefits, etc., BUT, it involves playing Santa Claus to their wealthy contributors and big business. There's nothing "fiscally conservative" about that!

We need new terminology for economic policy positions!

(And thank you for this forum, General!!)

Note to webmasters -- this differentiating the background color on Wes's blog from the rest is a great innovation. Thanks.

"It's time to protect our nation and take it forward. No party can do it better." - Gen. Wes Clark to Arkansas Democrats, 8/13/05

If this source is correct then not only did Mr. Bush try to cheat workers in the recovery, but may open the American taxpayer to extended and expensive litigation in the courts. Is there an article in the Constitution that indemnifies the President from the consequences of his stupidity?

"On September 8, President Bush issued a proclamation suspending the minimum wage requirements for relief workers engaged in Katrina recovery operations. But in order to do so, he relied upon a statutory authority that has been dormant for thirty years and that appears to be legally inoperative.

"I find that the conditions caused by Hurricane Katrina constitute a 'national emergency' within the meaning of section 3147 of title 40, United States Code," President Bush declared on September 8 as he removed the Davis Bacon Act wage supports for workers in Louisiana, and portions of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

But this emergency statute was one of numerous authorities that were rendered dormant by the National Emergencies Act of 1976, and that can only be activated by certain procedural formalities that were absent in this case.

In particular, the President must formally declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act, and he must specify which standby legal authorities he proposes to activate so as to permit congressional restraint of emergency powers."

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/15796.html

Any economic plan made today would have to include a sound energy policy. As long as we remain reliant on oil and coal as our sole source of energy we are eventually doomed. We need a long term plan to develop renewable sources of energy for us to go forward. From what I've been able to discern, B***'s hydrogen energy plan is not feasible and is meant to merely give the impression of doing anything about this highly important/basic issue.

Allan

Giving up the plan to repeal the Estate Tax isn't a tax hike. Letting the tax cuts for the rich expire isn't a tax hike. Putting the medicare drug plan on hold isn't a tax cut. It's a benefit to the pharmaceuticals and the insurance companies, not really the citizens on medicare. Getting other countries on board to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq isn't a tax hike. Accepting help from countries like Germany and France to train police and soldiers in their countries isn't a tax cut. Bush needs to learn some humility and let Iraq accept this help from other countries. Meanwhile, there probably is more pork that could be put on hold from the highway bill, the energy bill and others congress have just passed that we just can't afford to do right now. They better not be raiding social security to pay for anything other than social security. Nancy Peolosi's idea of having 50 year bonds to raise some money to pay for rebuilding the gulf also makes sense.
Clinton understood we needed a surplus to have money for a rainy day. He left office with a surplus. We've had many rainy days and nobody was expected to do much besides go shopping or the terrorists win! We have an $8 trillion deficit/debt. I want my surplus. It's just plain old kitchen table economics. Putting Rove in charge will just make things worse. He's not trustworthy.

Not all boats are raised by a rising tide, only sea worthy ones. Those with hulls rotted by long neglect flood and sink. It is that simple. The Bush administration has never cared about the "row boats" poorer Americans crowd onto. Their eyes fix on the "Super Tankers". Whenever there are tax breaks, or taxs incentives, or new investments for infrastructure, whenever there are no bid contracts let by our government, all of that floats the "Super Tankers". But when there is belt tightening, or basic needs left deferred, the small craft are left to deteriorate. We are not all in the same boat under the Bush Administration.

Maybe it is an American myth, but I was taught that Henry Ford had the foresight and wisdom to pay his workers well enough for them to purchase the products they built for him. It seems todays Corporations see greener pastures in India and China, so they take the money and run.

Not all boats are raised by a rising tide, only sea worthy ones. Those with hulls rotted by long neglect flood and sink. It is that simple. The Bush administration has never cared about the "row boats" poorer Americans crowd onto. Their eyes fix on the "Super Tankers". Whenever there are tax breaks, or taxs incentives, or new investments for infrastructure, whenever there are no bid contracts let by our government, all of that floats the "Super Tankers". But when there is belt tightening, or basic needs left deferred, the small craft are left to deteriorate. We are not all in the same boat under the Bush Administration.

Maybe it is an American myth, but I was taught that Henry Ford had the foresight and wisdom to pay his workers well enough for them to purchase the products they built for him. It seems todays Corporations see greener pastures in India and China, so they take the money and run.

China may not be planning to get us,but they are surely aware that the Bush years have given them a magnificent edge to become the world power of the 21st century. The Asians in power are well versed in economic doctrine (Marx,Lenin,Mao etc) and they know how to use it. The Soviets were expert commodity traders,as was Hegel who supported Marx,so they know how to use our markets,and our hedging system with the accuracy of a George Soros.

We are bankrupted in many different ways now. Our supposed military strength has been exposed for the dinosauer it really is. We are not capable of fighting a guerilla war either in Viet Nam or in Iraq or Afghanistan. And all of these countries were and or are very astute masters of it. They have learned how to defeat the American military controlled by the Pentagon. Be grateful there was no Pentagon when we were fighting the British for our lives and independence with a domestic population sympathetic to the Crown.

We do not know history at our peril. At least read the 2 volume condensed version of Toynbee's A Study of History to get a handle on what's going on in our disintigrating empire. He enumerates endlessly in defining and explaining all the symptoms of an empire in failure.

For God's sake read him. Study him. The Chinese are a civilization in its growth period right now. They are not necessarily our enemies,but if we are not careful we can encourage them in that direction. They have long memories too. I read about our support of Saddam from Eisenhower's administration in 1959 when we paid him to assasinate the head of Iraq (he failed)and he has been on our payroll since then. And I got this info from The Asia Times for gods sake.

http://tinyurl.com/dgcfu

I hope you use this graph, General, when you campaign for 2006 and 2008. . . voters would really connect with this graphic comparison and REALIZE the lack of Republican economic leadership and fiscal responsibility. Nice reality check.

For Clarksanity in 2008