Gloom and Doom, Doom and Gloom

It’s all we have…

…Consumer spending slowed sharply in May as rising gasoline prices left Americans with less to spend on other items, the government reported Friday.

The Commerce Department said that spending rose by just 0.4 percent last month after a 0.7 percent gain in April. Income growth also slowed to an advance of just 0.4 percent last month, reflecting weaker job growth.

…The report on personal incomes and consumer spending provided further evidence that the economy, after growing strongly in the first three months of the year, slowed sharply in the spring as Americans were battered by rising gasoline prices, higher interest rates and a cooling housing market.

…to look back on fondly as we survey the wreckage of two rounds of Obama induced “Recovery Bummer”.

The paragraphs above? From a post I did on the gloomy literary license slant of a couple of June 2006 AP/Al Reuters reports on dismal Bush administration economic numbers. They WERE truly horrifying, in retrospect: a first quarter revised UPward from 4.8% to 5.3% GDP, with a faltering 4.6% unemployment rate. I’m so glad Barack Obama came along for these guys to annoint as the chosen one and they could put away the poison pen for a couple years. You know ~ a president with RESULTS worthy of respect, if not downright adulation. (Here, AP reporter ~ a Kleenix to wipe the spittle from your lip at the thought.)

Good times, good times. Horrifying how far we’ve fallen, thanks to Captain Slice, his Uncle Harry and Nanny Botox.

There is one thing that always bugs me to no end when discussion of the Bush years gets to raging and the blame monkeys start screeching. First, we were heading into a recession just as Willie Jeff exited stage left, so “The Clinton Golden Years” depend on your definition of “golden”. For all the howling about the “tax breaks” and leaving, what in hindsight, looks like a pretty miniscule deficit, coupled with this administration’s completely bogus glomming onto every natural/unatural disaster in addition to BUSHBUSHBUSH as excuses for their complete and utter incompetence in all arenas under their purview…no one brings up September 11th when deconstructing Obama spin.

…Stocks had an enormous run at the end of the 1990s that peaked in the first quarter of 2000. And the comedown from the huge runup was brutal.

2000 was one of the worst years for the stock market, with the Nasdaq posting its biggest one-year loss on a percentage basis since its inception in 1971. The Dow recorded its biggest one-year percentage loss since 1981 and the S&P 500 index saw its biggest one-year drop since 1977.

A rough 2001 got worse after the attacks in September, but the market was already hurting before that. By the close of trade on Sept. 10, 2001, the Nasdaq had fallen 31 percent on the year, the Dow industrials had fallen 11 percent and the S&P 500 index had fallen 17 percent.

They did it again last night on The NewsHour. I don’t understand how any defense of Bush’s record gets distilled to just “tax breaks” and a $160 billion deficit.

This country was on its KNEES, gasping for breath emotionally and ECONOMICALLY. When the Big Board finally opened, I’m sure there’s not many people who care to remember what happened…and KEPT happening…and where we wound up when the slide mercifully, finally stopped at the end of the week. But the financial markets were like a long tailed cat and a rocking chair ~ any little creak could cause a wild swing, a gyration in the averages. There were terrorists around every corner and no reason to believe otherwise. What is this thing, “stability”?

We were now governed by the rainbow colors of the threat level chart.

George Bush, his economic team and a mighty pissed off American people brought us back from the edge of the abyss. The challenges he faced almost the second he walked into that office were immense. Catastrophic. And they didn’t stop. (Katrina, anyone?) Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t recall a single time where that “simple” Texan blamed…well…anybody, but someone who made a bomb, planned an attack or actually flew an airplane into a building.

Dear God. I can only pray with my whole heart that we stay safe through the efforts of those who protect us while this infantile loser is in office.

Nobody does everything right and there are many, many things to point a finger at Bush for, but not EVERYthing.

A real man would know that. Sometimes you just keep your hand in your pocket.

One Response to “Gloom and Doom, Doom and Gloom”

1. aelfheld says:

   August 24, 2011 at 1:01 pm

   That’s not spittle on the reporter’s lips.