The best economy since Reagan was in office!

[JohnnyRingo]

...So I hear on Fox News several times a week. They're often quick to point out however, that the problem is that many can't see the boom for some unreported reason.

Sure, car sales have been off pace for many months now, but low interest rates had kept home sales bristling during the same period.
Actually, I always believed the increase was a case of people selling their home at a huge profit and buying into someone else's huge profit. ...A dangerous game of musical chairs that will leave many facing sad consequences when the music stops and higher interest rates affect their adjustable mort ages.

After years of watching this push/pull on real estate and modest gains for the stock market, I noted this week what may be the "Three Horsemen of the Economic Apocalypse". Amid the overly optimistic hopes for a green Christmas by retailers:

Cd sales are at an all time low for 2005
Movie ticket sales are well down during the holiday season
Video game sales have dropped off briskly despite introduction of the "XBox 360"

If the coveted 16-25 consumer group has reached the limits of their disposable income, then this truly is a return to Reaganomics, but I don't think Sean Hannity's gonna like it.

This group represents REAL cash spent, not electronic transfers of funds from one bank to another. They keep money flowing like a green tidal wave that never fears tomorrow. There's a reason retailers target this group and if their funding is drying up through cuts in parental subsidies, the investor class will be left holding the bag in 2006.

I survived The Gipper's "economic boom" by buying a loaf of bread, a can of tomato soup, and shoplifting a pack of Kraft Singles™. Grilled cheese and tomato soup kept me alive another week.

Good luck America.

[LSK]

1. were they in a coma during the 90s?!?!?!?!?

:wtf:

[bahrbearian]

3. You can't have a good economy ,,without a healthy Deficit,,,

Reagan proved that!

[rkc3]

No shit. Weren't American businesses offering bonuses to any

warm body to fill job openings? I guess that's a bad thing in this up is down world.

[underpants]

7. Oh no no no no no no no

Nuh-uh we can't have that. EmployEEs making the demands....oh no no way.

(Takes puff on cigar)

And while you are at it bust all those superhappy 25 year old tech millionaires while you are at it

[VolcanoJen]

8. I can remember a time during the late 90's...

... when the Taco Bell and Wendy's on the corner were competing for employees. They had "NOW HIRING $10 HOUR CLOSERS" on their signs... that's how competitive the job market was.

[rkc3]

25. And people still wouldn't work there because the wages were too low.

I have a friend who works for a regional C-store chain. She was perplexed by the lack of applicants even when (relatively) high wages were offered for counter clerks at the time. Now they have the opposite - a glut of applicants for lower wages.

[proud patriot]

29. my thoughts exactly

x(

[Deep13]

2. that bad, huh?

[BuelahWitch]

6. Yeah, that's what I was going to say

The Reagan years were some of the worst post-Depression in history. Of course, the Rethugs rewrite history every chance they get...

[Deja Q]

4. CD and movie sales are down to piracy, not lack of affordability...

Why do you hate America?

People like their current games; they see no need to buy something new that's been reported to be highly unstable and highly overpriced (despite the amount of offshored engineering and labor poured into it; which must've been very little... boy, offshoring saved them a lot of money, didn't it?)

[Deep13]

12. Also, most of them suck.

"Why do you hate America?"

Because it killed my Dad.

[AllegroRondo]

14. The CD sales / piracy myth was debunked

by one of the music magazines - I believe it was Spin.

Total album sales have gone down for the last few years, but the average number of sales per title are up. Record companies are releasing fewer titles, by fewer artists, getting rid of low selling artists and promoting the heck out of popular ones.

We get stuck with less selection and more mainstream crap.

[TheFarseer]

21. video game sales are down because

good Christians are starting to stand up and say enough is enough to violent and sexually suggestive video games. Not because they cost what normal people make for a day's wages and rent is more important than video games. You pinko rat bastard.

[Nickster]

5. Funny, we just had this shoved down our throats last night in my economics

class. Our "liberal" professor told us about Supply and Demand side in theory and how it's just a matter of opinion about which one is better. He mentioned how the Reagon economy was booming and how Dubya's economy is taking off...sigh. This is from someone with a PHd as well. My what a great economy, median wages are down and the cost of all our basic necessities are at all time highs and my paycheck doesn't keep up with any of it. Guess I should have been born a millionaire.

[xchrom]

9. doncha know -- if you're not a millionaire in america

it's your fault?

[Nickster]

16. Duh! :-)

[xchrom]

lol -- i know, huh?

[harlinchi]

24. I wondered what was being taught in economics nowadays!

What do economists say when one of the factors of production can be manipulated by another? When capital can instruct its political employees to increase the amount of labor in a region or a country, through so-called immigration reform, or though a lack of prosecution of illegally-employing employers, how is the free market served? I'd say badly.

Next they'll be advocating for debtor holding areas.

They appear to think, like Scrooge said, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Oh boy I am glad to know this is the case

wow!

By the way movie tickets are down because movies are lousy and prices are well, too high, and not affordable... but shh... what would we know?

[Miss Chybil]

11. Ah, more "news" from Foxazeera...

I'm glad we have such fair and balanced reporting to keep us from turning into a country like China, or Iran. What would we do without them?

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. How can they say this and keep a straight face? In Pinhead**'s

case, he says it while smirking his ass off. At least when he says it, I know he knows it's a damn lie.

[smoogatz]

15. To paraphrase James Carville--if you let me write $2.5 trillion

in bad checks, I can create the illusion of prosperity, too. The Bush economy IS similar to the Reagan economy, in that whatever growth is occurring is largely generated by government debt--either through irresponsible tax cuts or military spending. The trick is to do what Clinton did--create a booming economy AND a budget surplus. Republicans will never be able to do it, because their philosophy on taxation isn't based in reality.

[A Simple Game]

19. So true, and you could have a true, large, and lasting tax cut

after the national debt was paid off. Or national health care, fill the pot holes, fix the bridges, public transportation, etc., and still have a small sustainable tax cut.

[smoogatz]

20. Yep, instead all we get is this crappy war and this crappy, fake

economy--booming corporate profits at the expense of everything else. No wonder people aren't exactly feeling flush right now.

[TheFarseer]

23. Reagan's economy was great - for some people

farmers were going broke left and right and manufacturing was being off-shored leaving those guys to work at Walmart or what have you. Of course that was all good for the stock market and we all know that's the only important thing in measuring economy. So why isn't the stock market flying in this bush economy? Because people are sick and tired of having their dividends and capital gains taxed. Otherwise, we'd all be sh*tting dollar bills and pissing quarters the economy would be so good.

[sandnsea]

17. Reagan's Economy SUCKED ASS TOO

It's the SAME damned economy. They told us how wonderful the economy was then too. And all it was mergers and acquisitions, junk bonds, and military deficit. And stagnant wages, less benefits, fewer jobs, temp jobs, etc. SAME shit, new day. That's all this is.

[catmandu57]

18. I spent most of the raygun years

broke and homeless, we were in a full blown depression here, there wasn't any work, none. If you happened to know somebody on the inside, there was a chance at getting a job.

There was job scam after scam, come in and pay us sixty bucks we tell you where the hidden market is. People went in plopped down sixty very scarce dollars and were handed the want ads, remember those?

The unemployment rate officially ran between 9 to 13 percent, unoffial probably close to 25% and up. Rayguns damn near killed me, it was only the social safety net that was intact then, at least they'de give a person food stamps so that you could eat under your bridge or camp.

Now that net is in tatters, and I see no evidense of a great economy, by this time next year things will be bad and getting desperate for many people.

[tjwash]

22. Reagan was the first to fuck the US economy up.

That was something even Richard Nixon could not accomplish. Voodoo economics, deficit spending, and trickle down "piss on the middle class" spending. As soon as they found out they could get away with it, it became the norm with conservatives.

[Old Smokey]

26. Reganomics sucked

The worst economic times my family suffered was while Regan was at the helm.

[lpbk2713]

27. Sure it is.....

Unless you happen to drive a car....

or pay the light bill....

or buy groceries....

or pay for health insurance....

or would like to buy a home....

or .....

[jmowreader]

28. House flipping is also to blame for the housing sales boom

There are apparently two ways to flip a house. One should definitely be illegal and the other should probably be as well.

The should-definitely-be-illegal method is to buy a house for...oh, let's say $15k. You then turn around and sell the house for $20k. The guy who bought it from you sells it for $30k. And on and on until you've pushed the price up to $65k or $70k, and then you drop it out of your tight little circle into the general marketplace. Oh, you may have painted the inside, put on vinyl siding and replaced the windows, but you're still dealing with the same shitty house that has the same shitty wiring, the same shitty plumbing, the same shitty roof...

The other way is to buy the same shitty house for $15k, spend $15k on renovations then ask $90k for the property. I deal with fucking house flippers all the time. I hate them! And you can tell in an instant who they are--get someone who walks in the door and buys fifteen molded interior doors, two Primary Steel entry doors and a lock-hole boring kit, two of the cheapest storm doors in the building, nine boxes of white vinyl siding with trims, a pile of single-hung vinyl windows and not one lick of insulation, and you've got a house flipper on your hands. Or better...someone will come in asking for "a door." You ask them what kind of a door they want. "You mean there's more than one kind?" (You know INSTANTLY that they're flipping something.) "Ma'am, is the door an entry door, which is for the outside of your house, or an interior door, which is used to close off a room?" 'Oh, it's in the house.' "Okay...are both sides of the door inside of the house, or is one side on the outside of your house and the other side inside." 'When I open the door, both sides are inside the house.' (Yes, people say this.) "If you close the door, are both sides still inside the house?" 'George? Are both sides of the kitchen door inside the house when the door's closed?' (George doesn't know either.) "Ma'am, you said this is a kitchen door. If you are standing in your kitchen, and you open the door and look out of it, what do you see?" 'The tree in the backyard.' "Then you have an entry door." 'But I don't go in the door, only out of it.' "Yes, ma'am. It's still called an entry door." (Quit your fucking laughing. That fucking conversation happened today, and it's not the first time it's happened.)