From Lost Decade To Lost Generation

A reflection in a stock market display in Tokyo. Image Credit: 2005 - Katsumi Kasahara

From Lost Decade To Lost Generation

Barack Obama, in his first news conference of his tenure as the 44th president of the United States, dashed all hope and signaled a change from the United States being a free enterprise economy to a socialist based economy.

Citing the economic downturn as the reason why our elected leaders should pass the current large scale government spending legislation (with interest, over one trillion dollars) that is in front of them, Barack Obama invokes other economic downturns in the world.

One of the key examples he used as how a government spent itself out of economic troubles was the “Lost Decade” that Japan went through when their economy shrank and the government took over the fiscal control of many business enterprises. The funny thing is, the economy in Japan turned around when the government turned over major government operations back to the private sector after holding on to them for nearly a decade.

If our congress passes this spending bill, our country will not only revisit some of the worst economic times we have ever experienced (most recently the “Stagflation” Carter years with a misery index of 22 – currently the misery index stands at 7.6), we will loose major freedoms of choice for not just one decade … but a generation.

Another perplexing element tucked away in this trillion dollar “Stimulus” bill is the government’s reach into an un-funded yet subsidized health care.

The Democrat Party led Senate has confirmed New York Federal Reserve Bank Chief Timothy Geithner as President Obama's Secretary of the Treasury. The vote was 60-34, as many lawmakers questioned Geithner's failure to pay all of his taxes ($46,000) from 2001, to 2004. He has since paid them in full. Image Credit: NECN

This excerpted and edited from Congress Daily via NACS Daily -

Stimulus Package Contains Risky COBRA Provisions
Congress Daily - February 10, 2009

Senate leaders began debate on Friday on an economic stimulus bill that has some business community leaders concerned about the costs associated with the proposed health provisions, particularly one that would expand COBRA coverage.

Congress Daily writes that the health provisions of the Senate’s version of economic stimulus bill would subsidize COBRA premiums to allow “laid-off workers to afford to keep their job-based insurance for up to a year” However, the House-passed $819 billion version of the stimulus bill would “go a step further” and allow those who have been “on the job at least 10 years and who are age 55 or older to keep their job-based insurance until they become eligible for Medicare.”

On Friday, Senate leaders agreed to “a $5 billion reduction in COBRA subsidies for unemployed workers to buy health insurance” and instead of having the federal government subsidize 65 percent of the cost for nine months, as prescribed in both the House and Senate bills, the Senate bill reduces the subsidy to 50 percent but extends it for one year,” writes Congress Daily.
----
These costs would significantly increase if people could keep COBRA longer as they approach Medicare eligibility...COBRA should not be considered a long-term source of coverage and was not intended to be one...Both current employees and their employers would face significant cost increases to finance the committee’s proposals to indefinitely extend COBRA coverage.”
----
The Senate – with pressure from President Obama – is expected to pass its version of the economic stimulus package today. The bill will then head to a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions.
Reference Here>>

This additional drag on the structure of business expenses has the opposite effect on the economy as it relates to stimulus and growth.

The new Treasury Secretary of the Obama administration, Timothy Geithner, has just announced his new plan that proposes yet another two (yes, that’s 2) trillion dollars of taxpayer money committed to propping up our mortgage banking industry.

Process without consequence is NO PROCESS at all.

We are living in the parallel universe described in the Superman comic books known as Bizzaro World (all things are flipped to the opposite) ... where everything Good is labeled and reacted to as Bad - and everything Bad is labeled and reacted to as Good.

In this real world, the outcomes and consequences are not flipped and actually remain the same.

United States' Social Engineering through the US Congress created entities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, left unchecked ... has led to this world economic disaster.

All "Bailout" scenarios leave these Social Engineering processes in place.

A trillion here, two trillion there ... WHY NOT? It's Carter's Second Term!

Bend over and kiss the future generation’s economic and personal freedoms goodbye.