Quick!

Someone point me to the nearest soupline!!

LOL!!!

Mmmmmm.... how bout a tasty bowl of clam chowder.

Which Party in the White House Means Good Times for Investors?
By HAL R. VARIAN

Does the stock market do better when a Republican is president or when a Democrat is?

The answer is: It's not even close. The stock market does far better under Democrats.

see: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hal/people/hal/NYTimes/2003-11-20.html

That's one pissed off baby. And I don't blame him.

sigh... The B4B idea of a good economy: manufacturing expanding at a slower rate, evidence of inflation though interest rates are rising, and a housing bubble.

I guess hamburger engineer is still a manufacturing job.

Muirgeo- your source is out of date. Stock markets back up. What about the 90s when the Republicans ran the house and senate and therefore the budget. The devil is always in the details.

Uh, what about that $9 Trillion you owe?

Wade

Stock Market is up because the oil companies are making record profits. I'm paying over $2.50 a gallon.
Maybe certain indicators are up, but speak to a large number of Americans and they are no better off if not worse off than they were 5 years ago.

Look at some of the other indicators...
Savings have dropped.
Average Salary has dropped.
Energy costs have skyrocketed.
Health costs have skyrocketed.

I hate to be accused of ignoring facts so yes... I admit there are indicators that are looking much better for the economy. I am hoping everything turns up roses and I'll be right in line patting the government on the back.

Now to you righties, please don't YOU ignore the facts of savings, salaries, energy costs and health care costs. Please don't ignore the fact the gap of the wealthy and poor is larger than ever and please don't ignore the fact that the debt and deficit are larger than ever before.

I hope all these indicators amount to something good that helps ALL Americans regardless of party affiliation.

Call it spin if you want, I am just speaking of how things are in affecting MY wallet.

"Democrats find every single ridiculous way to spin the news as if we're in the middle of another Great Depression"

Doubt that ex Ford and GM workers would find ridiculous the proper word.

More McDonalds jobs?

Did you ever stop to think that maybe home building is up because millions of people are rebuilding after hurricanes??? And maybe manufacturing of home building supplies is up??? And maybe, just maybe, it's only in a small part of the country when the rest of us continue to suffer. Nah, that's crazy talk.

"Doubt that ex Ford and GM workers would find ridiculous the proper word.

More McDonalds jobs?

"

Ah, hope they can flip hamburgers better than they can build cars My family has bought our last GM or Ford vehicle. We are considering Chrysler but right now Toyota ( American built ) is getting the nod.

talk about pricing your self out fo the market, that is what the UAW has done and why they are trying to get unions in TN Etc. Workers there are nto having any part of the "unions help"

Looks like you were right Matt, Deny deny deny, excuses, excuses, excuses.

I guess hamburger engineer is still a manufacturing job.

Sh*t, Slippy, if you ever make it as far as "hamburger engineer," it'll be a miracle. I'm still curious as to how you memorized all those addresses on your paper route.

What's wrong, Captain (Mo)Ron, can't find a job? Gee, I live in a non-hurricane affected area, and housing is going up all over. Guess all those hurricane victims moved here. Moron...

Captain Ron, "shake it off and step up". Did you forget already? I thought I had you on the road to recovery a couple of weeks ago.

SOL - Things are great here, you and Captain Ron need to get out of the bad areas and enjoy this boom economy that Bush is providing you...

I've told you about that stock HAL before (2 weeks ago I think) when it was in the 70's. Now it's $75.20 today... You can still thank me later, because it's still going up past 80 this time. Depends how much work they can get in New Oleans and all you know.

Keefer,
Take it easy on Ron, he quit smoking, maybe he's just cranky.
How's that working out for you Ron?

Captain

Home building was up before the hurricanes.

Does it rain 24/7 where you guys live...what a bummer for you. Negative, negative, negative.

Heck, I live in BARSTOW, CA. Look it up and see how much in the middle of FRIKIN NOWHERE I live.

*Waits*

Okay, now that you've seen that can you believe we're actually having trouble keeping up with construction? In fact you have to wait about a year and half before a contractor can see you for an estimate! We recently aproved a 200 home housing expansion in another completely empty area out here and homes are already sold.

I keep hearing about this bubble, and there might be one, but I tell ya out here I can't believe how strong things are going. (I can't for the life of me figure out why either.)

Things are not all roses, I'll give you that, but they're not soup lines, massive unemployment, and gloom and doom. Remember folks, things are never as bad as you can imagine, or as good. It's always somewhere in between.

http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/20/cx_da_0720presidents.html

More Facts.

Construction spending just hit another boom. Oh by the way, there is no housing bubble. That's just the un-MSM word of the day. The market has gone from a seller's market to a balanced market. This means that home sales will not best the record of 2005, but it will be the third best record. We have had five years of record home sales (2001-2005). Under Clintune's 1st Term (93 to 1997 - home sales were poor. In fact, they did not get good until 1999/2000.

Welllll Democrats.
How about these measures. You have enough spare time to waste trolling Republican blogs to talk crap. You all (apparently) have computers and Internet connections. AND, the Democrat chant leaders stopped using the phrase "the Bush Economy" years ago. Mostly because they didn't want to explain what they meant when it turned out to be going pretty well.

Oh and the references to dollar amounts for the deficit, debt, and price of Big Mac's doesn't mean much without also looking income and jobs levels. Perecentages matter in a discussion of macro-economics. Yes? I mean it's been a while, but I did ace Econimics in college.

When will the Republicans start to push this fact? That the economy is great and getting better. During the vietnam war people did'nt really give a rats about the war as long as they personally wern't in it. What they did care about was their back pocket!! It is almost as though the republicans want to lose in Nov. when they have a winner in their hands Gary

That should be the motto of the Republican party: "Spend now, pay later." The economy is great, and please forget about the $9 trillion debt we're building. Basic economics.

Unions had little to do with the dismal collapse of our American auto industry. It began long ago when arrogant capitalists insisted on building gas guzzling, breakdown prone, meant to be disposable cars. Their first defense against Japanese and German imports was: if you rub the paint off, you will find soup can labels underneath.

The laughing stopped when people realized these imports were actually better cars and got better gas mileage. GM, Ford, Chrysler have been playing catch up ever since.

Personally I've owned Toyotas and Hondas my entire life after a horrible experience with a Dodge Caravan. One of the Big Three recently said that HEALTH CARE added $1,000 to every car.

Isn't it time we address the elephant in the room. How many problems would be solved with an improved health care system?

Ash

The fact that you can say with a straight face that Unions had "little to do with the dismal collapse" of the auto industry is frightening.

I'd love for you to define little? If it's not at least 25% or perhaps 40% then you are clearly on a nother planet.

These comment threads are always hilarious.

That's funny, sick of lies. Liberal news sites report the good aspects of the economy (mainly for corporations and the rich) AND the bad aspects of the economy (cost of living increases, stagnant wages). Conservative news sites always seem to leave out the latter. You'd almost think they were intellectually bankrupt.

WNation:

How can you ignore the cost of health care? How can you ignore the arrogance of the automotive industry that ignored trends and kept trying to force mechanically inferior gas guzzlers down the publics throat?

Don't be a typical Republican and complain that workers banded together and demanded living wages, safe working conditions and overtime pay.

Put the blame exactly where it belongs: Poor and greedy leadership in the industry.

Without unions there would be no middle class and we'd have a society of haves and have nones. We need stronger unions to fortify that middle class.