One sector's wage & benefit package was way, way above the norm and their sales could no longer support that. It was time to make an adjustment or go out of business. I don't view that as part of a "vast right wing conspiracy" to kill wages for working people.

To put their old package in perspective, the avg UAW worker's package was twice the median income in my state. Double the wages here. Given it is the customer who eventually pays those high wages, I think the working consumers have good reason to not be upset about it and not see it as an attack on working people.

We are under pressure from foreign competition. We had better get more efficient if we want to earn more in real dollars. Blaming the problems on greedy CEOs and the right wing conspirators won't hack it when faced with reality.

When two out of three was particularly bad...
 

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Common wisdom points at the subprime crisis as the cause of our current predicament. Krugman acknowledges that the "proximate causes of today’s economic crisis lie in ... in the global savings glut created by surpluses in China and elsewhere, and in the giant housing bubble that savings glut helped inflate".

In this article, Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman points to the huge systemic error that was committed when American prudence was thrown out the window.

The peculiar thing is that Fiscal Conservatism (rightfully defined as trying not to spend much more than your income) is not primarily associated with the political party that many believe it is.

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Correction: One sector's wage & benefit package is still way, way above the norm. It is also way, way above their contribution to society. CEOs are sucking the life out of the economy because they are paid far too much. They can't possibly spend enough money to make up for this drain.

We are under pressure from foreign competition that doesn't clean up after itself (more money for the top brass) and pays workers less than half of our minimum wage. Those workers cannot afford to buy the very products they make, which is why our economy's problems become their economy's problems too!



As for the sub prime lending problem, I see that as merely a symptom of the real problem. With real wages falling, Big Business needs consumers to get loans in order to make sales, so it arranges for easy credit. It's a great short term solution, and Big Business never looks past the short term.

Minor niggle: I understand that the deficit started to fall under Bush Senior, and then Clinton continued the good work. Of course, Bush Senior called Reagan's thing "voodoo economics"..... Maybe we should then call this gentleman "the Last of the Republicans"? :) I would also suggest that we are in error when we talk of G.W. as Bush Junior, as if he represents fiscal continuity with his Poppy, he was actually Reagan III-IV.

Yes, Bush Senior was/is a good man.