CBO: What Accounts for the Slow Growth of the Economy After the Recession?

[TomServo92]

Interesting reading.

 

LINK

[Langston Hughes]

So interesting that I'm stunned you posted it. You do know that this basically agrees with what progressives have been saying?

[TomServo92]

So interesting that I'm stunned you posted it. You do know that this basically agrees with what progressives have been saying?

 

I didn't post it to make a political commentary. I just thought it was interesting reading.

[xr7g428]

So interesting that I'm stunned you posted it. You do know that this basically agrees with what progressives have been saying?

 

So what does that tell you about who wrote it? LOL!

 

Back in the real world I am in the process of winding down a factory, letting all but a few of the employees go. I don't see things getting better, and I don't want to wait until after the economic collapse to get out.

[RangerM]

So what does that tell you about who wrote it? LOL!

 

Back in the real world I am in the process of winding down a factory, letting all but a few of the employees go. I don't see things getting better, and I don't want to wait until after the economic collapse to get out.

Been away on business for awhile, without real time to commit to reading/posting, but that's about to change.

 

In the last week, I've had two clients postpone work due to lack of demand for product. December just went from being a OK month to one where we will wind up losing money (no work, but still incurring overhead costs).

 

It does happen from time to time that a client cancels/postpones work for reasons unexpected, however this time seems a little different. Many seem to be tightening their purse strings as a defensive move. I have yet to encounter any client who is looking to invest/expand due to a positive outlook on the future; only looking to perform any (environmental) work that's minimally required.

 

I do have other clients subject to soon-to-be-enforced environmental regulations who are contracting some work to see if they can meet them or what it would take if they don't. I just left a client yesterday who I'm expecting simply shutdown rather than spending the cash it would take to comply. The shame of it is his current equipment cleans up the emissions by over 97% (usually 99%), but to comply with new regs he must be able to go 99.9%, and the cost is just too much to bear.

 

His margin just isn't enough, and the reg he must meet is so tight that he probably won't be the only facility to simply give up. The irony is that the new reg grandfather's older facilities with a much higher limit, so instead of the clean emissions my client puts out, his waste stream will likely wind up at an older facility that will put out dirtier emissions.

[xr7g428]

Ranger, How dare you put a price on perfecting the environment? How could you put the interests of the people ahead of environmental perfection? You are not being politically correct. You need to bend to the will of our masters if you want to get a long in the new Socialist States of America. Those displaced people will all be helped by the government. Don't worry your pretty little head... After all if we really need the products of those filthy polluters we can buy it from China.

[FiredMotorCompany]

Ranger, How dare you put a price on perfecting the environment? How could you put the interests of the people ahead of environmental perfection? You are not being politically correct. You need to bend to the will of our masters if you want to get a long in the new Socialist States of America. Those displaced people will all be helped by the government. Don't worry your pretty little head... After all if we really need the products of those filthy polluters we can buy it from China.

I think we should consider genocide since it seems obvious the Earth would be better off without man's meddling. We all know the volcanoes, tornadoes, Ice Ages, floods, earthquakes, smog and ozone holes are the fault of humans and therefore man must be eliminated......or we can do carbon offsets. Convert your pollution into cash and make someone rich as you feel all warm inside that you did your part to "Save The Earth".

 

Whatever!

[retro-man]

Looks like interesting reading. I just printed a bathroom copy. It looks like we are having a double whammy of an over-leveraged private sector settling out debts before resuming the spending binge (consumer spending accounting for about 70% of GDP before the bust) and a public sector that, for both real economic reasons (it was too big) and political reasons (it was too big), is in a similar retrenchment. Looks like the article attributed 2/3 of the weakness to the latter. Indeed, as anybody paying attention to the news knows, public spending is decimated. Looking in my immediate area, we have small towns disincorporating, fire and police departments closing facilities and leaving some areas in limbo, or underserved, libraries closing branches or cutting back hours, etc.. My own little - relatively prosperous - suburban town this year did not put out its hanging flower baskets downtown as it has every year since I have lived here. It is not difficult to imagine the impact of these retrenchments on the local economy. The situation with the private sector, as I understand it from other readings, is pretty typical of credit bubble recessions. It may be slightly misleading to compare the current recession against "all recessions" without mentioning this.

Edited November 23, 2012 by retro-man

[RangerM]

Ranger, How dare you put a price on perfecting the environment? How could you put the interests of the people ahead of environmental perfection? You are not being politically correct. You need to bend to the will of our masters if you want to get a long in the new Socialist States of America. Those displaced people will all be helped by the government. Don't worry your pretty little head... After all if we really need the products of those filthy polluters we can buy it from China.

What I didn't mention in my earlier post is my client operates a hospital incinerator; burning infectious/bio-hazardous waste. (think bloody gloves, used needles, surgical supplies, and the occasional body part)

 

His waste stream isn't going away so long as it's generated. But as I said earlier, it'll probably wind up going to another incinerator that's grandfathered with the much higher emissions limits--resulting in a loss of jobs at his facility, higher costs (to transport the waste offsite) and dirtier emissions.

 

The whole thing is so stupid that it must only make sense to an EPA bureaucrat.

[xr7g428]

The whole thing is so stupid that it must only make sense to an EPA bureaucrat.

[retro-man]

Having just dealt - in rapid succession - with building departments in 6 different cities in 6 different states, I am not deaf to your rants against bureaucracy. Some of them were great (Durham NC as a matter of fact was great), some of them were absurd (Cincinnati). I have a sense that there's a happy medium somewhere between Port au Prince (Haiti - we saw how effective their building code enforcement was) and Cincinnati.

Edited November 24, 2012 by retro-man

[xr7g428]

The problem is that we can't figure out how to tame the giant bureaucracy after they solve the problem they were intended to solve. IF you know the history of the dust bowl, (and as an Okie you grow up with this.. ) then you know that the Department of Agriculture was instrumental in establishing the farming techniques that made a future dust bowl less likely. It kind of like an army that never acknowledges victory, they keep fighting enemies real or imagined. The EPA is very much the same animal. The air is clean, the water is clean. Cleaner than it has been for over 100 years. No one is willing to declare victory.

 

The politicians could care less whether the air is clean or not what they care about is that there is a large block of voters that want environmental activism whether it is in the countries best interest or not. You can draw an exact parallel with the Evangelical right. Who cares what the cause is, so long as there are votes to be had. In the mean time we do stupid stuff that harms the country. Oh well. I am taking my chips off the table. It's just not worth the hassle. In time the pendulum will swing back the other direction, but until then I prefer to watch the rats run, instead of running with them.

[grbeck]

I believe that the environment is too important to be left to the environmentalists.

 

For starters, they need to learn that "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

Edited November 26, 2012 by grbeck

[TomServo92]

I believe that the environment is too important to be left to the environmentalists.

 

For starters, they need to learn that "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

 

I've used that in business meetings but phrased it as "Don't let perfect get in the way of being good."

[RangerM]

I believe that the environment is too important to be left to the environmentalists.

 

For starters, they need to learn that "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I've used that in business meetings but phrased it as "Don't let perfect get in the way of being good."

Probably explains why Romney got fewer votes than McCain, and subsequently lost the election, too.

[Langston Hughes]

Probably explains why Romney got fewer votes than McCain, and subsequently lost the election, too.

 

He was neither perfect nor good. He was a much more flawed candidate than McCain was.

[RangerM]

He was neither perfect nor good. He was a much more flawed candidate than McCain was.

Depends on how you look at it. Obama lost more votes between 2012 than 2008, than Romney lost versus McCain.

 

Your side won. My side lost. Congratulations.

Edited November 28, 2012 by RangerM