Quote from Alaven

Nixon was awful. I don't dispute that. But... Once again, you need to look at what he actually accomplished. He took us out of Vietnam - whether or not that was the right decision I will leave you to decide. But, he did what much of the nation demanded of him and ended US involvement. There is at least some margin of success.

If this is your reasoning, then you must look at Carter's accomplishments. He created the department of energy (that lead to emission regulations) and the department of education. Plus, he helped end the dispute over the Panama Canal. There's some margin of success here as well.

[color=#ff0000]"“That's the difference between me and the rest of the world!
Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!” "[/color]

Quote from VenusInFurs

Quote from BoxBox

Time magazine have a theory that G.W. Bush will be considered the GREATEST president of the U.S.A. in less than 20-30 years from now.

In retrospective, some of our Greatest presidents were hated back in their days. The ever so famous honest Abe was considered a tyrant back then for he was the first one to suspend right of speech during the times of war and imprison political opponents.[Essentially creating a precedence for political prisoners]. Who knows, Bush might be hailed as the first Freedom Fighter or the Protector.......depending on how this mess will go

Did they say why that is? I really just dont understand the whole freedom fighter/ protector reference.What are they saying Bush will be remembered positively for, because I honestly cant think of anything.

They said Bush might become a powerful symbolism for 'rescuing' Iraq from its tyrant and settling the middle east. IT
It's like this, Presidents who are hated most during their decade probably done something insane/grand/great. But after 2 or 3 decades, people will look back and say :"There is the excellent example of a "doer", someone who will lead people no matter what the cost is for the "right reason".'

It's quite a scary theory.....

Gay book discussion thread

Quote from you_no_see_me_

this is not about cannibalism...please get back on topic

Quote from Toto

I think it is exactly the topic. I see nothing wrong.

Quote from wotonito

err i dont really know all that much buuut... those that are talking about america running out of money and stuff... isnt there that place that stockpiles gold so if we ever run out of money we can just sell it... or something...

Hmmm I believe the federal reserve is privately owned, so NOPE you can't sell that... and Fort Knox is a myth of comics.

Really USA an almost all the countries don't have a REAL stockpile of anything to sell, the value of new money is given by the money that was already there and the stockpiles of foreign money (Dollars) in the case of many countries.

The approach of governments is to borrow money to (build/keep going) and let the fuckers aka US pay it later... Really Prime Ministers and Presidents should govern with their lives on the line... there is no other way for making them do the right thing as long as they can just borrow their ass, build a bridge and be remembered for that.

[img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs14/f/2007/026/1/1/Into_Werewolf_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v168/Tank_soldier222/Into_Werewolf_RETURNS_by_AbyssWolf.gif[/img]

Quote from Alavan

You give too much credit to the stimulus... And that is really all I am going to say on that matter.

I'm not giving credit to the stimulus, I think it has a negative impact on the economy. It's using borrowed money to create, mostly useless public jobs that don't produce real wealth. It makes the job numbers look better because it counts these public jobs in the total job tally.

These jobs are temporary and do not put into the economy what they took from the economy (debt), so when these temporary jobs are lost, you get a clearer picture of the true state of the economy.

Quote from Alavan

But the vast majority of debt owed by the government is owed to the citizens of the US. It is NOT international debt but public debt. I understand that the percentage of international debt is growing...

Whether the debt is owned by foreign of domestic bond holders, it's still debt that our government will have to pay off. The alternative is going into default. Our government will try to avoid this at all costs, because going into default would mean nobody would want to lend us money. Our government would be forced to spend only what they could raise in taxes.

I don't see the results of default as a bad thing. Getting our government out of the economy is a step in the right direction. I just see it as very improbable.

Quote from Alavan

I don't think the US government has any business being 40% of the US economy.

I don't either. I think our government should be small and spend responsibly.

Quote from Alavan

As for your Monetary Base graph... I have to question the source. I couldn't find a graph with similar data anywhere. And judging from the rest of the website, I really just don't think that it can reliably be used.

My source is from the federal reserve itself. Type "federal reserve monetary base" in google, without the quotes, and then click on the images section if you're having trouble finding a graph with similar data.