when are talk show hosts going to stop interrupting their guests? If you've got a nobel prize winner on your show , and you don't have one in the same field , for pete's sake , STFU and listen.

..increase entitlement spending while they were fighting two wars."
They also chose to go to war and while I agree some form of military retaliation was needed after 9/11 (and that it was horribly bungled by civilian beaurocrats), the choice to go to war in Iraq was based on lies. Just so we're clear on that, Joe. Would we be in a better situation now if we hadn't invaded Iraq under false pretenses? Hindsight is 20/20 but since we borrowed our way in, it had to have an effect.

More people should listen to Paul Krugman!

catching onto the fact, that Mr. Krugman is not presented as an economist at all. He's presented as a Dem first, that just happens to be an economist. Now I understand. He's a partisan Dem first. If unbiased in his economic opinions, perhaps there would be more economists that would do media. Or maybe all economists are actually partisan Reps, but Mr. Krugman. Somewhere out there has to be an unbiased economist. Can anyone find that person? Anyone?

Scarborough is a dick.

I don't find it strange at all the Joe lives in a mythical world. Most Repukes are delusional or just plain hypocrites.

meaningless BLATHER when he's brow-beating Mika and the rest of his regulars... and they nod in complience because they like their paychecks and he's the boss. When the SCAR comes up against somebody who knows what they're talking about... he sounds like a complete f-ing idiot.

to FAIL.

Rush set their agenda, and that's exactly what they want. They want this economy to plunge into an uncontrollable depression tail-spin. They don't give a damn about people losing their jobs. They think that when ENOUGH people have lost their jobs, then they will find some new crazy cock-a-mamie reason to vote for MORE REPUBLICANS! That's their plan.

and put the Kleptocrats in the brig for further processing.

Don't call me a progressive. I am a Socialist.

We have major class warfare going on and we are losing.

This is a must see, their articulation of our politics as a strictly inside game and the press' position in it, is important:

Bill Moyers with Jay Rosen and Glenn Greenwald.

Here.

Transcript here.

It is astonishing to see all these people who think they will be immune from the consequences of implementing "The Shock Doctrine" continuing to blather on as though what they are promoting will effect everyone except them.

Bush and his GOP Congress ran a PERFECT conservative Republican presidency and governance.

They got EVERYTHING they wanted. And EVERYTHING they wanted was exactly what "Ronald Reagan would do" if Ronald Reagan had had a Republican Congress as long as Bush did...with exactly the same results.

There is simply no hiding from the PERFECT conservative Republican results that are here today for all to see, although that's what Scarborough is trying to do.

It must be very frustrating for a genius like Paul having to explain the real world to a frigging ideological brain dead idiot who has the IQ of a single cell amoeba. Especially since everything he said went in one of Scar’s ears, and out the other.

Vitter gets pantsed by Durbin on ACORN
by David Waldman aka Kagro X
Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 01:09:34 PM PDT

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), in offering one of the stupidest amendments in the entire stimulus debate, is diapered pantsed by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) for his idiotic vindictiveness, pettiness and ingratitude:

The amendment, which deservedly failed, would have prohibited ACORN from receiving any funding from the programs paid for by the stimulus bill. It was a zombie lie of the right-wing extremists that ACORN was receiving an earmark in this bill, on top of which, grant and other spending programs funded by the bill are all to be awarded on a competitive basis, anyway.

Vitter's amendment was particularly petty, as Durbin points out, given that ACORN volunteers rehabilitated some 3500 homes in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Vitter thanks them for their service by trying to use them as a whipping boy.

With all due respect to Paul Krugman, one of the reasons I like him so much is that he kind of sits there with a goofy look on his face, as if he's mesmerized, and then, bam...he just comes out and tells it like it is.

You keep hearing that economists on "both sides" say we should spend more and that the tax cuts won't be as effective as repugs say they will be. I wish more economists would come out on these shows and be like Krugman....I'm kind of sick of the talking heads and stupid repug politicians telling us their view of how the stimulus plan should be structured.

We've been screwed-

Partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Fully eliminated

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $122 million for Coast Guard polar icebreaker/cutters

• $100 million for Farm Service Agency modernization

• $50 million for Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service

• $65 million for watershed rehabilitation

• $100 million for distance learning

• $98 million for school nutrition

• $50 million for aquaculture

• $2 billion for broadband

• $100 million for National Institute of Standards and Technology

• $50 million for detention trustee

• $25 million for Marshalls Construction

• $300 million for federal prisons

• $300 million for BYRNE Formula grant program

• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive grant program

• $10 million state and local law enforcement

• $50 million for NASA

• $50 million for aeronautics

• $50 million for exploration

• $50 million for Cross Agency Support

• $200 million for National Science Foundation

• $100 million for science

• $1 billion for Energy Loan Guarantees

• $4.5 billion for General Services Administration

• $89 million General Services Administration operations

• $50 million from Department of Homeland Security

• $200 million Transportation Security Administration

• $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

• $25 million for Fish and Wildlife

• $55 million for historic preservation

• $20 million for working capital fund

• $165 million for Forest Service capital improvement

• $90 million for State and Private Wildlife Fire Management

• $1 billion for Head Start/Early Start

• $5.8 billion for Health Prevention Activity

• $2 billion for Health Information Technology Grants

• $600 million for Title I (No Child Left Behind)

• $16 billion for school construction

• $3.5 billion for higher education construction

• $1.25 billion for project based rental

$2.25 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization

• $1.2 billion for retrofitting Project 8 housing

• $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants)

I agree with Krugman that there wasn't much bipartisanship under Clinton, rather there was gridlock. One thing omitted was, under Clinton, there was a Nasdaq bubble, that burst on Bush's watch, beginning Apr 2001. Of course, that got replaced by the real estate bubble.

About the only thing that had bipartisan support was the free trade, and the resulting increasing trade deficits that were masked by the aforementioned bubbles, as well as a debt bubble. Now, we don't make anything anymore. I don't see how we prime the economic pump, so to speak, if we trash manufacturing.

What we've been hearing is, that it is more efficient to import rather than manufacture if the total costs is lower by importing. This approach works well for the individual corporation, but collectively, is disastrous for the U.S.A., Inc. Keynesian economics refers to a "multiplier" effect. Simply put, if a dollar is spent buying a product manufactured in this country, the manufacture needs to hire more employees, who now have spending money, who spend it on lunch at neighborhood cafes and so forth. So, a figure I've heard in the past (1960s, when we made what we consumed) is that a multiplier effect is $1.61, for every dollar spent, economic activity increases $1.61. The multiplier varies by industry.

So, while the private corporation might see a benefit in importing an item for $1.00 that costs $1.10, Keynesian economics wouldn't see a benefit unless the domestic costs is $1.61 (arbitrarily assigning the multiplier of 1.61). So, while the individual corporation benefits, the U.S. collectively suffers. Well, with the trade deficits as they are, there is a negative Keynesian multiplier effect that magnifies the trade deficits, that isn't going to be offset by a debt bubble going forward. Canada has already said that the "buy America" provisions of the stimulus violate NAFTA.

While the sub prime mortgage scheme, where bogus mortgages are bundled into securities that are corruptly graded "AAA", along with a pyramid ponzi scheme using derivatives have brought us to the instant crises, lack of a health care system that has costs similar to other western nations, along with a trade policy that ignores the Keynesian multiplier effect has essentially nullified any long term recovery. Remember, while Roosevelt took office 4 years after the stock market crash, Obama took office only about 5 months after the first manifestation of this crises. I think in many respect, this is more serious than 1929, which was only a stock market collapse. It took 4 years to take the banks along. In the instant matter, the banks are already gone, and for some reason, the only focus is rescuing the shareholders of the bank stock.

We're not going to see any bipartisanship out of the Republicans. We're in uncharted territory, where, while people know what didn't work under Hoover, they don't know what will work. So, the Republican will sit back, be naysayers, bet on whatever passes not working, and begin working on campaign 2010.

Scar forgets the GOP shut the government down, or tried to, like it was a game of chicken with Clinton. How many times did they do that? Twice?

The Republicans, as always, are far more concerned about playing their little political games than fixing the economy, and until we can lose a few more from Congress, it's going to be an extremely tough battle with very slow progress. Republicans live in lala land, still clinging desperately to their worn out debunked ideology. I was watching the movie Apollo 13 last night, and it occurred to me that if modern Republicans had been running the show back then, the space program never would have gotten much traction, and we would certainly not have been the first to put a man on the moon. It was Kennedy who had the vision.

Unemployment yes

Food stamps. NO To hell with that jerk. I listen to MJ as a way to listen to 'the other side', but it is getting more and more difficult to do so. Most of the time I mute everything until a guest who MIGHT have a smidgeon of common sense is on.

Whenever that happens. But lately, for the most part, I just turn it off. If you want to see Scarborough act even dumber, just have him start talking about Palin. Him and Buchanan ....good thing they're sitting behind a table when that discussion starts. They almost drool, too!

I do like Scarborough (a stance that will win me no friends, I can pretty much guarantee!), but I think how he treated Krugman was disgusting. It wasn't on his show that made me disgusted about it; he was fairly respectable and even invited Krugman back, and the horrified look on Krugman's face made me laugh.

I'm talking about Scarborough's radio show on WABC. He let Mike Barnicle rail against Krugman as if Krugman had said that the GOP is full of baby-eating arsonists, and even at one point asked, "What is wrong with Paul Krugman?" Meanwhile, Barnicle was using Krugman as a shining example of everything that's wrong with the left and even went so far as to say, "If you were having dinner with him, you would fake your own death." Mika was no better, offering only a very half-hearted defense of Krugman before laughing at Mike Barnicle's "dinner" comment.

I lost a lot of respect for Scarborough when I heard that. It was absolutely disgusting. Scarborough keeps saying that we need bipartisanship, and that the country needs to work together to solve its problems, and this kind of thing only undermines everything he's ever said about coming together. Treating anybody like that is unacceptable, but to talk smack about Paul Krugman behind his back, just because he's on the opposite end of the political spectrum? What a two-faced loon!

We cannot lose sight of the fact that Republicans are more dangerous now than they were when they were the majority in Congress or, as was the case over the past two years, when they had a 49-49 split in the Senate with a Republican in the White House.

Under those earlier conditions, their primary concern was to fashion (or, as in the past two years, obstruct the opposition of) legislation that simply fed their favorite Republican causes and expanded their poltical base. That their doing so also resulted in destroying the economy and weakening our national security was not a cause for their slightest interest, much less concern.

But NOW...their ENTIRE focus is on destroying the economy and weakening our national security. For, without both of those conditions being met during the mid-term Congressional election year of 2010, they won't have a single talking point on which to campaign and potentially win back some lost seats.

Every economics fails. Inflation and deflation complete a cycle.

If there was any such thing as a successful economics, it would have been invented already. No economist can eliminate cycles.

The bottom of the long term cycle does not even occur until the next decade. A number of shorter cycle lows will be concurrent with it.

All the talk of fixing the economy, is just that, talk. The economy is fixing itself by eliminating the excesses of the boom. Either political party playing games with the process, will simply distort the process. The Great Depression did not end just because a different party occupied the Presidency and congress.

LTCM was founded by two Nobel Lauriates. That demonstrates just what a Nobel Lauriate is really worth. LTCM nearly brought down the financial system. The smartest guys in the room, really aren't so smart.

When you yell your B.S. instead of speaking in a normal tone, it makes it really difficult to focus on what it is you are attempting to say.

Did people yell at you when you were growing up?