[ExI] A Small Request [was Re: Impressive book: Farewell toAlms]

[spike]

> J. Andrew Rogers
> Subject: Re: [ExI] A Small Request [was Re: Impressive book: 
> Farewell toAlms]
> 
> 
> On Feb 8, 2008, at 10:48 PM, Olga Bourlin wrote:
...
> > ...(From what I've read, suicides off of the Golden Gate Bridge 
> > have actually gone up quite a bit since this movie was made 
> - mainly 
> > due to more difficult economic times many people have had 
> to endure.)
> 
> 
> Eh?  Say what?  The local economy has been in non-stop growth 
> mode since that movie was made by almost any metric you can 
> think of. ...
> 
> J. Andrew Rogers


J. Andrew, in any election year, it is in the interest of the party out of
power to convince the proletariat that the economy is suffering, whether it
is or not.  In 1992, the mainstream press managed to convince sufficient
numbers of voters that the US was in the greatest depression since the
1930s.  Recall the campaign slogan: "It's the economny, stupid!"  The press
trumped up a phony recession.  But the economy was steaming along nicely,
grew by a perfectly healthy 4.2 percent that year.  We are seeing a rerun of
that today.  Lets see if the the remaining "news" audience falls for the
same gag again.  

We have a really good practical metric for the local economy: the traffic.
Remember how pleasant and easy it was to drive to work after the bust
starting in about late spring or summer of 2000?  In about 2003 it started
picking up again.  Today the traffic is as bad or worse than it was 1999. 

Now we have a government that appears desperate to stimulate an economy that
looks to me to be in more danger of overheating than freezing over.

spike