Saturday, April 25, 2009

$15 Trillion?


When I first saw this I thought there was a missing decimal point. $15t is like $140,000 per family and as we all know that isn't distributed evenly. Despite this being from The Center For American Progress (progressive idea for a strong, just and free America) and leans... ummm.. progressive there is still food for thought here.

In the following pages, we will examine in detail the free fall in household wealth since the beginning of this current crisis to understand how that $15 trillion in lost wealth since June 2007 came about. In the end, we believe you’ll agree that increased savings, more asset diversification, and more prudent borrowing will enable American families to create more private wealth. We also believe you’ll agree government policymakers have a role to play making these things happen.

Download this report (pdf)

Aside from their hardwired response of "more government" it makes for interesting reading.

23 comments:

Sweet Cashback said...

First stop: hospital.....my wallet seems to be hemmoraging money. Will they be able to fix it?

Rob Dawg said...

I'm sure CFAP would recommend a walletectomy and use the proceeds to pay for socialized medicine.

Nick from Canada said...

LOL "cFAP" I thought fishnet Friday was yesterday.

Lost Cause said...

Climate Wording Cut From Public ReportA group funded by fossil-fuel-dependent companies that argued for years that human-generated greenhouse gases were not driving global warming was advised by its own scientists that this was the case, according to documents submitted as part of an ongoing lawsuit between auto manufacturers and states seeking to regulate vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions.

The Global Climate Coalition, a group of representatives of the oil, auto and coal industries, spent years telling the public that the link between human activity and climate change was too uncertain to justify U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. In 1995, however, a "primer" on the issue produced by the organization's own scientific experts concluded that "the scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied."

This language was deleted from the primer when the group released it to the public.

Rob Dawg said...

Heck, everybody knows there is a greenhouse effect. Everybody also knows anthropogenic GHGs are the same as natural GHGs. GHGs affect climate.

Nothing controversial there.

Akira said...

Hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I've always thought Darth Cheney was a secret agent from Hell and couldn't give a rat's a$$ about this country.
The entire W. Bush Admin was the worst thing that ever happened to not only this country, but the world.

Akira said...

P.S.
The $ was burning since 2001

Lost Cause said...

You may notice that Darth Cheney would not risk the national security to let the American people know what it's secret government is doing -- unless his reputation is on the line, and then he demands that two reports be made available to the public.

TJandTheBear said...

Rob,

As you allude to, it's amazing how these people recognize the problem but completely miss the cause of that problem.

w said...

I don't get real worked up about man made global warming since natural climate change will soon enough destroy civilization as we know it.

We know that the southwestern US had a four hundred year drought a millenia ago. We know that the southeastern US had several centuries of brutal winds making it uninhabitable about 1500 years ago. We know that during the last ice age the only habitable part of the US was Florida.

Personally, I think hiding out in New Zealand is the best recourse. Small, out of the way, many climate zones and it has a small homogenous society.

w said...
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w said...

Lost Cause, it would seem fair that if you are going to release the torture information you should also present how effective and vital it was to use that torture.

It is pretty frustrating to see how soft America and other Western Nations have become. Our competition and enemies play the game well. They know that Liberals would give the shop away if they can.

The statement that came out of ALBA the conference of Latin American leaders was classic. Basically, America is the root of all problems. Capitalism specifically is at fault, yet they demand that the US leave it's borders open and hand over it's wealth in direct payments to Latin America.

So on one hand they excoriate capitalism, but they want everything it has generated. All from a bunch of thugs.

w said...

Akira, so we should burn more and faster?

Lost Cause, the key part of that statement is "potential impact". That is where the GW folks lose their grounding. They have no f'ing clue what will happen and they can not tell what is natural and what is man made with what does happen. Every time the wind blows they blame it on GW.

How does driving a Prius change anything? So what if you double your fuel efficiency. What difference does it make if it takes 200 years to use all of the oil in the world instead of 100 years? Once that sequestered carbon is in the atmosphere it is going to be in the carbon cycle for longer than our species has walked the Earth.

Lost Cause said...

Ah w -- But they can look at concentrations of carbon isotopes -- which does tell them that the carbon is coming from burning of fossil fuels. Also, the oceans and forests are natural carbon sinks -- slowing down the rate of consumption would enable them to do their job.

Regarding torture -- a couple of anecdotes yeild a weak defense for Cheney's position. People have known for many years that torture is only effective at extracting false confessions. Combine that with statements about matching the data with the goal of starting a war, and you can easily see why people are calling for criminal prosecution.

w said...

Just so you know Lost Cause, you sound just like the people who were impeaching Clinton.

Personally, I think torture works much better than the left gives it credit for. I know I would talk pretty quick.

"Ah w -- But they can look at concentrations of carbon isotopes" My sentence was a little unclear. The GW crowd cannot tell the difference between what is natural and man made climate change.

Son of Brock Landers said...

Is the report going to admit that the 15trillion in wealth was a fiction as well?

I have enjoyed the commentary on this post, because I don't see much change in actual policy: overspending, bed buds with banks, troops sent to war zones, bailouts and handouts for concentrated interests. It's just that the packaging has changed, the media likes it a lot more now and the US is apologizing a lot more.

s said...

w,

Yes torture works wonders to get people to talk. The only problem is it works wonders to get people who don't actually know anything to talk.

Waterboard me and I'd say whatever it is you wanted to hear, and I suspect everyone short of the best of special forces would also.

I take it there will be no complains when captured americans are waterboarded for information in the future. For the goose and the gander and all that.

w said...

I do not remember the Geneva Convention doing much for our troops in Japan, Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq. How about with terrorists?

The general assumption that no good information can be gotten is just a talking point.

If the CIA or Military Intelligence thinks it has some value I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Anyone who is truly adherent to the Geneva Convention principals is not someone we will be fighting.

Property Flopper said...

"It is pretty frustrating to see how soft America and other Western Nations have become"

VERY true. After World War II, we found the people responsible for torturing our troops (several specifically for waterboarding), tried them and killed them.

Too bad we've gotten too soft to do that now. What's good for the Japanese war criminal is good for... oh wait, that's us, isn't it. Well, I guess it's OK if we're the ones doing it.

Mr. Outspoken said...

Any guesses as to how long it will take Obama to outlaw the raising and consumption of pork as an "anti-swine flu measure"? You know he was just waiting for an excuse, and now every time the news says swine-flu, it plays right into his hands. It sure sounds better than Plan B, including it in his omnibus health bill as an anti-obesity measure.

We're through the looking glass.

Lou Minatti said...

I encourage the Donks to hold very public hearings about waterboarding and who knew what and when, and what the results were. That would be cool. (Waves hand at Nancy and Harry.)

Jean ValJean said...

AAAAAND to completely hijack this thread...

It's 6 AM right now... and I'm on my way to take my US Citizenship exam.

Wish me luck!

Bill in NC said...

Why to drive a Prius:

http://www.markstivers.com/wordpress/comics/2007-11-04%20Prius-driver.gif