I won’t pretend to understand the intricacies of our deficit in the grand scheme of the global economy. But, deep inside, I think it doesn’t matter a whole lot. America’s consumerism now has the world by the short hairs.

Runaway congressional budgets have nothing to do with economics.

I’m no deficit hawk, JAI, but his might be a bit of a simplification. As a matter of tax policy, I’m all for a balanced budget, though. At its extremes (and I’m not saying we’re there yet) a huge national deficit will have an effect on our global competitiveness.

The fed lowered interest rates to historic lows. People (well, the rich ones anyway) had more money because of the tax cuts. That means it’s time to buy a nicer house, becuase it’s more affordable. Since more and more people were buying, it was time to start raising prices.
That drives up the average house value. That’s called INFLATION.
Too much inflation can be a bad thing – so the fed starts raising interest rates to counter it. When interest rates come up, it costs more to borrow money. People don’t borrow so much then. The housing market cools, and the average house value starts to drop again.
Viola, the bubble bursts.

Another good thing about higher interest rates…. companies don’t borrow as much. The less debt a company has, the happier the shareholders are. I’m almost certain that happy shareholders drive the stock market, too.

We are moving into a world economy, our average wage is much higher than the average in the countries that are doing all the manufacturing. There will have to be some equalization, so maybe the average should come down. High paying (union) manufacturing jobs in this country are gone forever. Michigan (my state) has suffered the most from that. How has the state responded, by raising the minimum wage. Good move… my daughter works for a small pizza shop. They immediately raised prices, and cut everyone’s hours.
Don’t count on government to fix economic woes.

One last thing…
Runaway congressional budgets have nothing to do with economics. They are caused by the out-of-control people that we continue to elect. It doesn’t really matter which party they’re from, they know that “bringing home the bacon” assures them of re-election.

Of course you’re also ignoring the fact that the bursting house equity bubble has been one of the few things suggesting that the economy was actually doing well for anyone below the upper class…

when the economy is OBVIOUSLY doing SO well. Oh wait, the housing market just tanked. What’s that screeching sound?

So 1 of 50 or so indicators is slowing down, and the whole economy
is coming to a screeching halt?

That one’s another easy one. Try googling “Supply and Demand” + “low interest rates”.

1) Iraq is a real head scratcher for a lot of people on all sides who haven’t come up with a viable solution for arbitrating a Kurd-Sunni-Shi’ite conflict

2) The Pottery Barn Rule. Republicans own Iraq.

Obviously, they can’t simply cry “Bring the boys home!” on a national scale. Doing so would first give Karl Rove a major orgasm and then secondly all the tools he needs to prove that the Democrats are flock a nancy-boy hippies who insist on fighting terrorists with flower power.

If Democrats were smart, they could jump back to the two Americas meme but maybe that wouldn’t fly when the economy is OBVIOUSLY doing SO well. Oh wait, the housing market just tanked. What’s that screeching sound?

The stock market being great has no impact on most Americans.

Actually, it’s the reverse that’s true. The spending habits of most Americans have a great impact on the stock market.

Unemployment may be low, but partly because many have stopped being eligible, have stopped looking, or have accepted lower wage jobs than they could get in the past.

That’s ALWAYS been true. If people have stopped looking now, it’s because they are LAZY. (At least the 2 people I know are). Unemployment is low because there are more jobs to be had, therefore, there is a much smaller pool of people that gave up looking
than there is when unemployment is at 7%.

There have only been no terrorist attacks because they haven’t tried – the Republicans have consistently scored F’s and D’s on their terrorism actions, or more precisely, lack of actions.

And I’m actually kind of glad that the Democrats haven’t tried to come up with a one-soundbite-fits-all “plan” to fix the country – that means they’ll deal with issues on a case by case basis, seek consensus, and come up with a plan that works for more people than just a small minority core base, like the Republicans have been doing.