An amazing quote.

[Tallman]

I found this in my reading this morning.


The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."

"Significant margins of errror!"

It's no wonder that nobody knows what is going on.


And based upon information like this our congress votes!

Then they .

And we get .



You can read the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090225/ap_on_go_pr_wh/fact_check_obama

 

[Homesteadmom]

And one of his economists even fell asleep at the meeting the other day!!!

 

[On Our own]

Problem is he chose too many of the same people that got us into this mess to try and fix it. Trying not to spook wall street.....

This can't be fixed, no matter what he or congress does or says. Bernanke can lie to make people feel better for a bit, but the system is flawed at it's heart. Life support can only keep the zombie going for so long and I think this economy has been on life support for at least three years already.

 

[Tallman]

On our Own you are so right. It's just hard to figure out what to do with what has been saved for retirement. I would a lot rather work than retire; however, even that has come to a screeching halt. I'm just going to have to come up with a new 10 year plan like those being discussed on another thread.

 

[Big Daddy]

That's why estimates are called estimates. When they are exact they are called quotes.

 

[Tallman]

That's why estimates are called estimates. When they are exact they are called quotes.

Big Daddy you might notice from my original post that the problem is "significant margins of error" not the idea of using estimates. I understand estimates, and in any business that I have ever been associated with allowed for a reasonable margin of error NOT a significant margin. This indicates that the Obama administration can put any estimate that they want on paper and by attaching the "significant margin of error" language to it will make it usable information. A business operating in such a manner would be headed for trouble, and IMO, trouble is exactly where we are headed when our officials will not operate within a reasonable margins of error.

Thanks for pointing out the difference between estimates and quotes.

 

[shareneh]

I know that most people in this country want SOMETHING done about the economy. They want a quick fix. They won't shut up until they get a solution. The poor leaders of our country have to come up with something to pacify us or they are booed off the stage.

I feel sorry for Pres. Obama because he is going to have to live down this economy mess if he doesn't have a magic wand to cure all that ails wall street.

I feel sorry for Pres. Bush because when 911 happened the people and congress called for WAR and he gave it. Now they are crying because it costs money and it wasn't over when they were done being mad about it.

But that quote is priceless Tallman. More retoric and salve for the open wounds.

 

[On Our own]

There is blame aplenty for much of this and it goes back many presidential administrations and congresses of both parties.

This is not so much a political boondoggle as it is one of an faustian bargain over how to "grow" an economy. The methodology used has failed, but to most economists and business men (and women) saying that some aspects of this version of the free market has failed is like telling them god is dead. They freak completely.

Economics is supposed to be about rational ideas, not idealogy. But it has been idealogy for better than thirty years now.

You know there really is NO Nobel Prize for economics. Alfred Nobel thought economics was "voodoo science". The so called Nobel prize in econ is actually the Swiss Bank's prize in honor of Alfred Nobel and is not sanctioned by the Nobel Committee.

Alfred was right. Economics is guess work at best. And at worst it remains the insistence that "free Markets" will behave rationally when free markets are only as rational as the people involved in them......

 

[Tallman]

I know that most people in this country want SOMETHING done about the economy. They want a quick fix. They won't shut up until they get a solution. The poor leaders of our country have to come up with something to pacify us or they are booed off the stage.

I feel sorry for Pres. Obama because he is going to have to live down this economy mess if he doesn't have a magic wand to cure all that ails wall street.

I feel sorry for Pres. Bush because when 911 happened the people and congress called for WAR and he gave it. Now they are crying because it costs money and it wasn't over when they were done being mad about it.

But that quote is priceless Tallman. More retoric and salve for the open wounds.

Shareneh you are right on when you say that the country wants a fix. Here in America we have instant everything - if we are going someplace, we want to get there faster, if we are sick, we just take a pill, if we want it heated up, we pop it in the microwave, fix it now and fix it fast is the order of the day; however, if you were going to drive across Ohio while using a map for Tennessee, it would not make any difference how fast you could drive because you are working with faulty information in regards to the direction you need to take. So it goes in economics. What if the estimates that you base your decisions on are "subject to significant margins of error?" What would you do?
Would you want to fly in an airplane if, just before take off, you were handed a memo from the service crew that said "your plane has been repaired with a manual that was subject to significant margins of error?"

 

[Tallman]

There is blame aplenty for much of this and it goes back many presidential administrations and congresses of both parties.

This is not so much a political boondoggle as it is one of an faustian bargain over how to "grow" an economy. The methodology used has failed, but to most economists and business men (and women) saying that some aspects of this version of the free market has failed is like telling them god is dead. They freak completely.

Economics is supposed to be about rational ideas, not idealogy. But it has been idealogy for better than thirty years now.

You know there really is NO Nobel Prize for economics. Alfred Nobel thought economics was "voodoo science". The so called Nobel prize in econ is actually the Swiss Bank's prize in honor of Alfred Nobel and is not sanctioned by the Nobel Committee.

Alfred was right. Economics is guess work at best. And at worst it remains the insistence that "free Markets" will behave rationally when free markets are only as rational as the people involved in them......

On Our own, your right when you say that there is plenty of blame to go around, and a large part must be laid at the feet of greedy people operating without a sense of honor. The banking institutions were getting by with a scam in order to line their own pockets, people who had no business borrowing money grabbed it an ran, and our elected officials, for one reason or another, looked the other way.

You said, "Economics is supposed to be about rational ideas, not idealogy. But it has been idealogy for better than thirty years now."
I think that you are very correct, but a bigger problem lies in the fact that we have corrupt people coming up with the ideas. If those involved in the ideology are of the same type as those I have mentioned in the paragraph above, then guess what I think? Heck, we now have a man that is a tax genius as our U. S Treasurer who "made a mistake" on his taxes! GIVE ME A BREAK! His "mistake" just happened to be in his favor. And, his is not an isolated case. Our last treasurer, King Henry, took our money and passed it out to his wall street banking buddies without any regulation at all!

I am a free market person; however, if we are going to be involved in the ideology of economics, let's have people coming up with the ideas who are honorable, truthful and unable to be manipulated. We somehow have taken on the mind set that the government, even though it is operated by corrupt people, can oversee everything in order to make things fair. My, My, My how naive.