http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6184632Oh my.
rfranklin (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:23 AM
Original message
My head is hurting! Unemployment up, business is terrible...for my small business (and everyone else I talk to in town) and yet Wall Street is jubilant. Why? What do they see that I don't see?
ixion (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:24 AM
Response to Original message
1. What do they see?
Free money. Our money, handed over to them by the same folks we elected to protect it, and spend it wisely.
I run a small business as well, and I work with other small businesses. We're not seeing green shoots, to say the least.
Botany (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:25 AM
Response to Original message
2. same for me
business is way down
nc4bo (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:27 AM
Response to Original message
3. We're right there with you rfanklin. We're feeling the pain too.
CoffeeCat (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:32 AM
Response to Original message
4. I feel like they're mocking us and saying "tough shit to you!"
Seriously. They're having a frickin party to which we aren't invited.
They announce how groovy and marvelous everything is--while we hang on by our fingernails.
I really, really don't get this.
Our economy is totally dependent on consumer spending. 70 percent of the total US economy is consumer spending.
The vast majority of the population has pared back their spending. Rampant credit-card spending has gone the way of the dinosaurs. So many are unemployed and they're sure not out tearing it up at the mall. Most other people I know are being very conservative with their money.
So, where in the hell is all of this "recovery" coming from? How can the economy be growing when us indentured economic servants---aren't buying as we used to?
I'm still trying to figure all of this out, but I have to say--the corporatists, Wall Street and their partners in the media have a lot of nerve--declaring a frickin Mardi Gras, when the lower 90 percent is in panic mode. It's like they're playing mind games with us, and trying to make us feel there's something wrong with US--because we just can't be happy and enjoy this fabulous recovery. We're the problem, evidently...
It's total crazymaking.
snappyturtle (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:36 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. Oh, didn't you hear last week that consumers are being blamed because they're saving their money rather than spend it? We spend about everything we make on a commodity called life and unfortunately, can't buy many extras. We're not lining a savings account.
SammyWinstonJack (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. It's only making me hate the rich greedy a$$hole$ all the more.
I've had enough of them and their greed! And THEY ARE MOCKING US!
So.....if Wall Street were ailing, that would help the primitives?
Fire1 (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 11:00 AM
Response to Reply #8
13. Yesterday while stopped at a traffic light I saw a bright red, brand new, dropped top PHANTOM!! Someone told me that there are only 20 phantom convertibles in the world. I don't kmow how true that is, but THIS guy was leaning back, smoking his cigar and looked to be enjoying life with not a care in the world. They have no shame.
Probably a Chicago pol, and the vehicle had an 0BAMA/BIDEN bumper sticker.
gmoney (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 01:24 PM
Response to Reply #8
18. class warfare! wealth envy! socialism!
And Wall Street going down is going to help the primitives exactly how?
cdsilv (617 posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #4
12. they're churning the 401k, pension, muni, investment funds and raking in commissions.....
...trading back and forth....
grasswire (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
5. just in my own family...one person had to leave his small daughters and relocated 3000 miles away where he had family to feed him and work to do, after a year of only getting 20 hours a week and eating only one meal a day.
another person lost his small business that had been profitable for ten years -- a coffeehouse cafe. He had seven employees to let go. He hadn't taken a day off in 18 months, there at 4 each morning. Business plummeted. He's now out of a job and deeply in debt.
we were last week forced out of our rented family home when the landlady lost it to foreclosure. She owned multiple properties bought on toxic mortgages. She sucked out the equity, stopped making mortgage payments, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent from faithful tenants, and is walking away and evicting tenants. A greedy scheme, displacing families.
another family member has moved with her teenage daughter to a city where she *might* find more work. All she has currently is some child support and a $500 consulting job. And 90 grand in student loans.
So this is America, 2009.
Yep, this is America, 2009. 0bama's America.
lunatica (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 10:36 AM
Response to Original message
6. The first lesson when watching the stock market
Is that if it's bad for the country or the world it's good for the stock market because it give them a clear indication of what will sell big. For example, if a bridge falls down then the steel industry will get a boost in sales. If terrorists kill a bunch of people then arms sales will go up. If people in Ethiopia go through another starvation crisis then certain foods and medicines will have a spike in usage.
Earthquakes and natural disasters create jobs and create the need for lots and lots of materials.
The Stock Market loves it when bad things happen to people. It's almost too easy for them to make a killing.
A lot of stupidity in the above primitive.
CoffeeCat (1000+ posts) Thu Jul-30-09 01:21 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. I don't hear them talking about "trickle down"...
...any more--in an attempt to justify the rich having everything.
I think they don't even give a shit how it looks any more. They have what they have--and apparently the rest of us are lazy or weren't productive enough, smart enough or born into the right family.
Sounds like the Kennedy clan, to me.
The above's only two-thirds of the bonfire, but that's enough stupidity for now.
It was nice, getting that review by the wired gassy primitive, about his family and all. The wired gassy primitive must be right this minute on his way to the "farmette" up in Wisconsin.
And we all know the story of the relative of the wired gassy primitive, who ran a coffee shoppe that flourished and prospered.....while George Bush was in office, and tanked in early 2009. The wired gassy primitive's told the story, but one wonders yet if he's examined the chronological details of it.
