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From Joe's post dated November 10 in the year of our Lord 2008:
Get ready for $4.00/gallon or more gas again next summer, people ... Let us see, gas lines, runaway inflation and high unemployment. ...The only bright side is I can gloat and say "I told you so" to all of you economically ignorant mofos voting for hope and change.
This is the point at which a good little writer would round up a whole bunch of solid numbers and links touting low gas prices, a soaring stock market, booming economic growth and job creation, but I'm not going to do that. Michael Grunwald did it in this piece for Politico:
Mitt Romney promised to bring unemployment down to 6 percent in his first term; it’s already down to 5.8 percent, half the struggling eurozone’s rate. Newt Gingrich promised $2.50 gas; it’s down to $2.38. Crime, abortion, teen pregnancy and oil imports are also way down, while renewable power is way up and the American auto industry is booming again.
As for poor ol' Joe and the rest of the silly righties, if you want to feel better about your disastrous predictions, scoot on over to the gas station and fill 'er up. Then calculate what that four-dollar-a-gallon tank would have cost and how much you "saved."
Now then, run along back home and write a check in that amount and send it along to your favorite charity.
Can't decide? I'll make it easy for you. Just send the check to me:
Erin O'Brien
P. O. Box 470167
Broadview Heights, OH 44147
Thanks in advance and enjoy a (very economically) Happy New Year!
* * *
36 comments:
GMTA. Just waiting to hear Hannity, et al say "It's Obama's Economy now." Waiting...BUT, It would be disingenuous of me to cheer too loud for BHO who've I've called a Neo-Liberal Lapdog of Wall Street. Corporate profits never lagged. If he really wants to make a mark he could nationalize the banks and give the money back to the people. I suspect Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders would be glad to help
RJ
We could mention that unemployment is no better than it was when Bush left office while the workforce participation rate is significantly lower. We could mention the number of people who have been moved to part time due to the ACA. We could discuss the cost of meat and milk compared to 2008 ( the government does not count food or fuel in the inflation rate). We could discuss the cost of electricity.
We could argue that gas prices are down in spite of this administration leasing less government land for oil exploration . Or that the price at the pump is down due to 1) more domestic production and 2) OPECs leaking a short term loss to get more profit in the long term. ( hint shale drilling is expensive and crude prices have to generate a profit to pay for that cost)
But I won't discuss any of this .
Do we want to discuss the long term effect of the soaring national debt?
You have an opinion and there is nothing I can provide to change it.
So do you bookmark a 6 year old post hoping things willl turn out wrong or do you go out of your way to research and wade through more than 4,000 posts to argue with an obscure blogger no one reads😉?
Believe it or not I am glad the economy is not as dire as I predicted. I do notice you did not write this post in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, or 2013. I wonder why you waited to call me out...
God this is beautiful.
The good news, Joe, despite the passage of time, is that mimes are still mimes.
Joe, the simple fact is every voice on the right--from yours to Rush Limbaugh's--spewed this sort of tripe before Obama stepped into the Oval Office and none of it came to fruition.
Like RJ, I have plenty of beefs with Obama. As for the cheap gas, sure I like the savings, but I also know it makes alternative energy development that much less attractive and invites hoggish use.
Electricity? It's cheap here. What's your point?
"workforce participation rate"
I guess this means you go to work and do not participate. Huh. Must be nice. That doesn't fly with my clients.
Now then, want to talk about something? Talk about the American ebola crisis. Yeah. Talk about that.
I would like to give credit where credit is due. The 'Occupy' movement clearly deserves some of the credit for the wonderful state of the union. Also, the President's Affordable Care Act is hugely successful. And, what about race relations? Huh? The low cost of gas is clearly the result of the "stop fracking" movement and the government subsidized success of the electric car. Oh yes, life is good.
Sometimes it's just easier to bury your head in the sand.
I suppose those would be Oil Sands Bill?
U.S. Firms Hold Record $1.64 Trillion in Cash With Apple in Lead-Bloomberg. Cry me a fucking river on "Workforce Participation" fucking gravy sucking pigs who I'm sure are fully invested in their 401k's. Did anyone point out corporate profits never lagged and are at historic highs? Oh ...Wait...
As for ACA and calamity it will be little noted by our austere brethren that many states that declined Medicaid expansion are now quietly joining the club. Why right here in bright red Tennessee Bill Haslem has rolled out "Insure Tennessee". It was a good idea as "Romney Care" until it was a bad idea as "Obamacare" but now with the "Great Wave" of GOP dominance it's a good idea again.
Fucking Milk and Meat. Give me a fucking break.
RJ
And lest I get consumed by this tedious exercise lets go ahead and put the next wave of Globalization on the table when BHO and his conservative cronies push through the Trans Pacific Partnership. That'll help "Workforce Participation" eh Joe? In Brunei.
RJ
Low gas prices!
People getting healthcare!
Falling unemployment!
OUTRAGE!
Wow. Talk about your 'target rich' environments.
==================================
The national debt isn't "soaring". The budget deficit, and with it the growth rate of the national debt, has been down, substantially, each year of Mr Obama's Presidency. The most recent iteration of the 'Ryan budget', the Republican proposal, cuts $5.1 trillion (tuh-tuh-tuh TRILLION) dollars, mostly from social programs, while simultaneously granting tax breaks overwhelmingly skewed to the wealthy and to corporate America. He still funnels cash into the Pentagon's maw by *increasing* the defense budget. Medicaid and SNAP would see (further) draconian cuts. There is still the proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program. It proposes the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (and its concomitant savings)with ZERO proposals for replacing any of the benefits of it.
And Mr Ryan STILL takes ten years to balance the budget.
Process that. Ten years. And this is from the fiscal boy wonder of the GOP.
Here's a proposal: let's all invest in cosmetics. Mr Ryan's pig is going to require tons of lipstick.
MR
One of the key issues of the 2012 Presidential election was income inequality. The 'Occupy' movement put it there.
One may disagree with the 'Occupy' movement and its model for protest, and one can certainly disagree with their goals, but there is no case to be made that it was inconsequential. That's simply untrue.
MR
there were certainly consequences from 'occupy'. filthy, smelly encampments, inconveniencing thousands of people trying to get to work or shop. millions of dollars of property damage. easy news stories for a lazy ass press. pretty much the same consequences as the 'hands up don't shoot' group minus the encampments.
I suspect ole George III spoke much the same about the American Revolutionaries. On balance I'd say they've made a helluva stinky mess themselves. Ask the folks of Williston, N.D. where there's a growth industry in human trafficking to service the oil field workers. Bill and Joe can ring the bell at the stock exchange when "Hookers.Com" goes public.
RJ
**sigh**
Everything bad. Me depressed.
This country has always bounced back. We have the best system of government there is and we can always vote out the people who did not live up to our expectations or said they'd do one thing, if elected, and did just the opposite. Half of the country is doing fine, including me. I believe more of us would be living the American dream if more of us stopped depending on the government for most things in our lives. We need a social safety net, a strong defense, working infrastructure, and, most of all, a civil society. The people who make their living dividing races, genders, ages, are doing us harm. Still, the USA remains the "shining city on the hill" for freedom loving people around the world. I'm optimistic that in the next few years, we'll be shining even brighter.
"Still, the USA remains the "shining city on the hill" for freedom loving people around the world"-Bill
You checked the size of the prison population lately or were you too busy calculating the CPI?
RJ
I'm sure the Innocence Project would appreciate a nice fat donation. That seems to be more helpful than cheap talk or hash tag activism. The fact that we try to apprehend and convict criminals doesn't seem to slow down the applications for citizenship.
Good Choice.
"That seems to be more helpful than cheap talk or hash tag activism."-Bill
This much we can agree upon.
I sent 50 and pledged 500K in your name.
RJ
If you need more reasons to be cheerful then I highly recommend the latest global disease review in the Lancet.
It shows how deaths from every major global disease are decreasing (and this really does mean all of them - even AIDs/HIV has peaked).
I found this chart to be really striking.
Of course this doesn't mean that disease incidence is decreasing but it's still cause for optimism.
" ... The prospect of the effect on the American public of such prices is nightmarish. What will Americans do when told to pay $2 a gallon for gasoline?"
-- Frederick Forsyth, "The Negotiator" (1989) [from a fictional report]
Mr. Forsyth, How about, say, dancing in the street à la Alexis Zorba?
«Senex Ægypti Parvi»
Don't forget about asking people to turn their thermostats down to 68.
MR
Since you are now the self-appointed official fact checker of all things, I assume we will soon see a post-excoriating Al Gore and Paul Erlich for the inaccucies of their Global Warming statements. Perhaps we will read a harsh editorial condemning Obama on his prediction the ACA would save every family $2500 in premiums or that "if you like your plan you can keep it"?
After all, being short on forecasting gas prices by ten or twelve cents is nothing compared to predicting a billion people will die by 2020 due to climate change.
I think someone needs a little nap.
@Joe-
Check your calendar. It's only 2015. Kinda hard to prospectively fact check predictions.
P.S. "It's Obama's economy now."
RJ
Btw gas reached more than $4 in Indiana in 2011
http://www.IndianaGasPrices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx?city1=Indiana&city2=&city3=&crude=n&tme=72&units=us
I'm sure an apology will be forthcoming
Sure Joe. Fine, I was wrong. I'm sorry. You were right. Gas reached $4 in Indiana.
You sure are one thin-skinned cat. Must be exhausting.
Thin skinned? You go out of you way to call me out as economically ignorant, citing a six year-old post. When I respond, pointing out that you are both full of shit and a hypocrite to boot, your best answer is that I can't take criticism.
Nice
Typical journalist -- make sure the retraction is buried on page ten.
Is popcorn part of the paleo diet?
RJ
I pulled the term from this sentence in your original post: "The only bright side is I can gloat and say "I told you so" to all of you economically ignorant mofos voting for hope and change."
So thank yourself for the term.
Right RJ because anyone who isn't a smug little sycophant like you must be a dinosaur.
I had resolved to be a smug little sycophant this year. I'm ahead of schedule.
RJ
From tne smug little sychophant file:
Welcome to Post-Racial America
The new Congress is 80 percent white, 80 percent male and 92 percent Christian
Have a nice day(patronizing as well)
RJ
THE ENDURING LEGACY OF ROMNEY 2012:
"We're not going to allow fact-checkers to dictate our campaign."--Romney campaign pollster Neil Newhouse, August 2012
MR
From Joe earlier in this comment thread.
"We could discuss the cost of meat and milk compared to 2008"
Yes, we could.
"Meanwhile, consumers are seeing milk prices slashed. At the peak last year, a gallon of whole milk cost an average of $3.86. The most recent numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate it's now $3.82 a gallon -- lower in places like Madison, where skim milk cost $2.99 a gallon -- and prices are again expected to fall this spring.."
source
Thanks, Obama!
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