[sjwaldron]

I wonder if you respect for the skills of a software designer would be as great if it was coming from a person with the political views of some one from the left like Denis K (not even going to guess the spelling) the Congressman from Ohio?

Now that's just assuming a lot about me. Of course they would. I honestly dislike a lot about the both sides, and have a few likes about them as well. I've made it clear on my point in this thread multiple times. I think his educational background is a positive.

[sjwaldron]

Obama inherited an economic meltdown and has applied much to much a conservative approach to the problem.

That's funny if I didn't know you were not joking. If a person can't even put a few decent bandaids on something in almost 4 years, then I don't have much faith in their ability for another 4.

[redrockcoulee]

That's funny if I didn't know you were not joking. If a person can't even put a few decent bandaids on something in almost 4 years, then I don't have much faith in their ability for another 4.

Then every leader of the developed world is a failure. Every leader of every province or state as well. That means at least 16 nations have leaders with much less ability than you think Cain has. If it was simple or easy Bush would have done it and so would the British, French Greeks, Canadians etc etc. And that includes right and left of centre, new leaders and old ones as well

I get the impression that you have an unrealistic view of politics and economics. But that is just my take from your postings, perhaps naive would be another way of viewing it.

And in response to your previous post, it is a legitate question as I do not know where you stand on all issues and it sure does sound at times that you are looking for a positive spin on Cain.

[GeneV]

That's funny if I didn't know you were not joking. If a person can't even put a few decent bandaids on something in almost 4 years, then I don't have much faith in their ability for another 4.

First quibble is that 2.7 years is not "almost 4 years." Second, by most indicators there was a reasonably effective tourniquet put on the gushing wound in 2009 that kept the patient alive, but since 2011 began, every band-aid is ripped from his hands.

[boriscleto]

Daily Kos: Conservative tax group: Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan could cut Warren Buffett's taxes in half

[jeffkrol]

BLATANT misunderstanding in what the US can and can't do. Unfortunately he is marginally better than the "others" but this margin is good for many suffering.. no not the 1%......

Is the Supreme Court “financially sound”? Is Congress “financially sound”? Is the military “financially sound”? What about the Department of Homeland Security? The CIA? The FBI? Are any of the 1,300 federal agencies “financially sound”?

The program was supposed to be a voluntary insurance plan for working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit if they became disabled later in life. The problem all along has been how to ensure enough healthy people would sign up.

This talks about adverse selection, and is based on the belief that healthy people must pay for sick people. It is a real problem for private insurance plans, because insurance companies are not Monetarily Sovereign. It is not a problem if the federal government paid.

CLASS was intended as a voluntary plan, supported by premiums, not taxpayer dollars.

Taxpayers do not pay for federal spending, although they do pay for state and local government spending. That is the difference between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty.

(The) idea was to give families some financial breathing room. The burden of long-term care is growing. Most families cannot afford to hire a home health aide for a frail elder, let alone pay nursing home bills. Long-term care is usually provided by family members, often a spouse who may also have health problems.

How true. So this unnecessary burden will fall on our spouses or our children. They will be the ones to suffer.

Again and again and again, we find that the ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty diminishes the lives and well being of our children and grandchildren and of us. That is the penalty of ignorance.

I award the President four dunce caps for not understanding the vital need for this easily affordable benefit to American families:

(I now am running a deficit of 39 dunce caps. Dept-hawks would say I “owe” 39 dunce caps, and shouldn’t award any additional, until I levy a dunce cap tax to reduce my deficit. But somehow, I just don’t feel my awarding dunce caps is “unsustainable” or a “ticking time bomb” as the media like to proclaim.)

–Another example of how ignorance of Monetary Sovereignty will diminish your life and the lives of your children and grandchildren Monetary Sovereignty – Mitchell

[jeffkrol]

more Cain bashing........
Bad Math Hurts Herman Cain?s Good Tax Intentions: Ramesh Ponnuru - Bloomberg

And his "allegiance".........

Cain 'proud' of link with Koch brothers - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

“I know the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers helped to start an organization called Americans For Prosperity and I did some speaking when they were starting that organization. I am very proud of the relationship I have with the Koch Brothers and Americans for Prosperity.”

“I don't have a close relationship, but I know them and I respect them and they know me and they respect me.”

[sjwaldron]

Then every leader of the developed world is a failure. Every leader of every province or state as well. That means at least 16 nations have leaders with much less ability than you think Cain has. If it was simple or easy Bush would have done it and so would the British, French Greeks, Canadians etc etc. And that includes right and left of centre, new leaders and old ones as well. I get the impression that you have an unrealistic view of politics and economics. But that is just my take from your postings, perhaps naive would be another way of viewing it. And in response to your previous post, it is a legitate question as I do not know where you stand on all issues and it sure does sound at times that you are looking for a positive spin on Cain.

Then every leader of the developed world is a failure? Our dollar, for example, has lost a good deal of value compared to other currencies. I'm not sure what you exactly mean and by what measure, but I see an issue with the value of my currency compared to others. I do know the price of goods from Pentax have gone up partly because our dollar is weaker. This is a camera forum, so I'll talk in camera terms. When I was in Japan in 2006, my dollar went a lot further that it would today... currently around a 54 yen per dollar difference.

You can call me whatever you want, and you have already multiple times. When I look at someone I try to look at the individual first and then their affiliations after that if I really care to, which I usually don't. So if I see something about Cain that I think is positive, I'm going to say it. I'm not going to go into an endless recursion of disdain because of my party affiliation or lack there of.

I'll say I'm at least not a stogy supporter of one side that can't see past a limited party viewpoint. I'm further reminded of sayings like this when someone tries to put me in a fixed party viewpoint. I think that I have a willingness to take a person as an individual and not try to group people together. I think it shows in what I did in the last political election. Sadly, my expectations were not met. I just say that voting for McCain was out of the question for various reasons.

I would suggest to some people to try and get out of the party-centric box sometimes because people are people. I'm not not talking about Cain at all here, but in general. Hating on the other side will never fix problems or allow people to work together. That's the problem we have with the government because they don't seem able to work together to solve problems with this two party system with such extreme people on both sides. From my perspective I see people stuck in a box they can't get out of for some type of odd irrational hate for the other side or what they represent.

That being said, I don't think Cain would be a good choice because I don't think he would play nice with the apposing party.

First quibble is that 2.7 years is not "almost 4 years." Second, by most indicators there was a reasonably effective tourniquet put on the gushing wound in 2009 that kept the patient alive, but since 2011 began, every band-aid is ripped from his hands.

Does 67.5% of his term sound better? Keep in mind he might be getting even less effective as the election rolls around because it is a big time consumer. I don't need to say anything else because you saved me the trouble with " since 2011 began, every band-aid is ripped from his hands."

[shooz]

Cains plan is a box.
No if ands or butts.
I have yet to hear anyone on the "right" think outside the box Bush created.
In fact, all of them want to make the box smaller.
Every single one of them.
So if you must use one, find a better metaphor.
This one doesn't fit.

The band-aid metaphor is more accurate and it's why we are still bleeding.
NO ONE has yet to frame the root cause of the bleeding.
This is the only thing Ron Paul has almost correct.
Wallstreets hegemony of the FED IS the problem.

[Wheatfield]

When I look at someone I try to look at the individual first

Does looking at the individual just include a resume or do you actually listen to what he has to say? Running a country (or a business) is not just about whether you are a good computer programmer or whatever, it's about how you think, about your ideas, and how you will implement them.
Cain had bad ideas, plain and simple. Nothing else in his resume matters.

Does 67.5% of his term sound better? Keep in mind he might be getting even less effective as the election rolls around because it is a big time consumer. I don't need to say anything else because you saved me the trouble with " since 2011 began, every band-aid is ripped from his hands."

The difficult takes time, the impossible, even longer. Do you expect Obama to wave a magic wand and somehow make everything better? Your country has several problems, most of which are systemic and embedded. You are no longer a net producer, but instead a net consumer. This is bound to devalue your currency. You have shipped much of your manufacturing overseas, which has pushed your unemployment numbers to close to 20%. That's a lot of people who are both a drain on the system, but more importantly, will have a bunker mentality about spending money.
As spending drops, so goes the economy, and the value of your dollar.
While I haven't read overly much about Cain, nothing I've read about him indicates that he has any real plan to address the systemic problems.
Until a politician is willing to do that, and has the cooperation of the politic body at large (I suspect Obama is willing, but will never get the cooperation needs considering the opposition has blatantly said that getting back in power and removing him from office is more important than the welfare of the country), your country will not leave the path it is on, and will more or less continue in the same direction it has been headed.

[jeffkrol]

This is the only thing Ron Paul has almost correct.
Wallstreets hegemony of the FED IS the problem.

Yes, but then he keeps talking......

Paul, a longtime Texas congressman, said he would close the departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, Interior and Housing and Urban Development, as part of a broader plan to cut federal spending. The federal work force would be cut by 10 percent. Mr. Paul also called for stopping foreign aid and "ending foreign wars.''

His "Plan to Restore America'' would end the estate tax and taxes on personal savings, "allowing families to build a nest egg.'' He would extend tax cuts on personal income, capital gains and dividends that were enacted under former President George W. Bush.

Mr. Paul has said he would support amending the Constitution to abolish the income tax, though that does not come up in his economic plan.

The corporate tax rate would fall under Mr. Paul's plan, to 15 percent from the current 35 percent, and corporations would be allowed to repatriate capital without paying additional U.S. taxes.

Some lawmakers have recently proposed a repatriation measure, saying it would free up capital to spur job growth. Critics of the idea argue that a tax holiday for companies with money abroad would not lead to domestic job creation.

Read more: Rep. Paul Proposes $1T Spending Cut Plan | Fox News

[redrockcoulee]

sjwaldron

I did not call you anything, I did describe how your views came accross. As far as not being a follower on one side I will give you a Canadian example. I do not like our prime minister, neither his policies nor his manner. And it is not because he is a conservative as I used to vote for the Progressive Conservative Party for over 3 decades. He is a fiscal conservative, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, a trained economist, trained in what is called the Calgary School of Economics, a group that is more closely linked in philosoply with those of your Republican Party than with most Canadian ideologies. He inherited a strong banking industry , over a decade of straight surplus budgets and was in office when the recession hit. HIs response, a stimulus program, deficit budgets. He said what he did was against all he stood for but that desperate times call for desperate measures. His government thinks it will take perhaps up to 10 years to get the budget on track due to the serverity of the world's economic situation. The concepts of his approach to the recession and some thought a depression was very likely to occur if things were not done to stop that from happening, was agreed and accepted by the three opposition parties, all ten provinces which had at least four different political parties running them, all of the major banks (not one of them received a single penny as they are the most stable group in the world) the Chamber of Commerce, Bay Street (our version of Wall Street) most economists and the public. Harper's program was not unsimiliar to Obama's perhaps just a little deeper and did include bail outs to the auto industry (both Ottawa and Ontario kicked in funds). So do I take the side of all of our poltical parties and almost all of the busienss, finacial and trade industry and the unions along with the majority of the public or go along with your view that it was not a major problem as it could be fixed by throwing a few band aids at it. I take the side of those who actually had to do the heavy lifting and pay a political price doing so over your own view.

The comment that Obama could just throw a few band aids at it and the problem would be fixed is in my opinion a naive one and that is why I stated what I did. That all the leaders, financial advisors and central banks plus the commercial banks in the world are all indept and a person who has proposed a program of regresssive taxes and other policies that have not worked in the rest of the world will succeed because he is good at computer science and math to me sounds like either a dreamer or some one who just does not understand the situation. There were no name calling at all.

Currency changes do reflect the depth of the US situation and perhaps also that your dollar has been over evaluated for a little bit of time. In the last couple of years ours has gone up from about 90 cents to a dollar ten then back to 95 cents all based on the world view of the need for resources. Dollar trading reflects much of what people expect in the future and your country has some very serious economic problems and a very limited way of addressing them when you have one party that does not want to. I personaly believe that if John McCain had been elected President much of the same policies of Obama would have been implemented.

Again show any name calling. Stating some one appears naive is not the same as calling some one a name. At least it was never any intension to name call but simply a description of how you views that a few band aids could fix the problem and what has been described as the worse finacial crisis since the depression should be all fixed and the world is all right again. Another thing is some times the change in currency values depend on the situation in the other country as well, the US is not the only one that counts in that matter.

[shooz]

desperate times call for desperate measures

But of course, never point a finger those who created the desperation.
Nor the system that allowed and even encouraged it.

[redrockcoulee]

But of course, never point a finger those who created the desperation.
Nor the system that allowed and even encouraged it.

Actaually Harper, his Minister and Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Canada have all at one time or another claimed the relative strenght and stability of the Canadian economy and financial situation was due to the fact that the banks were not deregulated and that not only that the banks are regulated but the regs are enforced. What they do not say is the former Liberal PM Paul Martin when he was Finance Minister resisted all the pressures for following the US and others in deregulation. Martin's background is mostly politics and running a shipping line. I think they might have once creditted the Liberals for it.

Again one of the biggest differenes between the US and Canada is that we have more than two political parties so one needs to do more than just shout that whatever the other one is doing is in the exact wrong direction as the other opposition parties will be able to give actual alternatives or even support selectively the party in power so totally different dynamics.

[Just1MoreDave]

... When I was in Japan in 2006, my dollar went a lot further that it would today... currently around a 54 yen per dollar difference.

You can call me whatever you want, and you have already multiple times...

Historical exchange rates, choosing the highest yen per dollar rate (monthly average) for 2006 and lowest for 2011:

October 2006
118.622 JPY (22 days average)

September 2011
76.7935 JPY (22 days average)

Data from x-rates.com.