ABC 20/20 Bailouts and Bull with John Stossel: The Economy

[BallinNQnz]

We need John Stossel for president. He is a very smart man. What these economists have said is true. The stimulus will lead to hyperinflation. We are headed into a great depression.

[DanNinjaMan]

Shoulda got a quote from walter williams. I love stossel and williams

[hint0122]

obama helped cause the problem by scaring people. the fastest way to start a downturn is for the public to lose faith

[tudierudielovesJesus]

Happy anniversary Stimulus! Here we sit a year later...unemployment is still rising, families are still losing homes, people are still losing jobs. Yeah, so glad we decided to pass the stimulus. Now I am sure America will be ok?!? Complete sarcasm of course. We sure have a lot of leaders living on "hope". Kinda scary!

[jizzmonger]

Money doesn't matter, productive capacity does.

What we have done is allowed our ability to produce to be liquidated for the temporary wealth of a few.

[unitedstatesslave]

ya for real your no hero.you were to stupid to find a good job so you sold your soul to the government and joined the military. iam a american.iam not label myself as anything else...and iam my own army so fuck the government.

[daizee106]

Maybe we would be better off if government twiddled its fucking fingers a little more

[caaront]

Liberals get upset when they are made to look like the fools they are.

I wonder why they hate their country so much they want to destroy it.

I am a disabled veteran and spend my days in pain so they have the freedom to hate and destroy America.

[Bigwheels161616]

Yea right, keep believeing you veterens fough for our freedom. The last 5-6 wars have been a sham, sorry but you were duped by the Military industrial complex and our govt so you will just have to deal with the pain and stop claiming you fought for my freedom

About the bailout, can you see thru your thick rightwing head that the so called conservatives in washington voted and supported the bailouts? Even people like Glenn Beck were asking for a bigger TARP.

the game is rigged

[bapyou]

Where was the conservative toad Stossel when George Bush was borrowing money to beat the band in order to fund Bush's admitted war-based-on-a-lie in Iraq?

[Butmunch666]

Hes not a conservative, hes a libertarian.

[bapyou]

You mean one of those "free" marketeers?

Libertarians: Bullshit if there ever was bullshit.

[Butmunch666]

Yes I mean one of those "free" marketeers. Look if you have a problem with free markets just stay where you are, because we havent had a free market in almost a hundred years if not more.

Blame the fucking politicians and the crony capitalists instead of free market capitalists.

Dipshit.

[stonescourt3]

we're not a democracy--we are a republic.

[fosterchild4523]

Is it any wonder why this country is doomed? These idiots don't even know that our government is supposed to be of the republican form. I would not doubt that none of these clowns have even read the constitution.

[stonescourt3]

Pe-louse-i is an idiot.

[OutlawTomFantastic]

We are being ruled by corrupt idiots.

[eksdem]

No wonder Obama's so very cheery.

He's doing what he loves best, on a nationwide scale.

He's redistributing other people's money.

(on YouTube since last October, and still true)

Obama is a One-trick Pony - a money shuffler

/watch?v=MBKJxlH9Qn4

[NoBailout4Banksters]

Call this number every week but only if you can handle the TRUTH.

1-888-322-1414

"TRUTH is treason in the Empire of LIES" - Ron Paul

[DolphinFilms]

Yes, it is time to flip the money changer's tables over.

[pondman27]

The debacle is an exquisitely orchestrated attempt to destroy the economies of the globe. Never before has so much complete BS been smeared over bits of paper and sold.

I say we all take up printing money and hand it out to each other. After all they are just I.O.U.s.

To think that people are forced to surrender real equity for worthless bits of paper outrages me. All that work and saving flushed away with the tap of a keyboard key.

It seems the money changers' time is up people.

[kwmount]

Nice sand car!

[xxviixxvii]

Solution - become a political atheist, get out of debt completely, & don't support any of the institutions that take bail-out money! This wasn't created by democrats or republicans solely- it was created by both parties & the federal resevre

[DolphinFilms]

Well said thanks for your comment

[mark808mark]

i like it when john is throwing money around. i'll take some so i can heat my house this coming winter. it will be worth more buring it because it won't be worth anything so i couldn't buy firewood with it. this is what germany did with the same results. hmmm oh yeah also ALL fractional currency systems that ever existed ended up the same way. total slavery of the people who used it.

[martinchill]

"You would think the speaker would be eloquent in public "

after eight years of president foot-in-mouth, i would think no one would even notice a statistical mistake.

[dustin1514]

The evil Republican /Democrat politician critters care more about staying in power.

[PeterGangemi]

Seeing that much money for every man woman and child is quite scary, and makes you think how the democrats expect future generations to deal with this.

Nancy Pelosi - "500 million Americans per month will lose their jobs". You would think the speaker would be eloquent in public

[fungulotualatuarazza]

nothing like a good crisis to bring people together, it used to be terrorist

[DillonX]

Bush wouldn't be worthy of even holding Thom. Jefferson's dirty underwear.

[julebuggy]

The last three words should illustrate the insanity that is Keynesian retard economics.

"I hope so"

[DillonX]

John Stossel is one greedy disgusting vile person.

He's the voice of the richest -- the top 5%, most of whom inherited their wealth or married it.

He believes the very poor have placed themselves where they are today.

He believes all the poor need do is yank themselves up by their bootstraps.

He has neither empathy nor sympathy for poor or needy individuals.

He is the most un-like Christ person I've ever seen w/ posts on our YouTube.

He would make Jesus weep for days.

[BlueSkies360]

Obama is doing the same things as Bush, only on a larger scale.

[BlueSkies360]

This was really great, I did not know that Stossel was capable of understanding.

[mrazimblog]

TERROR TERRORRTERRORRTERRORRRRRRR

TERRORRTERROR TERRORRTERRORRTERRORRRRR

almost like the OLD times huh... !!!!

[ronpaulspanish]

LOL

[SoulGLOJesus]

Thanks Dems !

[Weapon01]

4:00

"We're a democracy"

Artical 4, Sec 4, US Constitution

The united States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government...

Doesn't sound like a debate to me.

[AboveAllNations]

So the U.S. is a Constitutional Republic. Your point?

Article 1 lets Congress to make legislation regulating commerce, spending money, and borrowing money on the credit of the United States. Article 2 lets the President sign legislation.

Both houses of Congress are dominated by Democratic majorities. Barack Obama won 27 States, and dominated the electoral college vote. Democrats have BOTH the constitutional authority and popular mandate to take action.

You're right - there is no debate here.

[julebuggy]

Oops...the Constitution seems to disagree with the definition of money here.

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility

Guess that mean I'm not longer using dollars in transactions anymore.

[AboveAllNations]

Can you read? "No STATE shall enter into any treaty, etc... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts;"

Section 10 is about powers prohibited to the STATES. The federal government can enter treaties, just like the feds can print money:

Article I, Sec. 8: "To borrow money on the credit of the United States; ...To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

Printing money = regulating its value.

[julebuggy]

So when people opt out of using dollars in transactions, like I have already have (I only accept gold and silver for anything I've sold for the past 2 years, no paper money :-) ), the federal gubmint won't interfere?

[DolphinFilms]

The Framers were acutely sensitive to the fears of many that a new federal government would erode the independence and authority of the states and the people. To protect against that possibility, they stipulated that the federal government would have only a short list of powers that were explicitly enumerated in the Constitution. "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined," Madison explains in Federalist No. 45.

[DolphinFilms]

So tell me where in the constitution does it give the federal government the authority to "print" money? And don't tell me it's implied because if it's not explicitly enumerated in the constitution then it does not exist.

[AboveAllNations]

Sec. 8: "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof..."

The 18th century equivalent of printing money was "coining" diluted metal coins. How many coins were made, and how much actual precious metal each coin contained, affected the value of each coin.

Today, printing more or less money affects the value of money, so printing money is expressly permitted in the constitution.

By the way - the Supreme Court decided UNANIMOUSLY in 1819 that the federal government has implied constitutional powers.

[AboveAllNations]

Exactly like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison abandoned on his earlier denunciation of the national bank and his Federalist Papers rhetoric about "enumerated powers" when HE became President. And you would too if you were the President in charge of this economy!

In 1816, Madison renewed the charter for a national bank, simply because not having a national bank was a dumb idea.

"Only a politician could perform so breathtaking an about-face, and Madison was up to the task."- P.I. Guide to Const.

[SkyDaddy7]

Exactly...And Thomas Jefferson did some serious whiplash inducing about face as well...When the future of the country is in your hands then past rhetoric is just that, past rhetoric. Jefferson is the poster child for the modern day politician. I am not cutting him, I like a lot of what he did but much I did not.

[DolphinFilms]

The Constitution grants to the federal government all powers "necessary and proper" for executing its enumerated functions, but no authority whatever to rule on matters not explicitly delegated. And as you stated from Article 1 Sec 8 ...."TO COIN MONEY"...

[AboveAllNations]

You Ron Paul people have the constitution completely backwards.

1) the Constitution was written by advocates of big gov't - the Federalists (i.e., Alexander Hamilton) - to address the impotency of the Articles of Confederation.

2) the text and intent of the 14th Amendment fundamentally changed the Constitution, further strengthening the Supremacy Clause (fed govt > states)

3) SC interpretation of deliberately ambiguous text - "general welfare," "necessary & proper," etc - supports big gov't

[julebuggy]

I suppose you forgot that long ass diatribe against the big banks (aka federal reserve) leaving the people bankrupt.

Alexander Hamilton belongs on a worthless Federal Reserve Note. It suits that traitor.

[julebuggy]

the long ass diatribe was from Jefferson.

[AboveAllNations]

Slaveholding hypocrite Thomas Jefferson didn't draft the Constitution - he was in France. Besides... he had no more respect for the Constitution than George W. Bush.

Check out his explanation for buying the Louisiana territory w/o asking permission from Congress:

"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation."

[julebuggy]

Ah, the GWB red herring. We all know how this is going to play out. Of course, you're already half way towards a modern day economics nobel prize (aka beauty contest).

Laws of necessity and self-preservation are convenient phrases depending on your point of view. For your hero GWB, it was clamping down on civil rights for self-preservation against the bombstrapping boogeyman. For Obama, it's implementing Keynesian retard economics to preserve of the free market.

[julebuggy]

Also the word democracy is never mentioned in the constitution, thus there is no evidence to suggest we exist in one.

[AboveAllNations]

The U.S. Constitution allows for strong government regulation of the economy (Commerce clause), the redistribution of income (16th Amendment) and big government spending projects (general welfare clause). Call it socialism if you want to, but those means are right in the constitution!

And we SHOULD have a strong government. The govt is, after all, WE the PEOPLE. Unregulated capitalism is social Darwinism, and it's inherently unstable. Deregulation and free market worship got us here!

[ronpaulspanish]

AMEN

[DillonX]

Josh Stossel has always been a spokesperson for the super-rich, never shown any compasion for the middle class or the poor.

[BlueSkies360]

Rent!

[bryandenehy76]

Great video, thanks for posting this.

[americaneagle1967]

God Save the South

Deo Vindice!

[DillonX]

Thank God, yes, Thank God -- McCain is not in charge.

There's no way we could have survived 8 more yrs of Bush policies.

[SkyDaddy7]

I know...Conservative Values have destroyed our great nation!

I can't wait to hear the excuses of why Obama's policies were not responsible for the turn around if and when it happens.

[mkauai2]

It is not about right and left, it is about right and wrong. The elites of both parties are owned by the banksters. Follow the money...

[SkyDaddy7]

Are you one of those Alex Jones worshiping NWO conspiracy theorist?

Have you seen the latest load BS he has put out? I know there are many gullible people out there just look at religion's popularity...However, buying the BS Alex Jones produces is the ultimate sign of gullibility!

[mkauai2]

No, but you are obviously the type of person who thinks ad-hom and deflection are honest debate tactics

[DolphinFilms]

No, the neo-cons and neo-liberals have destroyed our contry.

[stonescourt3]

yup--selfish people have destroyed our country.

[GoldenDragon214]

@SkyDaddy7 - 1 Year Later ... how's that turn around working for ya?

[SkyDaddy7]

@GoldenDragon214 STOP WATCHING FOX "NEWS" and compare economic data now to a year ago! You can act like we should be back to an econ like the 90's under Bill, the ONLY POTUS to actually balance the budget & create a surplus, but we are coming out of the worst econ since the Great Depression. Thanks to the failed policies of "Conservative Values".

[GoldenDragon214]

@SkyDaddy7 - Don't watch fox news. Don't need watch them to know there is no recovery. I agree ... Kudos to Clinton and (to be fair) a Repub congress for balancing the balance. Too bad is was too short lived. Bush, the big spending republican ran the biggest deficits ever. That was a major contributing cause to the collapse. Obama's response, run even bigger deficits. It's moronic.

The budget needs to be balanced by shrinking government. I don't care what side of the aisle does it.

[bryandenehy76]

there is almost no difference between the bush policies and the Obama policies.

[martinchill]

true - except for the huge differences.

here's a hint; when your car is spinning out, you don't frantically spin the wheel in the opposite direction.

[Rustyshackleford08]

8.1 percent unemployment is false btw, its actually 19.1 percent counted the way it was in the depression.

shadowstats(dot)com

[dennist3hmenace]

So many people drinking the Obama kool-aid. Money is a tool used by those with power to keep everyone else under control.

Furthermore, Keynes was wrong 100 years ago, and he is wrong today. Guess what, he'll be wrong tomorrow too.

Governments do not, can not, and will not produce anything. They can only take money from one group, and give it to another, making the economic disparity even worse. Thanks to Obama, your grandchildren are now in debt.

OBAMA: CHAINS WE CAN BELIEVE IN

[martinchill]

grandchildren were in debt before obama, pal.

two wars, trillions borrowed from china. can't hang that on obama.

[grizz88]

trillions? ... hardly

[martinchill]

trillions on war; billions from china.

~

US assures China over bond investments

"WASHINGTON (AFP) — President Barack Obama's aides scrambled to assure China that its hundreds of billions of dollars in US bonds were safe, after Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concerns about "the safety" of its investments.

China held 727.4 billion dollars in US Treasury bonds at the end of last year, just ahead of Japan, the holder of 626 billion dollars in bonds, according to US government data."

[hueyshell]

Bush used terror this and terror that.Now its money this an money that.If you recieved a letter in the mail stamped federal notice.After it's opened it reads,:YOUR ASS IS ON FIRE:,how many people will grab there asses as if they were on fire.Money is funneling,not circulating.

[spanishaustralian]

the truth is suppressed

[AboveAllNations]

John Stossel is a total prick. He cherry picks a room full of ideological "economists" and innocently ask them to raise their hands if they don't like the stimulus bill... is that supposed to be journalism?

[AboveAllNations]

This is a simplistic, one-sided, dishonest piece of propaganda. Stossel doesn't discuss the fact that 1) the value of the dollar is actually increasing with dropping demand, 2) that gov't spending is supposed to break this deflationary cycle, 3) that financing deregulation enabled banks to invest & lend irresponsibly in the first place, or 4) that investing in energy reform, infrastructure, research, public education, or health care returns future economic benefits beyond the temporary stimulus.

[CauseAndEffectPost]

Henry Hazlitt, Freidrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Frederic Bastiat, Adam Smith, and Carl Menger already demonstrated just how nonsensical and destructive this voodoo, bullshit, Keynesian economics is. You cannot generate productivity from a printing press and perpetual inflation.

Pick up a book by any of the great economists I listed and you might actually learn something you're not learning in school or by watching TV.

[rustybuick1]

You're funny.

[CauseAndEffectPost]

So robbing the private sector of capital (ie Keynesianism) and redistributing it to politically favored corporate interests ISN'T "ideological?!"

Three years ago, when Peter Schiff was on every network saying how the economic boom was an illusion and that the housing markets and credit markets were phony and would soon crash, he was literally laughed at, ridiculed, attacked by every mainstream government economist in the land. Now those same idiots are trying to tell us no one saw it coming.

[AboveAllNations]

Printing money and spending it doesn't "rob" the private sector of money. There is no money in the private sector - that's what a "capital crisis" means!! Only government spending can break a deflationary cycle and allow the whole financing system to recover.

How did we get out of the Great Depression? It wasn't New Deal deficit spending - that didn't go far enough. It was WWII deficit spending. Instead of building bombs, why not fix roads, provide health care, and kick our oil addiction?

[AboveAllNations]

Just bc Peter Schiff accurately predicted the crisis (like a lot of people) doesn't mean he has the right solution. Letting every bank fail, letting everybody lose their savings, and freezing all investment / loaning is not a realistic solution. Inaction would turn a "market correction" into a destabilizing disaster.

You can complain all you want, but Keynesianism saved capitalism when it almost collapsed. Gov'ts enable "the private sector" to exist through law enforcement in the first place.

[SkyDaddy7]

Have you heard the rumor that our unemployment numbers are are flawed? I have heard they changed the way the unemployment rate is calculated so that it appears smaller than it really is? Just curious?

[caltvater]

They always play with the numbers. Besides, what does it matters? The under-employed people are going to get a great deal on more tax credits and free health insurance. Hell, if my wife doesn't get reappointed for her teaching job, our income would be lower at first, but in the end, we would come out ahead! She could collect unemployment, take my kids off my health insurance to the state plan plus reduced daycare, food stamps and tax credits from Uncle Obama! OMG, I'm turning into an Obamabot!

[SkyDaddy7]

LOL! There are some problems with his policies but overall I think he will pull together a good plan to deal with the credit crunch.

I know one thing I am extremely thankful for...John McCain is not in charge! Mr. "...the fundamentals of the economy are strong!" as it is crashing down around him.

Warren Buffett likes President Obama so I guess that kinda ruins the ole "Socialist" fear mongering.

[caltvater]

I disagree. We would be far better off if government would let these companies fail and let the market decide on the winners and losers! Look at the depression of 1920! Just a few tax cuts and it was over! FDR just gave us a Raw Deal. And not all economists agree with the Obama plan. Actually more disagree. Just read the WSJ. Besides, the Democrats' community reinvestment act helped create this last bubble that led to this mess!

[SkyDaddy7]

Yeah...I have heard the Republican talking points. Its all the democrats fault & let everything fail and everything will be fine. WHATEVER!

The Republicans are simply the party of NO...They would not let these big institutions fail either if they were at the wheel. Everyone knows that allowing Bear to fall was mistake I could only imagine the chaos that would erupt if we just sat back and watched what would happen. LOL!

Easy to say such nonesense from the sidelines!

[caltvater]

I am not defending the Republicans and they lost because they were acting like Democrats! Most people who voted for Obama didn't know that the Dems controlled Congress for the last two years and what a job they did. People like Frank who defended FF and FF and then everything inploded. Now they are talking about easing the mark to market rules and this will make the banking industry look better, but the problems will still exist until the next crisis.

[DolphinFilms]

It's ironic the Dems were elected during the Bush reign of terror to stop the war and all they did was continue to the same failed foreign policy. Bush would say I need 20 billion for the war and the Dems would say no here's 50 billion and we will take another 50 billion for welfare.

[Rustyshackleford08]

Keynesian economics has been debunked and quack theory. We are living the results of the cumulative effect of years of this garbage theory.

[mikebee02]

John Stossel's a joke. This is the most ridiculous piece of "journalism" I've ever seen. It's even funnier that there are idiots out there that eat this shit up.

[mcacts1]

They didn't read the Dam Bill!!! Idiots!!!

[jdrizd2]

If Pelosi is that weak minded that she can't get a simple unemployment fact correct twice she should find another line of work.

[raguv2000]

Obama is worse than Jimmy Carter

part of what people blame Carter for is Volcker's program of raising interest rates to liquidate bad capital

[forliberty76]

Volker did the right thing by making interest rates he prevented (delayed) the dollar's immanent collapse by making money very expensive and reigning in the MS.

[raguv2000]

exactly my point

Carter gets blamed for a bad economy on his watch, but Volcker's policy was good in the long run

[forliberty76]

I agree, Obama is bad news. you're right

[jzmdi493]

Hyperinflation will be America's next major crisis, check out: Inflation . us

[CRAPCANNONS]

we're not in a democracy you turd. we're in a constitutional republic.

we're a nation of laws, not uninformed opinions.

[kevinz1985]

This journalist is good.

[raguv2000]

John Stossel is one of the few reasonable people in the MSM

Maxine Waters is dumb as hell

[MS1719ms]

Thanks for the video!! Let me ask you a question. In your personal life, would you be able to (spend) your way out of debt?

[DolphinFilms]

No way - No how, but I can spend my way into oblivion, slavery and homelessness.

[martinchill]

agreed.

however, if your roof is falling in and winter's coming - do you buy long underwear and space heaters or do you take out a home equity loan and fix your friggin' roof?

i love how we've spent trillions on two b.s. wars in eight years with nary a peep about how wasteful and non-productive that has been, but now that the time has come to face the reality of where that policy has taken us - suddenly everyone is "waaaah! you want to spend money on roads and bridges and education! waaaaah"

[carcabe]

You cannot spend your way to prosperity. Prosperity and economic growth is the result of investment which comes from savings which is a function of DEFERRED spending/consumption.

What we need is less spending and lower much lower taxes to allow the accumulation of capital.

No this will not produce the instant results that childish Americans demand but it is the only way.

Spending just gives the temporay illusion of prosperity before the bill comes due. Then CRASH!!!!

[caltvater]

Great report by ABC! The depression of 1920 was solved by the government only doing some minor tax cuts. The Great Depression was only made worse by the New Deal and only ended by WWII!

[DolphinFilms]

The great depression ended "after" the war when all the bad investments were finally liquidated and government spending was reduced by 2/3 and taxes were reduced by 1/3.

[caltvater]

Good point. The war only put everyone back to work.

[DolphinFilms]

Exactly, the government drafted 10-12 million able bodied unemployed men and sent them off to war. That in turn lowered the unemployment statistics which the statists use to justify the war as ending the depression and being good for an economy.

[DolphinFilms]

not sure who your comment is directed to, but if you re-read the whole thread you will see that we are in agreement. caltvater believed the war ended the depression. I don't.

[ubuibiok]

*****