Replies to post #137887 on Biotech Values

[exwannabe]

it could be argued that Reagan was "handed" the baton in the middle of a worse downturn.

No, that was in the tail of a downturn that hit bottom years earlier. Nixon's wage and price controls were never a solution, they just pushed the inflation forward.

Unemployment did peek early under Regan, but this was just the cycle playing out at the tail.

Presidents get far to much credit and blame for the economy. It was always 100% obvious that whoever won the '08 election would look bad. Ditto that for '12.

[haysaw]

There have certainly been much worse economic downturns in the country's history. That is clear - and also indisputable.

Take out the multi-trillion dollar stimulus/bailout/easing injections and what do you think happens? I don't think anything comes close to what would have happened, had the system taken its natural course (by letting the greedy risk-takers/speculators/cheaters flatten and fail by the systemic weight of their own fraudulent, leveraged, and gluttonous girth). The perfect storm blew through this planet in 2008, but the world's biggest superpower, US, played God -- by parting the so called 'capitalistic' seas -- and kept most of the culprits (and ultimately their powerless minions and pawns) from drowning. This will happen again and again, while the PTB remain so. But, it is illogical to think that throwing artificial money at a problem, in itself created from too much artificial money (and nearly intact reckless power), will fix things for the long term. Something has to give, and it will give, eventually, but it could probably continue for quite some time. Either the non-extremist cohort of this country gains power and makes responsible decisions, or China etal will, sans 'responsible decisions'. I prefer the former, but I don't think I prefer the 'present,' and its prospective future, to the latter. Hey, at least we can improve our quality of life and enjoy a rejuvenation of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It may not be as advanced (scientifically) as what is going on here in the Western world, but at this point, I trust it more.