Romney vs Obama 2012

[DE]

To a degree, yes. When the government promises more than it can provide (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.) serious problems arise. Nobody is saying do away with the aforementioned programs. However, a serious overhaul is required. At some point we must start dealing with reality before it deals with us.

See this is where you lose me. I won't even get into Greece, where it still wasn't the case. But let's talk about Spain which I know very, very well. Entitlements had nothing to do with Spain's problem. Not at all. Nothing. Hell, government spending itself had nothing to do with the current problem in Spain.

Maybe it's a global trend but we love to throw shit around in the US to prove out points. And this isn't even liberal vs. conservative. Both sides pull this bullshit. It's like the framing of the argument is more important than the substance itself.

[Uncle Mxy]

Do you read anything besides liberal cartoon papers?

Like the Smithsonian and Harper's?

[bukdow]

See this is where you lose me. I won't even get into Greece, where it still wasn't the case. But let's talk about Spain which I know very, very well. Entitlements had nothing to do with Spain's problem. Not at all. Nothing. Hell, government spending itself had nothing to do with the current problem in Spain.

Maybe it's a global trend but we love to throw shit around in the US to prove out points. And this isn't even liberal vs. conservative. Both sides pull this bullshit. It's like the framing of the argument is more important than the substance itself.

OK, what was it?

[DE]

Paul Krugman gets Spain pretty much nailed down. Part of this started with the Euro. When the Euro came into affect Spain became the cheap country for the rest of Europe. What was already a huge country for tourism became even more so. And, with interest rates at super huge lows, real estate became THE craze. You had Spaniards buying second houses if nothing else but to invest their undeclared pesetas that they would have had to declare with the change to the Euro (in other words, laundering) and you had a lot of the rest of Europe buying up the coast of Spain. But that's still not the biggest part, Spain itself saw this housing boom and turned it into a huge housing bubble. Speculation went crazy and Spaniards went crazy financing 110% of their homes and paying 70% of their monthly income on mortgages. It's important to understand that Spain is a buying housing market. Whereas the UK or Germany might have around 35-50% of homes owned it's around 70% for Spain. So they had this enormous housing bubble that was the only driver fueling the economy. Spain itself is a debtor nation and its businesses even more so, with huge construction companies taking up huge credit to build huge projects. Mix that with the enormous % of the population of the country also taking on more credit than it could handle. I would add cost of living in Spain also grew disproportionately to the rise in average salaries. So when the global crisis hits and the bubble burst, the country was left with tons of temporary jobs and construction jobs that were no longer needed and companies that couldn't pay their debt causing even more unemployment of a workforce that had mortgaged itself to the teeth.

[Uncle Mxy]

Yeah, its too bad. Not for the reason you state, but because Romney attempted to make the election a serious debate about two different directions for the country. The Obama direction is more entitlements leading to insolvency and economic growth being driven by the government. The Romney direction is taking a logical look at entitlements and doing what needs to be done to prevent a Southern Europe style meltdown and economic growth being driven by the private sector.

Logical look? Do tell. Here's a quiz for you. Thus far, since Ryan has been named VP, what did Romney say about his plan relative to Ryan's?

a) His plan is very different than Ryan's plan
b) He couldn't think of any differences between his plan and Ryan's plan
c) He and Ryan are on 100% the same path
d) His plan is not the Ryan plan
e) all of the above.

HINT: The correct answer will give you whiplash.

Ryan couldn't even communicate this so-called plan to the satisfaction of Brit Hume from Fox News. Both of them are trying to run away from their largest entitlement-related economic achievements in office. It's amusing. A serious debate about entitlements? Puh-leeze!

[Tahoe]

Hilarious....read below.

Logical look? Do tell. Here's a quiz for you. Thus far, since Ryan has been named VP, what did Romney say about his plan relative to Ryan's?

a) His plan is very different than Ryan's plan
b) He couldn't think of any differences between his plan and Ryan's plan
c) He and Ryan are on 100% the same path
d) His plan is not the Ryan plan
e) all of the above.

HINT: The correct answer will give you whiplash.

Ryan couldn't even communicate this so-called plan to the satisfaction of Brit Hume from Fox News. Both of them are trying to run away from their largest entitlement-related economic achievements in office. It's amusing. A serious debate about entitlements? Puh-leeze!

[Tahoe]

Paul Krugman gets Spain pretty much nailed down. Part of this started with the Euro. When the Euro came into affect Spain became the cheap country for the rest of Europe. What was already a huge country for tourism became even more so. And, with interest rates at super huge lows, real estate became THE craze. You had Spaniards buying second houses if nothing else but to invest their undeclared pesetas that they would have had to declare with the change to the Euro (in other words, laundering) and you had a lot of the rest of Europe buying up the coast of Spain. But that's still not the biggest part, Spain itself saw this housing boom and turned it into a huge housing bubble. Speculation went crazy and Spaniards went crazy financing 110% of their homes and paying 70% of their monthly income on mortgages. It's important to understand that Spain is a buying housing market. Whereas the UK or Germany might have around 35-50% of homes owned it's around 70% for Spain. So they had this enormous housing bubble that was the only driver fueling the economy. Spain itself is a debtor nation and its businesses even more so, with huge construction companies taking up huge credit to build huge projects. Mix that with the enormous % of the population of the country also taking on more credit than it could handle. I would add cost of living in Spain also grew disproportionately to the rise in average salaries. So when the global crisis hits and the bubble burst, the country was left with tons of temporary jobs and construction jobs that were no longer needed and companies that couldn't pay their debt causing even more unemployment of a workforce that had mortgaged itself to the teeth.

lol

[Tahoe]

This shits over.

[Glenn]

http://hoopshype.com/campaign.htm

[Uncle Mxy]

I'm waiting for the report on how Mitt Romney plays dressage:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tucker...b_1783260.html