“Use the internet to buy things?” That’s an interesting change in your usual policy, Bing.

While I normally agree with a lot of your comments, I have to say I disagree with much of what you suggested today. The basic gist of your message seems to be that Americans should go out and spend, spend, spend until the economy picks up.

Frankly I think the last thing people should be doing is spending money simply out of some rediculous “obligation” to the country. If anything, a good part of the problem is that too many of us (both as individuals and at the corporate and governmental levels) are spending more than we can afford. Yes, it serves to prop up our economy IN THE SHORT TERM, but the long term consequences are staggering as we continue to pile debt upon debt.

If we focused more upon getting our debts paid and building some savings we’d quickly find that quite a few of the economic problems we face would start to fade. Just imagine what the Federal Government could be getting done if it wasn’t paying interest on $9,373,288,975,243.12 (total US Federal debt as of 6/23/08 – US Bureau of Public Debt). Even at the roughly 4.5% interest rate the government is currently paying, that works out to over $1.1 Billion per day, 365 days a year!

That’s just the Federal debt. If you factor in how much debt has been taken on by state and local governments, the amount becomes even more staggering… And that is just to keep the status quo (pay off just the interest and none of the principal of the debt).

At some point we have to cut back on our overspending and get these debts paid off. Not just the government, but all of us have too much debt dragging down our finances, and next to nothing in savings or “emergency funds”.

While it won’t make the recession we are in go away sooner, I think that encouraging people to continue to spend solely to spend is not the cure to what ails us, but just more of the disease.

Um, Bing. I thought *you* worked in the media.

Although I’m not starving and can still drive my vehicle to a job, I’m worse off than I was 8 years ago.

There seem to be two basic components to this post: spend money and ignore the news.

Now, I believe in spending money. But I’m not going to blow my wad simply for the sake of doing it. Nor, on the other hand, am I going to start hording it, because what good is money if you can’t spend it? I think that over the course of the last few years, we’ve engaged in some “irrational exuberance” with our homes and our credit cards. I think that we all need to switch to a more rational and sensible level of spending and consumption. However, each person is going to have to define for themselves what entails “rational and sensible”.

I do agree that we need to ignore the news. Remember that the news people are in the business of attracting eyeballs to their advertisers. Which means that they have to always do something to get our attention, most of which involves hype. Most of the news can just be blown off or simply filed away, but doesn’t really require us to do anything. I don’t want to make light of her situation but ask yourself “Who’s Chandra Levy?” Not so many summers ago, that name filled the pages of the newspaper. And in the course of one day, it went from the buzz of the town to just a footnote in history.

Watch the news but don’t take it too much to heart. No circus is complete without a sideshow barker. But the mission of the circus isn’t to show you the wonderful things that man and animals can do; it’s to sell tickets and concessions.

BTW, Bing, the way your pushing the conspicuous consumption makes me wonder whether your some kind of retail marketing exec.

“CONSUMER PESSIMISN” increasingly has been, and still is, overriding any consumer confidence.

Astronomicaly high costs for food and energy, while assets valuations are falling like a “SNOWBALL HEADED FOR HELL” has Americans panicky.

Retirement products soothsayers (brokers) have been throwing those products to the “HEDGE HOGS” where fund managers rake their 2% and 20% annually depleting the basis of those funds.

Depleting values in hedge funds and personal assets are causing “BANKRUPTCIES” to soar.

Easy access to electronic transfer and credit card debt exploits the vulnerable to increase debt for necessities regardless of the consequences.

With our “MANUFACTURING BASE” prostituted, as are our national assets, we are transitioning from a “CAPITALIST” country to a “BARTERING” country.

Bing, its an interesting perspective but give me a break. And I would love to spend more money and get my dollars out in the economy if I had any to spare. I already take the bus to work 75% of the time. I don’t own a home, I rent (something that I now have little regret over). Sure i’ll stay at my 8.90 an hour job, cause its so going to give me the spending power i need to do my part of the economy and I’ll turn down that 13.50 job because it has no viable bus route (viable meaning one that doesn’t take an hour and a half single trip). I want to get the better job but my car is broken down and my fiance’s car is needed by her. I don’t know where to even scrape the cash to get it fixed so sorry if I can’t get out there every goddamned weekend and pump any money. I did do the civic thing with my stimulus check and blew it on starbucks, cheesecake, and some flowers, and gave the other half to my fiancee so she could use it to stimulate the economy since her check was blown on debt. She spent the money on more debt. Well, I tried. So that money’s gone now. So if I want to get that job with better money I’ll have to suffer a 3 hour (conservative estimate) round trip every day that I work, which means I would probably never get laid, and my lonely fiance will start look at the mailman (she knows I’m kidding, but that lady is pretty damn randy!)And no pay raise is worth not getting laid. So hey big time CEO, why don’t you send me some of your cash (which you probably have in a vault somewhere in your basement away from losing stocks and degrading financial institutions)and cover me and my fiancees debts for a year, and then we’ll take all the money we make and blow it on the economy to defibrillate the dying pulse of it! How about that big guy!! Bing I love you man, but you’re just a little out of touch with us little people in the low mid class!

A very surprisingly ultra-conservative and wise Finance and Econ. prof taught to my Intro to Finance class in 1980 that war did nothing for GNP and would create stagflation. His words seem to ring true today.

I could spend my $4.50 on my quad latte or even splurge and buy that $2000 purse at Nordstrom and I do not think collectively we could all even begin to mitigate the drain on resources and morale this administration’s war effort has cost. It’s a big loser and the really sad news is that there’s not even a tax benefit to be had. Not to mention how popular I will feel when I do follow through with my commitment to travel to Europe in September 2008. (I hope you all know it goes without saying also the utterly massive tragic loss of civilian and military life)

Too bad some folks crossed over from Corporate to Government – had they stayed in the free market they would have been long gone.

Sorry Bing – we cannot blame the media – it is real- Simply, we are seriously losing market share.

People are worried because they are timid, foolish, ugly, and gullible.

Forget the rules and do what you want to do. All of that “common sense-ancient wisdom-sage advice-hope for the future” stuff is for the masses to eat up and swallow until death. The masses will not get ahead because the masses are needed to prop up the super rich and glorious.

I never prescribe to just being happy and taking what I can get. The moment you settle is the moment you do not count. Keep taking risks until your heart stops beating. There is no need to play it safe and follow the rules. The only thing that you should do is have enough money to run away from trouble.

Life is happening. Are you living or surviving?

The oil apocalypse is dragging the consumer into further “HELTER SKELTER”.

Oil is valued in currency ($).

Futures contracts managers (buy and sell) commodities for profits not consumption.

2% of assets and 20% of gains each year go to speculators. The cycle is repetitive.

The middle men to investment houses–investment houses to available buyers. Market factors, supply and demand, (anything will sell if the price is right), will rule the roost.

Just as the “PIMP” is the the middle man to the various houses he services, the oil speculater managers “PIMP” the services they provide to the various organizations they service.

If oil companies bought direct from “OPEC”; they would have leverage to control prices through competitive bidding.

Pimping is old hat to me: when I was in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1954, we used to have the out-run the pimps like the “STARS” do with the “PAPPARAZZI” today.

I want to thank all you guys for your uncommonly well-thought-out comments. I know I’m a little out of touch, by the way. But I didn’t say we should all spend millions. I just think we should each do our part. Today, for instance, I’m going to buy some socks. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Yadgyu, not only do I really like your post, but I’m glad you’re back, because every blog needs someone to say that people worry about the economy because they’re ugly.

Some of you people were clearly out on the sidewalk smoking the day they covered the concept of sarcasm …

I am truly humbled by your graceful response. You know Bing, you’re really funny, maybe you should do a anecdote/comedy tour just to start to fill the void Saint George Carlin left. If you came to Tucson you could probably get a venue at one of our casinos, and from there you could cover all the casinos in the west. You could even do blackberry business meetings in the middle of a show just for some impromptu fun! Hey aren’t you partially retired anyway? Can you see it, you with a martini or whatever such poison, with a cigar of course, having a blackberry meeting (or IPhone if you have converted) in front of a live audience! Hey man, even my broke ass would pay to see that!

Bing by your own testimony you have stated the most obvious fact about what is wrong with this economy.

“Three-quarters of our economy is built upon our willingness to part with our money in exchange for goods and services.”

How can a country have a viable economy when consumtion is 75% of it’s GDP?

This attitude of consume everything and produce nothing is what has lead to Americas downfall.

Shuffling paper on Wallstreet to create wealth is a fools way of postponing the enevitable crash of the country.

Buy American — if you can still find out what they make.

Bing sounds like William Buckley, a rich snob who got a lot of respect from some just because he could use a sharp wit to promote snob’s and their snooty ways; promoted super-capitalism, economy mainly for the wealthy like him and friends [inherited]. Trickle down to the average family if there’s much left to get there?

I suppose his comments make many of the well to do readers feel good, that it’s not too bad, after all the rich make a lot of money picking up the pieces from the middle class as they struggle or lose their house.

But considering the smear campaign against Sen. Obama, it make the word Elitism finnaly find a good target [like say the McCain’s who “know little of money yet own 7 homes, and pay their taxes late even!”

Hey. I really resent that. I mean, that really hurts. If there is one person who I grew up despising, both for his politics and his voice, it was William F. Buckley, Jr. I loathed the man and his television program, because, in my view, he hid stone-age politics behind a veneer of hyper-intellectualism. His views on the Vietnam War were those of every right-wing, knee-jerk hawk, but he made them sound like the well-considered thoughts of a philosopher, mostly by the use of words that were too big for most of his audience.

I don’t see where I’m like that guy at all. Sometimes I recognize that my attitudes and perceptions are formed by my middle-management status, and no, I’m not poor, although make no mistake, I will have to work until the day I die to pay my debts. Sometimes I think that when I say things that I think make fun of my class and my colleagues, some of you guys miss that and think I’m taking the whole Executive thing seriously. I don’t.

And don’t say I am like that guy. Thems fighting words.