The Michiganization of America
This is a remarkable slide show depicting the growth of unemployment in the U.S. in just two and a half years. In January 2007, before the credit and financial crises and the subsequent recession, the counties in purple or black — representing unemployment of 7 percent or more — were restricted to a handful of states.
Move forward to September of this year, and the whole map looks bruised.
I don’t intend this as a “blame Obama” post. The recession and the rise in unemployment started before he took office. But even “Saturday Night Live” understands that what the administration has been trying so far — namely, spending more money and piling up even more debt that will have to be repaid — isn’t working.
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265 comments Add your comment
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:04 pm
Yes David…….Peter, one, unemployment was 4.4% under Bush. Second, we all had jobs. Third, we were not attacked again after 911. Fourth, he had islamic radicals on the run. Fifth, the DOW hit 14,000 for the first time ever.
Shall I keep going?
Please tell us what happened next…….. this will be exciting……..
Unless you use the words………Depression, Recession, or Bail out ! Then Dow 8000 !
Bernie Maddof, Cost Plus Contracts, Illegal Aliens, lying about the environment…etc….
Maybe include this…… A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history……I wonder why ?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:05 pm
Yep the lies about WMD was told to Congress, and the rest of the WORLD !
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:08 pm
Peter, yep, funny how after 2006, when the Dems took over the house and senate, things went downhill. Depression? Hardly.
What does Bernie Maddof have to do with Bush?
Poll? Hell, I can find a poll that says Jimmy Carter is the worst president in history.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
4:08 pm
Peter, I wasn’t aware that small businesses had rich CEO’s & sent jobs overseas. The difference between large corporations & small businesses are small businesses employ the majority of Americans, aren’t unionized & are too small to bail out or even matter. The fed govt only concentrates on corporations who failed but were to big to fail & that can be nationalized.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:08 pm
Peter, then I guess Bill Clinton lied about Saddam because he made Saddam a big part of his agenda. If Bush lied then so did Democrats and Europe.
Churchill's MOM
November 23rd, 2009
4:10 pm
why do you leave the frauds comments & delete mine?
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:10 pm
Peter:
1: Do you believe that 911 was an inside job?
2: Is America a democracy or a republic?
3: Are Democrats gods to you?
William
November 23rd, 2009
4:11 pm
I am going to remind you “blame the republican crowd” that those were not republicans who did all what you said. It was liberals imposing as Republicans and won the elections. Just to let you know.
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
4:14 pm
Peter, Just because Bush was “in charge” on 9/11 doesn’t mean he was piloting any of the planes. Clinton admitted & bragged he was responsible.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:15 pm
Churchill’s MOM, why do whine so much?
ATLshirt.com
November 23rd, 2009
4:16 pm
david, you should not give those small minded Democrats a tough tricky question like that one… LOL
Kyle Wingfield
November 23rd, 2009
4:18 pm
Churchill’s: Which of your comments did I take down? I don’t see any of your comments in moderation.
Churchill's MOM
November 23rd, 2009
4:21 pm
Kyle Wingfield….my computer is only loading part pages, my problem not yours.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:22 pm
Churchill’s MOM wrote: Kyle Wingfield….my computer is only loading part pages, my problem not yours.
No kidding, you have MANY problems.
Churchill's MOM
November 23rd, 2009
4:24 pm
fraud…I won’t waste any more time trying to educate a fool… where is your Duke transcript posted so I can see how smart you are?
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:31 pm
Hey David, and Linda……. I think you should do as Kyle does……Look to SNL for your political Info !
They are the pulse of America……….. Please then report back to us next week !
Kyle keep up the great work……. Please watch sesame Street, and then report back to us on Terrorism !
David……No Democrat’s are Not Gods……in fact they are JUST People……just like everyone alive.
Glenn
November 23rd, 2009
4:32 pm
The Michiganization if America indeed . It seems both parties value these absurd trade agreements that have destroyed Americas manufacturing sector . I suppose trade deficits really don’t come into play . It also seems fine & dandy to give our manufacturing to a country buying our debt even if they don’t have any labor or environmental policies . Let me guess , these comments make me a protectionist & it really is unions that have destroyed manufacturing . Funny when GW had China finance the Iraq experience I never heard any rightwing talking head mentioning his fiscal or economic irresponsibility outside Pat Buchanon . I thought China was supposed to be a ” strategic competitor ” .
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:35 pm
Churchill’s MOM, uh huh. Go sell stupid somewhere else.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:36 pm
Kyle thank you for today’s chuckle……. they could not have picked a sillier fellow to follow Whooten than you.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:37 pm
Peter, I don’t look to SNL for my news. I get it from real sources. Oh, and I also don’t pretend that the Daily Show is real news like you guys.
Thanks for not answering my other questions.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:41 pm
David…..You seem to agree with Kyle, and that is what this blog is based on !
1. 911 could have been an inside job….but know one knows. Go to Yale and see if you get in the secret society there ?
2. With the illegal Banking system in place (Federal Reserve) , who knows what America really is……again back to Yale
3. As a Total independent……. I trust neither side.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:42 pm
Peter, thanks for proving how disconnected with reality you really are!
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:46 pm
David……. You as the lemming are welcome !
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:50 pm
Peter, no problem Obama cult follower.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
4:51 pm
HA HA HA……..Seems Republican’s are in a cult !
Only problem is the Republican’s are all for one……. and All for ME !
Dick Cheney is a fine example of that !
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
4:54 pm
The economic crisis in the nutshell:
The fed govt initiated redlining in the ’30’s, preventing lenders from making loans in risky areas & even distributed the maps.
Community organizers protested & the Community Investment Act was passed under Carter. Redlining was banned & banks & savings & loans had to make loans in risky neighborhoods or else.
’80’s: savings & loans crisis, bailouts, Resolution Trust, etc.
In the ’90’s under Clinton, the Community Reinvestment Act was broadened to include mortgage companies. Mortgage companies don’t have $/deposits & sell their loans on the secondary market, half of them to Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, at the time quasi-govt agencies. Laws in the ’90’s REQUIRED Fannie & Freddie to change their sound lending practices from proof of income, down payment & good credit to anyone who breathed. HUD mandated that up to half of Fannie & Freddie’s portfolio consisted of Affordable Housing loans by a target date, which they exceeded. Fannie set the standards in the real estate financial market. Most lenders used Fannie’s underwriting guidelines whether the loans were actually sold to Fannie or not, since other secondary buyers also preferred them.
Fannie bought & insured subprime loans made to homeowners who had no jobs, no down payment, bad credit & teaser initial interest rates, bundled them with prime loans & sold them on Wall St., who sold them to investors all over the world.
Any idiot could see that the economic crisis was inevitable. People who can’t QUALIFY don’t PAY.
Adjustable rate mortgages adjust in 3 to 5 yrs.
In ‘04, before the crash, Clinton BRAGGED in his autobiography that it was his adm that was responsible for the “STAGGERING’ ‘$800 B” in loans for Affordable Housing. He also admitted in 8/08 on ABC that the Dems for yrs resisted any efforts by the Reps to reign in Fannie & Freddie.
The govt caused the problem in the ’30’s, tried to correct it in the ’70’s & multiplied the problem in the ’90’s.
Those congressmen most responsible are still in power & one is today pushing more Affordable Housing loans for condos.
The problem was an ideology that home ownership is a right, not a privilege, much like today that health insurance (not health care) is a right, not a privilege. Everyone is entitled.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
4:55 pm
Peter, and the democrats aren’t? Keep bowing down to your lord and savior Obama.
DebbieDoRight
November 23rd, 2009
5:01 pm
Kyle ok it was a BILLION and not a TRILLION dollar loan from China……question, did we ever pay that back or is it somewhere drawing interest? Any thoughts?
Also on deficits: On the deepest level, the vice president was echoing, in slightly exaggerated form, an idea put forward a few years ago by Irving Kristol, the Godfather of the neoconservatives who have had such a wide-ranging effect on Bush administration policy. Kristol wrote then, and still believes, that “We should figure out what we want before we calculate what we can afford, not the reverse.”
On the political level, treating deficits as a non-issue also proved a successful strategy. After all, despite the torrent of red ink that splashed across the national budgets during his first term, George W. Bush was reelected by a substantial margin.
Hmmmm interesting thing that notion huh? Here’s another one: Since Ronald Reagan, a majority of Republican politicians have gradually come to conclude, as Vice-President Dick Cheney famously told former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill, that “deficits don’t matter.” What’s interesting and alarming, however, is that different Republican factions believe deficits don’t matter for opposite and incompatible reasons. Supply-siders believe deficits don’t matter because tax cuts so boost investment and productivity that the economy grows its way out of debt. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_52/b3914021_mz007.htm
Do your remember if that worked or not Kyle? Just asking……..
And finally this ditty from you: . Did many of us vote for Republican candidates over the past decade? Sure — on the theory that Democrats would be even worse. Then you said: My mantra is: Vote against incumbents early (in the primaries) and often (both in the primaries and the general election).
Kyle, you just created an oxymoron!!! First yes you DID vote republican, although you didn’t necessarily agree with them or what they were doing, THEN you said your mantra was to vote against incumbents!! Kyle are you studying to become a politician later on in life? You have a good start already!!!
Keep repeating the republican mantra: “All is well, move along, there’s nothing to see here”; and keep shoving that revisionist history down people’s throats and you’ll be just fine! You’ll turn into a stellar republican politician.
PS: Just so you don’t think I’m screaming at you, here’s some happy faces!
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
5:02 pm
Hey Linda,
Where is the part about the MADE UP WAR, and George Bush using China as a Credit card to pay for such Made Up War ?
You also forgot about these facts……..
WASHINGTON – Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.
In the cross hairs of the campaign carried out by DCI of Washington were Republican senators and a regulatory overhaul bill sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. DCI’s chief executive is Doug Goodyear, whom John McCain’s campaign later hired to manage the GOP convention in September.
Freddie Mac’s payments to DCI began shortly after the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sent Hagel’s bill to the then GOP-run Senate on July 28, 2005. All GOP members of the committee supported it; all Democrats opposed it.
Ops forgot the obvious didn’t you !
Glenn
November 23rd, 2009
5:04 pm
Wrong . The problem was no one thought property could ever lose value . That’s why someone made 40k a year could get a loan for a six hundred thousand dollar house .
Linda
November 23rd, 2009
5:09 pm
Glenn, If we only bought American, we wouldn’t be able to DRIVE to the jobs we no longer have to manufacture our exports that are no longer being purchased because we aren’t buying imports–like oil. I think it’s called the Golden Rule.We have a self-imposed ban on drilling for our own oil to “save the planet” & are forced to buy oil from other “planets” such as Canada & Mexico.
We spend all taxes we get our hands on. What we can’t tax, we borrow. What we can’t borrow, we print.
We have to kiss the rear of our biggest Communist benefactor & end up with toxic baby formula, lead-based toys, poison sheetrock & oh yeah, a nuclear N. Korea that wants the money we’ve already spent.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
5:11 pm
Glenn wrote: Wrong . The problem was no one thought property could ever lose value . That’s why someone made 40k a year could get a loan for a six hundred thousand dollar house .
WRONG! There were LOTS of people who thought differently. If you go back about 10 years, you will read about how Clinton wanted ANYONE to be able to buy a house even if they could not afford it.
Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: Thursday, September 30, 1999
In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.
The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/30/business/fannie-mae-eases-credit-to-aid-mortgage-lending.html
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
5:12 pm
Gee Linda ……… it seems our Communist Benefactors, hold the note on the “Made UP Iraq WAR ” !
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
5:14 pm
Poor Peter. That cage must get really lonely at night.
Kyle Wingfield
November 23rd, 2009
5:15 pm
Debbie, dear…you can vote against incumbents in the primary…although I do note the objection Churchill’s raised earlier about a lack of challengers in primaries. I would like to see a good, solid challenger in every primary that involves an incumbent.
I would also say that my anti-incumbent views have sharpened in the last couple of election cycles, as it became more apparent that Republicans weren’t living up to the principles for which they were originally elected.
I don’t think there’s anything inconsistent about what I said, although you do have to be able to envision someone not voting a straight party ticket.
Kyle Wingfield
November 23rd, 2009
5:17 pm
Peter: You can’t just cut and paste an entire article like that. Please just provide a link…you already posted the first few paragraphs of that article.
Jefferson
November 23rd, 2009
5:17 pm
If you are making a killing, someone is getting killed.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
5:23 pm
Hey Kyle,
For starters I have found certain articles seem to appear, then disappear, so the best idea is to cut and paste them for ones self.
Do you have a word limit on what someone can post ?
Intown Lib
November 23rd, 2009
5:24 pm
What you should really be covering is the Detroitification of Metro Atlanta if Georgia cannot negotiate, legislate or litigate out of the box that Judge Magnuson, Alabama and Florida put us all in. If the AJC doesn’t start covering this with more gusto, pretty soon it won’t have a city to cover.
Kyle Wingfield
November 23rd, 2009
5:28 pm
Peter: My only rule (see here: http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2009/11/11/some-rules-for-this-blog/) is that you don’t cut and paste an entire article — both for copyright reasons and because it tends to make this blog unreadable. To meet those requirements, I suggest posting about the same amount that you already have. If you want to highlight an additional section, it’s probably OK to put another 2-3 paragraphs in a second comment.
Ultimately, I’ll judge whether to leave a post or take it down on whether you’re making a good-faith effort to meet this rule. The copyright part is very important to me (and to the person/organization whose article you’re citing…)
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
5:33 pm
OK …..Kyle that seems fair to me!
Kyle Wingfield
November 23rd, 2009
5:35 pm
Thanks.
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
5:44 pm
The wingnuts continue to type “pointing the finger isn’t helping us know, let’s move on” all while discussing what Clinton and Carter did and didn’t do. In other words, “don’t say sh#t about conservative f**k ups, period”. I’m convinced you idiots don’t know when you’re coming or going.
scott
November 23rd, 2009
5:46 pm
one reason our economy is screwed up..8 YEARS OF GREEDY,SELFISH,SELF SERVING,HATEFUL.,DIVISION ORIENTED,LYING,RACIST, REPUBLICANS..THE PARTY OF NO AND HYPOCRITES!!END OF STORY..
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
5:49 pm
The welfare talk continues to be amusing as well. When people of color get welfare, it’s called a “handout for the lazy”. When Whites get welfare (who make up 70% of its recipients, btw) it’s called SSI. LMAO! Better yet, it’s called a “bailout”. I love the double standards! People go to extremes when their privilege is threatened. Hmph!
The American People: The only time Blacks make headline news is when they’ve done something bad. You leaped across the Pacific Ocean to *reach* that conclusion.
ask a Native
November 23rd, 2009
5:59 pm
@ David Axelfraud: you say the libs are the party of whiners and complainers. It seems these blogs start off reasoned and civil, then you come on foaming at the mouth about the Dems.
@ all wingers: We are still waiting on the Republican alternative to the stimulus plan and the health bill. Screaming out “you lie” for the world to see isn’t sufficient. Show us a better alternative or shut the hell up already. I’m not a Dem, but America has had it with you and your fear-mongering ilk. If you all hate the state of affairs in America so much, take the advise you offered when the tables were turned and LEAVE. Go sucker some lowly, “uncivilized” nation out of its land and establish your New America. Take some h1n1 blankies with you for good measure, it’d be just like old times. I’d personally LOVE to see you all on the first Mayflower smoking “back to Europe.”
Happy “Thanksgiving”
Hard Right Hook
November 23rd, 2009
6:00 pm
It’s hard for me to imagine that the Wharton School of Business admitted all these bomb-throwing, screaming nitwits for an MBA. Some not so lucent business analyses, indeed.
Any electorate that elects Deddie Stabenow or Jenefer Granholm is questionable anyway. This fits the grand liberal theory; Michigan cannot possibly work it’s own problems out. It needs the Federal Hope & Change Government to do it for them.
Good piece, Kyle.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
6:09 pm
ask a Native, alternative to the government takeover of health care.
1: The GOP has a plan. Democrats shut them out of meetings time and time again.
2: Stimulus plan FAILED! Answer: Let the free market work itself out as it always does.
3: You and other liberal trolls cried for 8 years about all things Bush.
Bottom line: Your party sucks and it has cost us all jobs.
Democrats = the party of felons, illegal aliens and college dropouts.
David Axelfraud
November 23rd, 2009
6:10 pm
ask a Native, why don’t you make me “shut the hell up” you worthless twerp of a human being.
Peter
November 23rd, 2009
6:13 pm
For your eyes only David……..
Republican’s = the party of felons, for illegal aliens, and men’s room footsies !