Obama doesn't understand economics. If he had a clue he wouldn't have hired skunks like Summers and Geithner, who are busy enriching their wall street cronies while the rest of us take it up the rear. The fact that he vociferously walked back Biden's truthful statement on the economy shows me that he continues to be clueless about how severe is the crisis that we confront.

The last sustained period of real growth and sane economic policy was the FDR period. We grew and progressed in the 40's, 50's and 60's, based upon the long-wave effects of the reforms he engineered into our system. We have gradually chipped away at those reforms since the mid 60's, under the Dems and GOP both. Investment in basic infrastructure has been in deficit since that time, hence the unhealthy, parasitical growth of the "financial services industry" which has sucked capital away from the real, physical economy. The result is the long-wave devolution we now see swamping our nation and the world as a whole.

The empire still exists, though no longer strictly a British national empire. It exists as a conglomeration of central banks (which serve the interests of private banking and financiers) which hold power over sovereign nation states and govts. Their only interest is in their own enrichment and accumulation of power. They are the antithesis of the idea of the general welfare. They are working toward establishing a neo-feudal world order in which the nation-state Westphalian system is destroyed forever, in which the global population is reduced to a more manageable 1-2 billion souls. What will actually happen is an uncontrollable breakdown crisis (which we are in the beginning stages of) akin to the collapse of the House of Bardi and he onset of the Little Dark Age of the 14th century, only global in its extent.

Only by acknowledging the moral and physical bankruptcy of the current system do we have a chance to save human civilization from a new dark age. Obama is not up to the task, certainly not when he is surrounded by imperial stooges such as Summers, Geithner, Bernanke, et. al. Unfortunately, he shows no recognition of the depths of the crisis he confronts. He seems content to live a narcissistic, feel-good, sort of Camelot PR existence, while Rome burns down around him.

Had the flu recently - it brought home to me the massive suffering caused by the bubonic plague during the little dark age of the 14th century.

I won $50 in the Lotto. Now I fully understand the elation felt by the banksters upon getting a $7 trillion infusion by the taxpayers.

I made a birdie in golf recently. Now I have all the confidence and ability of Tiger Woods.

I think you misunderstood my formula. I was saying simply cutting costs, minus the enormous cost savings that single payer would bring, is the wrong way to go. Trusting the insurance companies to cut $2-3 trillion without rationing (i.e. slashing) care is fool's errand. Its actually criminal. Instead, put them out of business with single payer.

However, Obama, most Dems and all the Repukes are all in bed with big insurance. Obama continues the Bush/Paulson bailout to the finance "industry", bankrupting the country. So we are broke and screwed.