U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape | 30 comments (30 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (4.00 / 2)

The other strong-hold of small businesses is construction related contracting and tradesmen. They also have taken a huge hit. It is traditional that during recessions dominant capital, the big boys, consolidate their position by buying or putting out of business smaller competition. During booms they expand their breadth of operation. During recessions or depressions they consolidate their depth.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 11:56:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (none / 1)

The small, construction contractor will not be coming back. We have decided to destroy the publicly backed secondary market for mortgages, which made it possible for common people to own homes and frankly made the U.S. working class into part of the middle class, and so we are destroying the market for single family residences, which was what made small contractors possible. We are abandoning an ownership society and exchanging it for an owned society.

by rifek on Thu Feb 24th, 2011 at 12:09:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (none / 0)

A point of order: What is destroying the American middle class is that the income it used to use to buy stuff - including homes - isn't there any more. Give it back a reasonable income, and it will be able to obtain financing, with or without a secondary market for mortgages. That's the nice thing about having a central bank: It removes the loanable funds constraint, making the credit market a completely demand-side beast.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Feb 24th, 2011 at 02:19:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (none / 0)

Worse, that income was turned into un-payable debt. Until that is resolved, nothing will recover.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Thu Feb 24th, 2011 at 09:43:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (none / 1)

Quite, that debt has to be restructured in the old fashioned way, through bankruptcy, to remove the private debt service burden which is bogging down the economy.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Feb 27th, 2011 at 12:52:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape (none / 0)

We've dismantled the infrastructure for providing a reasonable income to a middle class of any size.

by rifek on Sat Feb 26th, 2011 at 11:20:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Yes, remantling that is part of the ... (none / 1)

... demand side solution. There is, however, ample policy opportunities to do so in the actions that Big Oil has forbidden over the past three decades.

If a fight is necessary, better it be a simple fight, and Big Oil versus The Survival of the Middle Class is both accurate in depth and sufficiently simplifiable.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Sun Feb 27th, 2011 at 12:51:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

U.S. Small Business Is In Great Shape | 30 comments (30 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Top Diaries

What We Have Done to the Rain

"Fixing" the N. Ireland Protocol

New Age Baerbock's Transatlantik Moment

Planning for a United Ireland

Less Truss than Trump

Empire Building South-East Asia

City Agriculture - July 3, 2022

Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - August 2022

Recent Diaries

The Roots of Biden's War in Ukraine Reviewed

Russian Gas Made Europe a Global Leader

The Little Dictator Down Under

What We Have Done to the Rain

"Fixing" the N. Ireland Protocol

New Age Baerbock's Transatlantik Moment

Germany from Winners to Losers in 2022

Clinton to Biden: Provoking the Russian Bear

Less Truss than Trump

Iraq State of Affairs: Sectarian Violence

Donations Bin Ladens to Charity Prince Charles

Planning for a United Ireland

City Agriculture - July 3, 2022

Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - August 2022

Geoffrey Pyatt Selling Off Greek Shipyards

US Court Orders Compensation Bombings Libya

German Reunification and Economic Ties Russia

Apocalypse la Guerre des Mondes 1945-1991

How America Led Campaign of CC Denial

Habeck Energie Krise

Occasional Series