When will it end?!

[opebo]

...There's less competence in dealing with this stuff than in the past.  Much less.  Let me count the ways.

You forgot, again, to actually count the ways, or in fact to give a single example, you lazy ass.

Let us remember here fellows that all of this is just political/psychological.  Nothing has actually happened.  The productive capacity of the country is roughly the same as it was 5 years ago.

Remember the Weimar Republic?  Hitler had all that fixed in no time.  Its all just about leadership and effective state action, and its never 'too late'.

[opebo]

...As disastrous as Obama's agenda is, it would be incredible if his policies managed to prevent a recovery by late 2012.

'Recoveries' only happen because of government policy, Philiip.

[opebo]

'Recoveries' (World War II, for example) only happen because of government policy. Recoveries, on the other hand, are a product of the efforts of free people.

Well, firstly, you are obviously wrong about economics because the efforts of the people in any society are controlled by the State, and secondly I'd like to point out that your concept of 'freedom' is assinine.  We live in a society based on power relationships, and to talk about humans as 'free' like some beast wandering a wilderness is absurd.   Workers are 'free' to either starve or do what they're told. 

The closest thing in reality to your fantasy of a 'free man' is an owner, but in our society he is less 'free' than in an empowered position over others in the heirarchy.