This article is excellent and a must read for anyone interested in their future... So what do you think... Will the economy recover?
I chose "yes, of course!", I don't care who is president, I don't believe we're looking at America as we know it being demolished. However, I can't say we're on the right track yet until there is an improvement. Right now, we have to test some things out and find something that will work. I'm not sure we're there yet, but eventually, we'll see it.
Test some things? You mean like if its possible to get away with printing money and cheating the rest of the world?
Yes of course! We probably have a rough road ahead of us, but we will get through it. In more difficult times, it's normal for conspiracy theories and doomsday predictions of catastrophe to flourish - that's where the Information Clearing House comes in, who published this article. They publish the shocking and sensational, probably not for any concern over America, but to keep those Paypal donations coming in (which they beg for prominently on the home page). The writer of that article mentions Goldman Sachs no less than 5 times and adds a quote that they are, "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentless jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." Yeah, whatever. It's evil Goldman Sachs against America - wait for the movie coming out this fall!! What they are saying doesn't match up with the viewpoints of credible economists.
Of course it will recover. It goes trhough corrections all the time. After Hoover(the Great Depression) After Carter (Recession) After Regan (Massive Unemployment and Auto Industry shut downs) After G. Bush (Big poverty numbers) After the tech Boom of the 90's ..and it will recover from this. 90% of America is working on the books, and many more are self employed or working under the table. Unemployment statistics are made from people that file for benefits, and reported layoffs, it doesn't mean that people aren't still making money. Average savings are up 6%, which means that we are getting smarter about our money, not that we don't have it to spend. The sky is not falling. the economy has been in waaaayyy worse shape than this in the past, the difference here is that we had gotten so used to it being average to good that a little hiccup is shocking.
But Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist with Charles Schwab & Co., believes that the recession ended sometime in the past two months and that the market is doing what is usually does, heading higher before it's common knowledge that the economy is recovering. CNN Money Once the "real" recession started--the one that began in September--we consistently forecast it would be over by mid-2009, earlier than many (including the Federal Reserve) predicted. Now it looks like our V-shaped recovery is underway. When the NBER eventually gets around to declaring the recession end date, we think it will be May 2009. Forbes Recession Is Over According to Financial Experts Economic growth will rebound in the second half of 2009 Numerous experts are beginning to say that the worst recession to hit the world, is on the verge of slowing down, if not actually beginning to show signs of recovery. source But, everything's gonna be all right. Rockabye, Rockabye. source
Down here in Australia we haven't been hit very hard. And now there is a lot of optimism, with many pundits saying it won't be long before we're recovering. I know things are much worse in the USA and other countries. Still, the mood does seem to be lifting a bit even in some of those places from what I can tell. Then there's the recent news that China is still going gangbusters. That's got to inspire a lot more confidence. For these reasons I think it won't be long before we're back to normal.
I believe the economy will recover.. It must recover..! We shouldn't think otherwise because if we all lose hope, then there would be nothing left for us in the future.. We all should work hard and aim for the recovery of the economy..
America's economy will recover when it becomes competitive to do business here again and/or a new generations of technology (nano) brings us up to the next plateau. I voted for 5-10 years... I think most people are too optimistic or too cataclysmic about what will happen. Us Americans love to brag about low taxes and a business friendly environment, but that's BS. We have the world's 2nd highest corporate tax rate (30%), and in addition to that businesses are expected to reserve 20% of their labor budget for health coverage. All over Europe, corporate taxes are between 5 and 25%, and medicine is paid for. College graduation rates are similar between the two political units, so more corporations are choosing the EU as their destination for highly educated labor. Of course, China and India continue to compete strongly for industrial and technical jobs (respectively), so college-level jobs aren't the only ones at risk. America's tax policy currently favors investors and business owners with a 10% capital gains tax, but the policy really encourages American investors to open businesses in other countries with better corporate tax rates. Labor actually pays the highest marginal tax rates between income and payroll. So if America really wants to recover, we can get our business costs in line with the developed world, or we can sit around whining until technology gives us another boost. There's a serious risk that voters will blame other countries for our own problem, and if this leads to a breakdown of global trade we could face an even longer economic decline and a growing possibility for war.
The US isn't in collapse. That's not to say what will happen in the future. A lot of people don't realize that the US had a depression in 1921-1923 and it was followed by the roaring twenties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_recession
I think you have that backwards...The Roaring 20's (1923-1928) was about 5 years of excess and creative business finances lead by massive government deregulation and a "hands off" system of checks and balances...... it crashed the market in 1929. The Great Depression was during the 1930's brought on by those excesses and then doubled by massive drought in the midwest's farmlands, The Great American Dust Bowl, which itself was almost the same environmentally as the Stock Market Crash was financially, it was brought on by raping and pillaging the land for quick profit without knowing, or worrying about future consequences. So it actually came 2 fold back then...flash forward to today, things seem a little familiar and the Republican party hasn't really changed that much even with the history of a massive Depression and 2 recessions during Republican Presidencies based on those very same beliefs...they still keep preaching less government intervention and every time they get it, greed crashes the economy. Every Single F*%#ing Time !
You see. Most people don't know about the 1921-1923 Depression. There was a quick recovery. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies amplified a depression into a Great Depression and delayed recovery until the start of WW2. You are forgetting about Jimmy Carter Double Dip recession of 1980 and 1981-1982 which was caused by excessive stimulus spending. That's what we are heading for now. Btw, the Democrats pushed for intervention in the mortage industry to pressure bamks to make subprime loans to people that can't afford to pay. Looks like you need to do some research on Bill Clinton, Barnet Frank and the CRA Banking Queen" by Congressman Barney Frank http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CT6HIDPbPc
No I'm not. I was alive during it. But what else was he to do ? The country was in a shambles. The Vietnam War added billions to the debt and dumped a few hundred thousand heroin addicts on the street. Oil was sky high, almost $1.00 a gallon for gas, and OPEC was playing the old shell game with the supply, fudging the levels to spike the market (sound familiar ?). Terrorist were kidnapping and killing Americans abroad, and the Auto Industry, which at the time was leading the economy was fighting losing battle and laying off people by the thousands. Multiply massive unemployment x the new drug that swept in, Crack, and it was a train wreck and would have been no matter who was President. It sucked ! The Democrats pushed for lowering the standards to make housing more available, they didn't tell the mortgage industry to stuff themselves at the buffet on unscrupulous lending practices. I know quite a few people that were mortgage agents at the time, and they knew exactly what they were doing. The only concern was closing the deal, and getting the commission....almost all of them knew that there was no way that people could afford an adjust...both sides are to blame...people should have never signed for houses they couldn't afford, and the mortgage industry shouldn't have exploited the loop holes and led everyone to believe that they could re-fi before the mortgage adjusted. It was only a matter of time before that balloon deflated. It was literally a house of cards. That's why we need Govt. intervention and regulation because when left up to people to do the right thing...they won't. People are greedy and everybody wants everything now. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know what happened. They screwed up. They should have added some protections and regulations into the action and not listened to lobbyist from the mortgage industries. They got played, and the people from middle to top made a bundle.
I find it comical at best how those who were touting doom and gloom and recession are now calling this a "correction".
Well to me it is a correction since the economy of the last 6 years was based on the over inflated housing market, much like tech stocks of the late 90's was a fragile balloon...when true value finally shows through..things have to get back to normal. I never touted doom and gloom, but much of what has happened is f*cked. So now we have to get stable, and wait for the big whigs to find another loop hole to crawl through and destabilize the economy again while fattening their pockets.