Trying to be the worlds policeman and failing miserably by illegally occupying a sovereign nation under false pretences costing billions of dollars for a start mate. The greed and corruption of the US Administration will ruin the USA eventually. But most of the Americans don't care as long as they have their McDonalds, sitcoms and baseball.
A multitude of factors such as high oil prices, lack of credit due to sub-prime crisis, high food prices and a general slowdown all are affecting our pocketbooks. We are spending less. Personally, I think it will be good for us in the long run as we need to learn our lessons.
Are we heading towards nightfall? Are we heading toward morning? Are we heading toward recession? Are we heading toward a recovery? The answer is yes to all of the above.
Congratulations! Most of your post is right! Except the part: " .....Trying to be the worlds policeman....". I don't want to use the correct word in that sentence, it may hurt the feelings of many Americans. You know the government is always dressing everything they do in nice clothes. And the media spreads the word about how nice they serve the Americans and how good job they do to save the world from the bad. And the American people consume that info day after day and start believing it.
I would just say it, there's many patriots here but it's not like there's many people here that would speak up against you
Causes of this current problem: Hugely increasing demand (and thus price)for oil Mortgage lending to unqualified borrowers Credit card fees/interest Iraq. The long term catastrophe, that will not hit, perhaps, for decades more, but will eventually bring a severe reconning, indeed: US balance of payments US National debt US Consumer debt Fiat (paper) money. And an extra credit question: Ben Bernanke, charman of the Federal Reserve Board, just reduced interest rates. Most people are vaguely aware that the Fed prints up the money that they loan to banks, who loan it to us. Question: if the Fed charges $4 interest on a $100 loan, who gets the $4? A) It goes into the General Fund of the US Treasury. B) It goes to charities designated by Congress. C) It is kept by privately owned banks. All you Ron Paul guys should know the answer to this....... (Every American should know the answer to this, but they don't)
Oh, you can include those 3rd tier items if you like, but the two I mentioned are likely far and away the biggest.
And our debt to Asia is over $2 trillion (not to mention other countries). And how much securitized debt has been offloaded overseas?
We have been in a recession since last year and have been in a bear market for a while. I can't say and compare a few things as its only a small part of the economy