United States Heading towards a Depression?

Right, prices are up 10-15% annually and growth is about 3%. That's positive expansion, right?

 

Man you are so out of touch with reality!

 

Summary of recent happenings:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Yzc3NjIwNWRhOTllMDk4MTY2NWFiM2FmNzI1ZWYxNWQ=

 

Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html

To me when you have almost 10% needing food handouts you're well into a recession and heading towards a depression. Pure socialism. The photo in the article is the kind of scene that was common during the break down of the USSR.

And they say that unemployment is heading to 5%. What about all the government and public service jobs that add no productivity? The weekly check these people get for 'working' are merely a glorified unemployment benefit.

 

How sick is that? It's basically an admission that government sponsored taxpayer bailouts are now going to become an institution.

In other words, this JPM bailout is the first of many of you will be paying for...

They are setting up a new bureaucracy to facilitate your getting screwed! YAY big government!

 

Home builders and banks are getting a 15 Billion election year bailout. The measure also includes another 4 billion for local governments to buy forclosured properties.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080403/ap_on_bi_ge/homebuilders_congress

We all know the mess that the Federal government left behind in New Orleans.

Giving more money to the same subprime trickters is sure to lead to more fraud and more losses.

The issue is that the economic downturn is only beginning and the US is expending it's reserves.

So what happens when the downturn hits full force and everybody wants a bailout and free lunch.

 

This is depressing...

Some homes worth less than their copper pipes
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2527885420080401?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&sp=true

Excerpt

 

How are people going to pay their subprime morgages when they have now jobs?

Breaking News

Jobless claims hit 2-year high

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080403/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy

 

Hey but as Mia says, things are just fine! Doom and gloom.

 

Things aren't that bad right now. I'm making some good money and spending little. But things are going to get worse for some.

 

Same here, but I do care about the overall well being of everyone, that has been my beef with Mia's selfish statements in this particular thread, just because some of us are well off does not mean that our country is doing just fine.

 

A++++ Rep given!

Now is not the time to be a dreamer. It's the time to lower the sails, check for stowaways and batten down the hatches.

 

The reality here is that we are in no different position now than we were under Bill Clinton. Unemployment heading to 5% OMG.. OH NO.. DOOM AND GLOOM..

Under Bill Clinton and the recession that followed in 2000, we were at 5.2% Unemployment. Wanna take a guess where we are at now? 5.2%. No difference.

The fact is here, a lot of this doom and gloom has been brought on by the Media, a liberal media that has an agenda. The media has continually sought to portray the US in a recession in an effort to get a liberal in the White House.

That is sad.

But what is more sad is that so many of you suckers fall for this crap. It's really pathetic. I loose faith in more an more people here every day because of crap like this.

Are we in a slowdown yes, of course. It would be important to note that the media has contributed just as much to an economic slow down as other factors and oil prices. Perhaps worse actually. The media by presenting a false picture of reality affects consumer confidence. That translates not only to the ignorants of the world believing there is a problem, but it also translates into other ignorants adding to this false picture by reducing spending and otherwise stifling productivity and faith in the economy.

I would say that as much as 40% of the economic slow down can be blamed on media and the morons that buy into their bunk.

If you really start comparing numbers, things are no worse than they were in the twilight years of the Clinton Administration.

 

Mia, your an old man who is out of touch with reality, you fit all the criteria for a good politician.

 

Mia is not that old. He's a young, tough as nails, Clark Kent looking dude.

 

You obviously missed my point, as you miss almost everyone's point here by ignoring reason and skipping entire paragraphs when you read, assuming you actually do read.

I'm not being selfish. I am pointing out the bad choices that someone else made and questioning:

1. Should I have to pay for those mistakes?
2. Is this really Bush's fault?

Ultimately the entire housing market issue is centered around blaming Bush and Banks.

You know what you can and cannot afford. If something costs $100 and you have $1, you cannot afford it. Not even over time. We are not dealing with people that bought something for $10 with $1 and made reasonable payments over time.

We are dealing with people that bought $100000 or more for $1 and just stopped making payments when reality finally hit.

Look, the 90's to me was an era that taught people how to LIVE BEYOND THEIR MEANs.

Why do you think it appears as though Clinton did so well and was so liked? People spent the 90's spending other peoples money, borrowing against this and that while still borrowing more. Hell, one of Clintons first acts as president was to offset the deficit (in an effort to balance the budget) by financing it with 30 year treasury bonds... That shit comes due pretty soon, then another nightmare will begin. Clinton ushered in this irresponsible behavior and people still eat it up to this day by calling him the greatest there ever was.

Now in the "00"s (ohs) as I like to call it.. 2000+++... to present, we are paying for those mistakes. People have spent the better part of the O's paying off that 90's debt with still more debt.

Me being selfish? Hah... I'm being practical, and rational. I have no friggin patience or compassion for anyone that did this. Because in the process of phucking themselves, they phucked you and me. They are the ones that are SELFISH!!!

PERIOD!

 

I could not agree more. We should not be bailing these guys out, nor should other banks be bailing them out.

In all fairness the lightening on regulations was done intentionally to try to boost and economy number one, suffering from a Clinton recession and two, the events of 9/11.

It's kind of a double edge sword. There are a lot of factors that have contributed to the problem.

However, its not too late to start fixing the problem. The first thing to do is let the investment banks another retarded problematic banks, lenders and brokers go poop. The market can correct itself if it is left alone this time.

They are bailing out the lenders, the people who got the loans and the idiots who invested in those banks....

Too me, it is wrong, but again.... it is a double edge sword. A lot of retirement funds are in these bigger investment banks. I think the government wants to stave off any collapse in that market as well.

Either way, I think you can agree that I am NOT the selfish one here here.

It's the lenders, brokers, and those that received loans they knew full well they could not afford.

 

It's a sad state that today's conservative is actually an anti-intellectual. I've come to the conclusion that no matter what happens, some people going to be adamant that it's not happening, or blame it on "liberals".

 

And what exactly is "happening" btw???