United States Heading towards a Depression?

It's amazing looking at the collective stupidity to which people willingly subject themselves, in the name of supporting the government.

How anyone thinks "too big to fail" is a valid reason for government intervention is mind-boggling. Yet, no one is called to answer for this.

And, we're all guilty for letting this travesty continue.

It's like we're all part of the Jim Jones cult being told to drink the kool-aid because it's our only choice.

 

Yeah your right. It would have been cheaper just to guarantee the minimum and move it to safer banks. I was strongly against the bailouts from the start. Its only recently i was trying to see the other side.

I think the concern was that it would go global bank panic, where there is no fdic. Which would eventually come back to us as a domino effect. Anyone know which countries don't guarantee at all any bank deposits?

 

This has been planned for years by the Illuminati (slang for global bankers and corporations who really run things). Soon the world economy will be so dismal that the only "solution" will be a one world currency. Basically to start over and hit the "reset" button, as all money is pretty much make believe to start with.

 

European states are insuring anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000 euros, and Japan & I think most of the SE Asian countries are insuring deposits, too. China might not be - but they're also sitting on a huge pile of cash and their economy is still growing. They've even set out on a project of buying more computers & appliances for the rural population and bringing broadband into all parts of the country to keep up the falling export demand.

We got screwed/are getting screwed/will continue to be screwed

 

Of couse there should not be a bail out. But think about it. You're asking the people who have a lot of shares not to bail out the companies that will make or break them. Not gonna happen!

 

US Fed is creating crazy amounts of dollars to shore up Bank's balance sheets and over-pay for the toxic assets in order to prevent their collapse.

Right now, the banks are not lending. They are hoarding all the cash coz they're afraid their weak balance sheets might lead to a collapse. They are all insolvent right now...

Now imagine there is a recovery in the economy, and the banks lend out the money that they have been gifted by the FED. That would really lead to hyper-inflation very quickly.

Check out the article by Frank Shostak --> Would Cleansing Banks' Balance Sheets Kick-start the US Economy?


Very interesting...

And when they finally start lending out this money... it will lead to hyper-inflation...

 

Anyone got more up to date information the loaning rate? That data is from december.

 

It's impossible to raise rates. It would drive the US into bankruptcy. We can't afford to pay the interest on the national debt as it stands now.

The economy seems to be getting better. At some point we will have too many dollars chasing too few goods and services. However, unemployment is going to keep inceasing for another year and a half. Forclosures are also starting to go through the roof and commercial vacancies are increasing.

I'm wondering if we are in a period similiar to what happened after the 73-75 recession. Times were o.k. for a few years but by 1979 inflation was running out of control.

Survey: economy declining, but recession abating
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Survey-economy-declining-but-apf-14967173.html

We haven't reached the point where there's pain in holding dollars. As long as the price of wheat and oil stay low, China can live with the situation. If it gets bad, the Chinese probably will try to buy up some US companies which could cause problems. There was a US backlash against Japan in the early 1980's. I wonder what the China's reaction would be to a backlash?

I don't think that we are out of the woods. Home prices are still declining and unemployment will increase to 10%

 

For those of us that have money in the bank that was earning 6.04% and is now earning 0.23%, who's gonna go bankrupt? Interest rate hikes stave off inflation, and bring the currency back to a higher value. It hurts at first, but in eventuality tends to raise the value of the dollar, and pays DOWN debt.

With the current rate of inflation, it is actually costing me money to keep money in a bank. What incentive does any American ever have to SAVE money when they are not earning a rate of return that is higher than the rate of inflation? Its a vicious cycle.

 

A 'Copper Standard' for the world's currency system?

 

Interest on the national debt is currently 20% of the US budget. Should interest rates go to 10%, the US will need to pay $1.1 trillion a year on the $11 trillion national debt.

China has been buying up a lot of copper.

We probably have 18 months before inflation starts to run out of control.

 

Might be good incentive to pay the debt down.

That's because they've run out of lead.

Which means there as to be some type of a hike in rates at some point.

 

Just to let you guys know Californias unemployment is the worst since the great depression now. March was 11.2 (the worst since january 1941) however in april id say its probably going to go up to 11.7%. Here is the real kicker, ever since reagan and clinton they been calculating the numbers much more optismtic then they did in the 1940's. So the number would be more like 12.5 to 13 percent at least by 1940's numbers. So california is basically in the state (unemployment wise) it was immediately as they were ending the great depression. Thats how bad it is getting in california.

 

Perhaps in a few years after it's too late. The question is how do you raise interest rates when the government is printing money?

The housing bubble still hasn't deflated and forclosures are still rising. Many of the forclosed homes need work which makes matters worse. I've looked at a few forclosures and the prices are still around 30% higher than 2003 levels not including the needed repairs.

We still may be heading into a depression. But not a 'great' depression. However, the economy is not nearly as bad as 1982.

 

Houses in my area of california (central valley) are at levels not seen since like late 1990's. I know some areas of southern california, the inland empire and desert regions are also having severely depressed housing prices. Only like L.A , orange county, san diego, san francisco bay area still have very overinflated prices. Although that is where the majority of people live so we do have a ways to go before housing hits bottom in california.


Just for everyones info california has been losing jobs for a year longer than the rest of the U.S and we are STILL rising at peak speed. In other words if we been in at a year longer (the first to go in) and we are still losing at rapid pace, it means the rest of the U.S has a long was to go. I expect the U.S as a whole to be losing jobs through 2009 and all of 2010.


I think unemployment is going to "Officially" hit 13.5 percent in california by the end of 2009. I say officially because if they calculated it like they used to many years ago it probably be approaching 15 percent by then.

 

Is the depression here yet?
I'm stocking up on canned food and ammo. I had to drive all the way to Palm Beach this weekend to a gun show just to get some 9mm for my G-19 for God's sake! Already cleared up the local Walmart on rifle ammo. Bring it on!!!

P.S. Unemployment rate in Florida is at 9.7% and predicted to be over 11% by first quarter of 2010.
Gtech still around or is he at the unemployment line already?

 

You make it sound so easy. The United States economy is THE most complex economy in the world and certainly the madness we are in right now is not that easy to fix. Simply raising interest rates will NOT solve this problem it will make it WORSE! In this country we have a lot of soul searching to do as a result of all of this madness. Mass consumption of shit that we don't really need has to come to an end, as well as the debt based economy that we are all supporting, it is enslaving people and making them do crazy things, like killing themselves out of desperation and their families. So much going wrong right now at the same time... it is scary. The banks have taken our economy for a real ride and we should never forget that. I feel for Obama in a way he has taken a huge responsibility and I command him for doing more in 3 months than Bush the idiot did in 8 years.

 

The housing bubble has a long way to go on the downside. I expect prices to decline into at least 2010.

California, Las Vegas, and Miami are the worst. But places like New York, Long Island, New Jersey and Boston are declining in double digits.

http://www.housingpredictor.com/worstmarkets.html

U.S. economist Nouriel Roubini, who foresaw the current crisis, said the results of the government's bank stress tests, along with further decay in the U.S. economy and surprisingly bad corporate earnings this year, will lead to more steep selling in the coming months.

"For people who say there are green shoots, I seen only yellow weeds frankly," Roubini said at a conference in Hong Kong Tuesday. "It's not a true recovery. It's just a bear-market rally, it's a suckers rally."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Asia-stocks-tumble-after-US-apf-14979531.html

There's no shortage of food. The US has record harvests. If you have a garage load it up with sacks of rice

It's crazy that you see people on welfare or working minimum wage jobs walking around with new iphones.

 

Something a great many of the kids here have no idea about, hence some of the really ignorant statements lately.

I really wonder what they would call 82, or even 92; THE GREATEST DEPRESSION EVER...

 

A Great Crash is coming...

Markets are at a very critical resistance right now. They'll now start going down again...



Last June, Bank of International Settlements reported outstanding over-the-counter derivatives at $684 Trillion, and this number is going to increase this year. Wait for their report in June...

Source: http://www.bis.org/statistics/otcder/dt1920a.pdf



This crisis has just started, & has a long way to go... The economy is gonna implode like never witnessed before.