A Sobering Article About What MAY Be The New US Landscape

[dc dalton]

I'm not one to post editorial articles even though I read a lot of them but this one really strikes home and is very much based on the 'new economic reality' that may in fact become the US over the next couple of years. It also points out that, once again, our 'leaders' our aren't telling the entire truth about the economy and exactly how bad it is.

The economy, as many here know, being near and dear to my heart has been the topic of an immense amount of my studying and time over the past few years and BOY does this article hit the nail on the head.

The Ugly Truth; The American Economy is Not Coming Back

Good read for those of you interested, not very politically motivated (thank god) but he does take a few jabs at both Bush and Clinton (both of which are partially responsible for this mess)

[RoyJackson]

Very interesting article and I totally agree with pushing much of the blame to Clinton and Bush. More so Clinton since he's sold his ass to the Chinese and pretty much sold this country down the river.
Those jobs shipped out won't be coming back...but one stipulation of these bailouts could be prohibiting credit to companies that outsource work outside the USA.

[gf45acp]

Interesting read, thanks.

[FNG19]

I'm not one to post editorial articles even though I read a lot of them but this one really strikes home and is very much based on the 'new economic reality' that may in fact become the US over the next couple of years. It also points out that, once again, our 'leaders' our aren't telling the entire truth about the economy and exactly how bad it is.

It was an interesting read, definitely. I agree that we're not getting the whole story. I disagree, however, with the article's finger-pointing. It's politically convenient to blame it on Bush and Clinton, but it does us a great injustice by stopping there. You'd have to add Carter to the list, the leadership of the Democratic Party in 2006-8, and other people, including, I'm sure, some GOP folks. You'd also have to look at the confluence of factors outside of politics that lead to this. The story is a good first page to a chapter, but it's an inadequate view of the whole.

I agree wholeheartedly that we won't see 2007's economy again and concur with the reasons. If we're smart, this blowout of the economy will serve as the same fiscal puberty that the great depression did for our parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, we're probably not, but at least the financial system will be unable to enable that ignorance to the same degree for some time to come.

[dc dalton]

It was an interesting read, definitely. I agree that we're not getting the whole story. I disagree, however, with the article's finger-pointing. It's politically convenient to blame it on Bush and Clinton, but it does us a great injustice by stopping there. You'd have to add Carter to the list, the leadership of the Democratic Party in 2006-8, and other people, including, I'm sure, some GOP folks. You'd also have to look at the confluence of factors outside of politics that lead to this. The story is a good first page to a chapter, but it's an inadequate view of the whole.

I agree wholeheartedly that we won't see 2007's economy again and concur with the reasons. If we're smart, this blowout of the economy will serve as the same fiscal puberty that the great depression did for our parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, we're probably not, but at least the financial system will be unable to enable that ignorance to the same degree for some time to come.

I will grant you all the 'villains' are not mentioned in the article ( the main one not mentioned is Alan Greenspan ... one of the true culprits of this mess) but I really think the point the author was trying to get across was done well and he didn't want to get into the whole diatribe of 'whose fault is it' .. and I think with the exception of a few sentences he did well.

The point I was trying to make (as was the author) was that we HAVE to reassess our priorities and get back to 'what makes sense' and living within our means. I know a lot of members here already do that but there are also those here that may not be aware exactly how much trouble we are in as a nation ... that's why I posted it.

The other thing I saw in this piece (and a few others BTW) is the fact we MIGHT have 3-6 months to take care of our own, to stock up, to pay off bills and get our finances in order ... that I agree with 1000%. If we don't we may just get sucked down the drain with the rest of the mess and personally I'm not willing to let my family fall into that trap.

[SilentRage]

[QUOTE=dc dalton;593801]

The point I was trying to make (as was the author) was that we HAVE to reassess our priorities and get back to 'what makes sense' and living within our means. I know a lot of members here already do that but there are also those here that may not be aware exactly how much trouble we are in as a nation ... that's why I posted it.

Exactly right dc , what I really think that's happening is our Country is
about to reset , it's going to be bad for awhile but it will come back .
It won't be what we've been used to but I believe it will be better in a
different way , the priorities you mentioned , well think of it this way ,
when people go through hard times it tends to pull family and friends
closer together .
As far as the economy goes , yeah one hell of alot more jobs are going
to be lost , but there's something else I've been seeing in the past few
years , people are starting to strike out on thier own , my job keeps me
on the road 2-3 hundred miles a day as a delivery driver and I hit cities ,
back roads , you name it I go there , but I'm starting to see small
business's starting up in homes , garages , various small shops , and
they keep it small , maybe 2-3 person type operation , and they are
prospering .
I think the days of the huge paying factory jobs are just about done ,
but we will come back on a smaller scale , and be better for it .
The only problem I see right now is our Government , they need to
let the economy crash and then let "We The People" get working on
resetting what "We" have built !
The Government needs to quit trying to prop up what they know is coming ,
let it crash then get the hell out of our way !!

Damn , I could go on but trying to get things from my head to here ,
well , hurts too much . LOL

[ungawa]

A lot of people have been warning us about this for a long time. I usually say, "Just because it happened does not mean you were right." Because I can find any prediction I want about any subject and some of them are bound to come true through pure chance. But, in this case, I think it's clear they were right. They had the info, looked at it clearly, and saw the impending ramifications.

I don't pretend to understand these things but it seems we have little production and a massive money supply. And everybody is telling me the reason for our problems is that the Fed and the government made too much money available. Now it seems their solution to the problem is to increase the money supply. That seems strange to me, and I think the author is right - I don't trust what I'm being told by the government because they're not making sense to me. I'm not even sure investing in infrastructure counts as production. What is it we need the infrastructure for in this situation? To make it easier to produce or to make it easier to consume? Surely we need banks to lend money. I'm not sure if stuffing their pockets with cash and forcing them to do it is much different than what got us here. And we need to maintain infrastructure. But the plan just looks like an excuse to increase the money supply again.

[ungawa]

There is something else that bothers me. If things are going to be as bad as they say, then what businesses are going to survive? It seems to me that the ones who can get a hold of these trillions of government dollars are going to survive. That money will make them rich. But all that money will make mine worth less and make me poor. I think we are going to see a bottleneck in the private sector.

[dc dalton]

Here's another source I read often and they too have been damn close to having a prefect record about predictions and are echoing just about the same thing:

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/washi...eckoning-29510

And granted they write these articles in an attempt to get you to buy their reports (which I never have) but in reading their articles for over a year I have to say they have a pretty damn good batting average for calling what's next.

Don't know about you folks but we are reassessing ourselves and our lives even more than we had before, finding alternative forms of income (the not keeping all our eggs in one basket thing) and making damn sure we have enough means to get through this freaking mess.

[dc dalton]

There is something else that bothers me. If things are going to be as bad as they say, then what businesses are going to survive? It seems to me that the ones who can get a hold of these trillions of government dollars are going to survive. That money will make them rich. But all that money will make mine worth less and make me poor. I think we are going to see a bottleneck in the private sector.

The businesses that survive will be things people really need in their daily lives and those that provide services for governments.

I think we are going to see a lot of these 'upscale yuppie' stores die, things like Starbucks and other non essentials. I can also see just about every curio, trinket and tourist type shop go belly up ... the ones that offer nothing more that 'pretty things'