US Economics 101 (recessions, stock market, inflation, economy)

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by jimhcom

Good article but I don't see things in the US getting any better. The last boom was a pyramid scheme based on falsly inflated real estate values and borrowed money. By the time we get throught this ressesion the amount of wealth loss for the American public will be devestating. I do not see how recovery to anything close to our former level is possible due to the fact that we have dissasembled our indusrial base (the basis of real wealth) and exported it. People talk about investing in High Tech but to be honest we do not have enough intellegent people for that to work. Our ecucational system is a joke. The truth is when it comes to competing in the world market we are going to get our butts kicked. At least until we get our heads on straight.

We won't invest in high tech. That too is being outsourced. Unless you have to touch a computer or face a customer..your IT job CAN be offshored for 1/4 of the salary.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

We won't invest in high tech. That too is being outsourced. Unless you have to touch a computer or face a customer..your IT job CAN be off shored for 1/4 of the salary.

I see this as 50/50. Network Admins, System Admins, desktop support as you have pointed out are safe. Programmers, I think that really depends. I know people who program at Citrix, they have off shored a lot of the work to India but the lead programmer told me 90% of the work comes back poorly written and they have to redo it again anyway. He also said the only reason they off shore, isn't because its cheap (programming is something that must be done right, not cheaply). It is because of a lack of talent in America. People are no longer going into Computer Science degree, enrollment is WAY down (i can attest to that, as I used to work in the I.T. department for a graduated computer science college). The government put out a report that there will be a I.T. shortage with in the next decade. As a side note, we are now trying to find a database admin at my job and man oh man is it slim pickings.

One last note, there was a software company in downtown Fort Lauderdale that packed and moved to D.C. Why DC you ask? Well it seems they could not find enough people to fill the jobs they needed (they needed 20 programmers). They also did a regional summit recently (universities and corporate leaders) to discuss the poor level of people coming out of computer science degrees and also the lack of people in the I.T. field here, period. I imagine this is probably true in many places across America.

[TexianPatriot]

natural gas and gold is where it's at. check out symbol FSNGX. As the market continues to crumble, I continue to profit. Gold is going to make another run after the recent sell off. Inflation is killing our dollar and gold is a good hedge against the weak dollar.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Wild Style

I see this as 50/50. Network Admins, System Admins, desktop support as you have pointed out are safe. Programmers, I think that really depends. I know people who program at Citrix, they have off shored a lot of the work to India but the lead programmer told me 90% of the work comes back poorly written and they have to redo it again anyway. He also said the only reason they off shore, isn't because its cheap (programming is something that must be done right, not cheaply). It is because of a lack of talent in America. People are no longer going into Computer Science degree, enrollment is WAY down (i can attest to that, as I used to work in the I.T. department for a graduated computer science college). The government put out a report that there will be a I.T. shortage with in the next decade. As a side note, we are now trying to find a database admin at my job and man oh man is it slim pickings.

One last note, there was a software company in downtown Fort Lauderdale that packed and moved to D.C. Why DC you ask? Well it seems they could not find enough people to fill the jobs they needed (they needed 20 programmers). They also did a regional summit recently (universities and corporate leaders) to discuss the poor level of people coming out of computer science degrees and also the lack of people in the I.T. field here, period. I imagine this is probably true in many places across America.

It's a vicious circle..why get that degree in Computer Science when your job can be offshored ? Also, folks getting let go in IT are leaving the industry..the job future is just not secure enough. Big IT shops have now set up research centers in the BRIC countries..its no longer back office; it's new ideas.

I also agree with what your friend has said about the code coming back to be corrected..I'm in that position now sadly. Don't get to write new code but I have plenty of work fixing returned code.

[Wild Style]

^^

HappyTexan,

Yeah man, your right, this country is screwed :S

[John23]

Originally Posted by baystater

Well let take a close look at history here. Why was America kicking A$$ from the late 1940's until the 1970's? Well a big factor was that the U.S. was basically the only industrialized nation not to be touched physically by WWII. Europe and Japan were basically devastated for the next 20 - 30 years. China was in the throws of a communist revolution, Russia communisms just did cut the mustard when it came to production and output. Basically We were the only guys on the block that could produce the items everyone needed. Now with being the only game in town means that the U.S. companies that made the goods needed American workers to make those goods. And those American workers had the leverage to ask for good wages for there labor (mostly represented by labor unions). But since the 1970's until now Europe and Japan have been rebuilt, Russia and china are become Quasi-capitalist nations, and India has educated it population and has become a player on the world stage. Some of these countries now are producing good that we use to make at a cheaper rate and the U.S. and other countries multi-corporations are moving production away from the expensive U.S. worker to the cheap labor (mostly china). As consequence of this those once needed American worker have lost their leverage (and their unions) to allow for those high wages. This is why I believe that we (most Americans) are losing ground in our income. Granted Coupon Jack is correct in that American can't save a dime. We have gotten to use to getting what we want NOW.



Ummmm........ he missed the Commodity bubble in Oil, Gold, Wheat, Rice, and Corn we are having right now.



It the right concept.......But.......I not putting faith in the next president or next Congress or any Corporations to put these plans into action. Basically folk we are on our own. We have to make it happen either by forcing our government to implement some of the "work programs" and we that are small business owner/Entrepreneur need to make the industries and products of the future.

Also, we forget the dollar became the worlds reserve currency during this time. That basically gave us an unlimited checkbook, we could print up paper all day long, and the rest of the world would take it.

I think we had a special one time dominance in the world after WWII. We were the only player in town, Europe, Japan, China, India were non players.

Of course, we want to think we got rich because we were so brilliant...but if you look at GM, IBM and our big powers, they weren't immune to making dumb moves. Were we really so brilliant...or was the rest of the world asleep?

I don't know....maybe we'll get reinvigorated from competition with China and others. But what happens when everyone stops taking our dollars? Would you take money from a country with weak education, big deficits, little saving, with a currency being inflated away?

How does the average American worker ever get the leverage they had with GM or big manufactuers?

[smj2076]

The reason USA thrived is because of the Bretton Woods monetary system which gave it the status as the only currency in the world that was pegged to gold, making it as the other poster said the worlds reserve currency of choice. Since Nixon took USA off the gold peg the dollar has gone down down down.

[HappyTexan]

And there is nothing to stop the Euro from taking its place.

[Wild Style]

Saw this one about income tracking in America over the last decade. Good read link

[hzachuck]

Bla bla, doom and gloom, bla bla.

The same story for the last 50 years.

Were all of you around for the Carter Administration?

If you can, on youtube or whatever, go back and look at some old presidential debates.

Same story, different names.

Inflation, no jobs, debt, damaged image around the world, weak dollar, need change from the same old politics, another country is about to take over, we are screwed, armageddon.

We had 21 recessions, the great depression, 2 stock market crashes, and 2 world wars last century.

I'm waiting for someone to come up with a serious reason as to why now is so much worse than ever before.

I just think that 90% of the "doom and gloomers" are relatively young and going through their first "tough" times, and don't realize the country has been in much worse shape before.