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well...at least the housing market is soaring, no inventory, multiple bidding wars and already insane prices rising even more AND people willing to pay it readily...if people have no money the housing market certainly isn't showing it.
If one were to get a read on the economy by looking at what is happening at ground level one would get the feeling that things are absolutely super... all I see is that the restaurants are packed, the malls are packed, people are buying homes by offering 10-20% over asking etc. etc. How do you suppose these things can happen if the economy was bad? does not make sense.
That's what I see. Every time I go to a couple of the local malls I can't find a parking space, even during a weekday. When I get in there I can't move for all the people milling around with shopping bags in their hands.
It doesn't matter to Jim. Either way TROUBLES are coming and you will NOT prosper unless you SUBSCRIBE to Jim's newsletters and BUY a copy of each book he has written.
I'm a big Jim Rogers fan. I think he's smart. He's not necessarily a fanatic of one type of investment (i.e. a gold bug).
-I think this "big bad crisis" is kind of analogous to a large earthquake. In California, people have been predicting the "big one" for years. It might happen one day, but maybe in 30 years?
Why are restaurants and malls so full if the economy is about to collapse? Why do immigrants still want to come to this country, if the economy is going to collapse? These collapse scenarios never gell with the real world.
Would you want to move to a country that was about to collapse? It seems like the man on the street would know when things are about to fall apart. I.e. drop in immigration, or no immigration. People trying to get money out of the country. Moves by foreigners or foreign governments.
-Also, the drops in infrastructure seem overblown. If we were about to collapse, wouldn't some hospitals be turned off. Or a drastic cut in fire and police response. You don't hear about cops not responding or firefighters because we're about to collapse.
If you've read any of Jim's books (Investment Biker, Adventure Capitalist)....he sees these big 10-20 years moves. I.e. he invested in Botswana in the early 90's when it was nothing. He was riding across China in the 80's, when there was nothing there....like one brokerage firm. He sees these fundamentals, but with an economy as large as the US....who knows when this "collapse", will really happen.
If the US was a smaller country, like in africa, with our trade and fiscal numbers, we probably would have collapsed by now. But who knows with our size. Could be a decades long stair step decline.
The restaurants and malls are always so full because normally those people would be working... but since they don't have jobs, they are out spending "money" they don't really have
A good part of me just says: "Let's just get on with, open our mouths wide, and swallow the medicine!"
I agree, the longer we postpone the inevitable, the worse the pain will be. Let's face it people, the pain is coming. This country is BROKE - cities and towns are broke, states are broke, the federal government is broke and carries trillions of dollars in debt it cannot repay, and for the most part, people are broke. Regardless of the lies coming out of Washington DC, the current situation CANNOT be sustained. One way or the other, whether you vote Romney or Obama, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, the pain is coming. Tax hikes, massive government spending cuts to defense, entitlements, and discretionary spending, raised retirement ages and reduced benefits for SS and Medicare - it's all coming. We have a choice this election between acting like Americans by facing the truth and starting to deal with this dangerous situation RIGHT NOW, or to make it even worse by continuing to lie to ourselves while ignoring the giant elephant in the room and never facing our debts. What kind of country do you want to leave behind for your children? You are AMERICANS people, so start acting like it and do the right thing in November.
Last edited by treasurekidd; 08-25-2012 at 03:39 PM..
If one were to get a read on the economy by looking at what is happening at ground level one would get the feeling that things are absolutely super... all I see is that the restaurants are packed, the malls are packed, people are buying homes by offering 10-20% over asking etc. etc. How do you suppose these things can happen if the economy was bad? does not make sense.
Yes but the people you see spending at the malls, eating at restaurants, and over paying for homes are all, for the most part, broke themselves, spending their paychecks on day to day wants, while overloaded with credit card debt, $500 per month car payments, and underwater mortgages, while saving very little for emergencies, never mind putting away for their futures. Todays big spenders will later rely heavily on an entitlement system that is already teetering on the brink, and is dangerously insufficient for dealing with the retirement of the baby boom generations that will continue over the next decade or so. We've created a never ending spiral of consumer overspending, undersaving, and dependency on a government safety net that will soon be crushed under the massive burden of it's own unsustainable promises. You can listen to all the political propaganda and promises you want, but in the end, politicians lie and the numbers don't.
Oh really? Tell that to the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Ottoman Turks, Persians, British, Soviets, etc. etc.
You saw mass immigration out of those countries.
I.e., how many times have you heard.....I left the soviet union for a better country. I left after the Iranian revolution in 1979. Didn't britian experience a brain drain after WWII?
I don't see many middle class families packing up with suitcases and heading out. The schools here should be half empty by now.
-I think there's a difference between unsustainable and "collapse". We could live with smaller defense budgets. We could live with a raised retirement age. 65 is kind of artifically low. Based on financial projections from years ago.
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