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Old 10-08-2008, 01:22 PM
 
Location: Windsor, Vero Beach, FL
897 posts, read 2,819,484 times
Reputation: 474

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Heck, it just came to me - my family is screwed!
I have no idea how to sew, can food, bake bread, etc ...
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Old 10-08-2008, 01:31 PM
 
Location: Ohio
24,623 posts, read 19,077,671 times
Reputation: 21738
Anecdotal evidence does not suffice for real data.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
The news media is telling us that we are currently in the biggest economic collapse since the 1930s.
Intelligent people understand that the media makes money by selling advertising which requires sensationalism.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
Most of us who want to work are going to our jobs every day (unemployment is up but near an historical low)
As pointed out previously, the unemployment figures are neither accurate nor reflective of reality.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
Our bank accounts are secure (unlike the 1930s)
54% of Americans live pay-check-to-paycheck, so it isn't like people would be losing their life-savings.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
The American Dollar is rising against foreign currencies
In the short term, yes (Hello! Anyone? Bueller?....Bueller?) It's harvest time, the US is exporting tons of grains and selling it on the world market, plus the Southern Hemisphere is now in Spring and doesn't need to stock-pile oil for electrical energy or home heating oil. The US Dollar is flat against the Ruble and Yuan and losing to the Yen.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
The world economic leaders and federal reserve are working to solve the problems (unlike the 1930s)
Short term solutions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
Property values have not changed much in the last six months
Not really relevant, but property values have declined drastically in some markets.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
Business are still making relatively good profits
Throughout the entire Great Depression from the period January 1928 through December 1942, Proctor & Gamble turned a profit every single quarter without fail, and so did several other major corporations.

So what's your point?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
Our ATM and credit cards are still working
It's the economy, not the electrical power grid.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Refugee56 View Post
There is still lots of things to buy and people will still be buying things for Christmas

The Airports are jammed and my local travel agent is still getting lots of calls.

People are still going to the stores and buying computers, DVDs and Plasma Televisions.

Sure, times are tough for some of us but this is hardly like the Great Depression or the Reagan Recession in the early 1980s.
All of that is irrelevant. Your knowledge is certainly lacking. The world doesn't stop turning just because 11% are unemployed or 25% are unemployed.

If you had been walking through Cincinnati during the Great Depression, you wouldn't have observed anything unusual. None of the national banks failed, none of the corporations here collapsed, the bier gartens were full of German-Americans night after night, and the airport was still flying people around. Even the gangs of men working on public projects like bridges and parks wouldn't have seemed out of place.
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Old 10-08-2008, 01:47 PM
 
Location: Hope, AR
1,509 posts, read 3,077,865 times
Reputation: 254
Zing!!! Ouch.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post

It's the economy, not the electrical power grid.


.
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Old 10-08-2008, 04:24 PM
 
Location: Some place very cold
5,501 posts, read 22,409,334 times
Reputation: 4353
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeminiGal View Post
Heck, it just came to me - my family is screwed!
I have no idea how to sew, can food, bake bread, etc ...
We are all going to learn.
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Old 10-08-2008, 05:05 PM
 
707 posts, read 1,290,640 times
Reputation: 438
Eventually the slowdown effects everyone but it takes time. The US economy is too big to turn on a dime but it will turn slower. Also, we keep piling on debt and eventually foreigners will quit buying that debt. When that happens, the Fed can only print money to keep us afloat and we will have inflation.
The analogy of the depression is a good one, 25% unemployment translates to 75% employment. Do you think the depression had no impact on 75% of the people?

I am not nearly as gloomy as some but we have serious structural problems in America due to low savings and high debt. I see a lot of pain coming but nowhere near the great depression levels.
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Old 10-08-2008, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Great State of Texas
86,052 posts, read 84,246,121 times
Reputation: 27718
The money being poured into the system today by the Fed/Treasury won't be felt on main street for a bit..it's not instant; it takes time to work itself through the system.
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Old 10-08-2008, 05:34 PM
 
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
8,298 posts, read 14,124,165 times
Reputation: 8104
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeminiGal View Post
Heck, it just came to me - my family is screwed!
I have no idea how to sew, can food, bake bread, etc ...
Find the nearest lonely old lady who was raised on a farm, and make friends with her. Solves both your problems.
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Old 10-08-2008, 06:29 PM
 
Location: Everywhere
1,920 posts, read 2,769,836 times
Reputation: 346
Quote:
Originally Posted by Woof Woof Woof! View Post
We are all going to learn.
have your butler do it
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Old 10-08-2008, 08:50 PM
 
48,505 posts, read 96,610,333 times
Reputation: 18304
It is the markets that are in trouble and the financial specificly. Much different than the say 70's recession. Many regions of the country have stable job markets because the inductry there have the moeny and are expanding to where they needed to be years ago,Ohter are in a 20th century inductries and have been going downhill for a decades propped up by a boom in easy money. How they are suffering, This is much different as the global market has becoime much more worldwide than ever.
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Old 10-08-2008, 10:08 PM
 
268 posts, read 815,808 times
Reputation: 185
It will take a bit to effect the average joe. I predict when the unemployment rate starts to climb that will be the beginning. When the people who are retired or planning to retire finally start to run out of money because their assets have disappeared, then it gets interesting. Then when Medicare and Social Security get readjusted down and the Boomers have no prospects to get a job, even more interesting times. But this will all take some time.
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