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I am just saying that if you meet skepticism and everyone isn't jumping on the Democrat "economy's going to hell in a handbasket" rhetoric, it might be because many people are not experiencing it. And it's not because I just live here and have on blinders and never go anywhere or experience anything.
All I'll say is you and all the people you know are in a small eschelon that hasn't seen its investments impacted (even your 401-k is still growing), your cd rates remain strong, your access to credit is better than ever, prices for you have not risen, your house values are stable or growing, your employers are on an easy road of profits and not working on any "expense initiatives", gas & water is in abundance and prices are cheap, costs of education, healthcare etc. is available, accessible, and affordable. Now that we know you and your friends are well accounted for, I'd like to suggest my post is for the other 99%. BTW, when I post a job opening, I have to take it down within 24 hours because of the hundreds of responses. A year ago, I was having to extend my job postings because there were not enough responses. Something's changed.
I ask for help and I get patronizing answers. These are not my observations of just my local environment.
I understand the housing crisis. By some miracle of god, I don't know one single person being affected by it, except for a couple who are having a hard time selling their houses. Texas has been spared a lot of that.
We do travel a lot. Just this year, we've been to Arizona, Hawaii, Minnesota, Utah, Montana, Colorado, and we're headed to Louisiana in October. We have been and we go overseas quite often and all over the world. I have eyes, I can count, and airports don't appear to be getting less crowded. Nor do the beaches of Hawaii, the slopes of Big Sky, the streets of Sedona...
I watch college football (on tv) from all over the country, and those stadiums are packed...that USC-Ohio State game was 90,000+, and that was just one game (and those tix are not cheap). If I want tickets to the Texas-OU game coming up next month, I'd better be ready to fight with hundreds of dollars in my hand just to get a crappy seat.
I am being repeatedly told to be upset b/c two financial entities who were bloating like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are headed towards some disasterous fate (of what I consider pretty much their own and the buyers' own making). I am being told that the stock market is kaput, but my own accounts don't reflect this. I am being told that people are unemployed, but everyone I know (and I have friends all over the country/world) has a job. Most of the people I know who don't have health insurance _chose_ not to buy it.
I am just saying that if you meet skepticism and everyone isn't jumping on the Democrat "economy's going to hell in a handbasket" rhetoric, it might be because many people are not experiencing it. And it's not because I just live here and have on blinders and never go anywhere or experience anything.
I am NOT a demoncrat, nor a Repub.......but even I want to come live in your world. Not trying to be "patronizing", but it is widely accepted as fact, that everyone knows at least one person in serious financial straits right now. I know several. And I just weathered the worst three quarters for my business since 1995. Three more quarters like these, and I'll be packing my bags...
Different people have different levels of financial means. And different levels of responsibility while using those means. Perhaps you are acquainted with those that have higher than average means, so the economy wont bother them(yet). I know several that fall into that category, and even I can see that their income isnt near what it used to be, but their outgo has remained virtually the same....sooner or later the well WILL go dry. I refer to them as the roof jumpers. When reality hits, so will they. Not suggesting that you are one of them, but there are many, that really arent paying attention, so the party goes on, until it cant......Ask 25,000 Lehman Bros employees how that works.
I totally agree... The president can't be in office for more than 2 terms yet by the time he became Persident he was already a good'ol boy career politician, so what's the point? 2 terms for any part of the executive branches would send people without enough time to build agendas or be in the lobbyists pockets.
Shake out Washington and watch the cream rise to the top, or watch it burn. Not sure which one would happen, but it sure would be interesting at the very least.
Yea, the constant argument that 9/11 will happen all over again with a democratic president. 9/11 took place while a republican was in office, and did practically nothing to prevent it. Then most of this country feels "SAFE" under a Republican president. So what is this false idea that republicans protect everyone?
You do realize that the 9/11 attacks were planned for 6 years? Almost all of it during the Clinton era.
And you do realize that the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Khobar Towers attacks, the U.S.S. Cole attack and the bombing of several U.S. foreign embassies all happened during the Clinton era?
Since there have been no terrorist attacks in this country since 9/11, yes, it does look like the Republicans ARE protecting us!
Maybe no one has declared us to be in recession - yet.
But even Allen Greenspan says this is the worst economy in his lifetime.
That's because he realizes that the housing slump has at least a year to go before prices level out. And that the credit crisis won't begin to heal until housing has leveled off, so it too has at least a year or two to go before it begins to turn around.
These 2 problems will force consumers to cut back significantly on spending - and since consumption accounts for 2/3 of GDP - they could very well put us into the deepest recession this country has seen since the 30s.
Things are going to be pretty tough for the next year or two.
If John McCain can say the economy is doing well with a straight face, then I suppose John McCain's idea of a "flesh wound" is having your head blown off.
even Allen Greenspan says this is the worst economy in his lifetime.
That's because he realizes that the housing slump has at least a year to go before prices level out. And that the credit crisis won't begin to heal until housing has leveled off, so it too has at least a year or two to go before it begins to turn around.
Agree, but this is to say nothing of the "commercial real estate" crisis that is supposedly going to hit the fan around spring of 2009. At the same time, the Asian markets are likely to start feeling the downturn from the sudden pullback of spending that China had been doing for the past seven years in the runup to the olympics. It's a global financial catastrohpy that hasnt even begun to hit it's stride yet. Lots more fallout to come. A year or two before things begin to turn, may be optomistic....
I am a Republican and I believe we aren't in a recession. I believe we are in a DEPRESSION that will last at least 5 years. The banks will all fall one by one like dominoes. We are headed to a Dow between 5000 and 7000. Unemployment upwards of 15%. Its starting to look like the Doomers were right all along. However, Obama and his policy of raising taxes will be to us as the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff Act was in 1930. If Obama is elected, I could see this depression sticking around 10-15 years. Remember, it wasn't Bush who got us into this economic mess. It was Greenspan for keeping interest rates too low after the 2001 recession creating the housing bubble.
I am NOT a demoncrat, nor a Repub.......but even I want to come live in your world. Not trying to be "patronizing", but it is widely accepted as fact, that everyone knows at least one person in serious financial straits right now. I know several. And I just weathered the worst three quarters for my business since 1995. Three more quarters like these, and I'll be packing my bags...
Different people have different levels of financial means. And different levels of responsibility while using those means. Perhaps you are acquainted with those that have higher than average means, so the economy wont bother them(yet). I know several that fall into that category, and even I can see that their income isnt near what it used to be, but their outgo has remained virtually the same....sooner or later the well WILL go dry. I refer to them as the roof jumpers. When reality hits, so will they. Not suggesting that you are one of them, but there are many, that really arent paying attention, so the party goes on, until it cant......Ask 25,000 Lehman Bros employees how that works.
I never said or even meant to imply the economy was doing well. We've all seen it go up and down and sometimes things suck and sometimes they rebound...clearly now is a bad time for some people.
I'm saying I know a lot of normal Americans (from nurses to electricians to bankers to teachers to firemen to house painters to pool cleaners to lawyers to architects, etc.) who are doing ok and will continue to slog on, pay their bills, and keep living life.
I just don't think creating a panic is going to help; in fact, we saw on Monday how people freaking out all Chicken Little style made it worse for everyone else.
It's just frustrating to see the media hype up the disasterous consequences of everything.
Just yesterday I read an article about the FDIC and some number of banks that they wanted to point out were at risk. The title of the article was something like, "Your savings account is no longer insured and you will lose all your money!" That kind of crap is what makes all of this worse, makes the stock market tank worse, and I suspect it has to do with ratings and the fact that it is an election year.
Republicans - Still believe we're not in a recession
Yeah, well, I guess ignorance on the part of posters who cannot distinguish between slow growth and negative growth is to be expected since liberals removed economics from high school curriculum and replaced it with more important things, like sex education and human geography.
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