Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Among the reasons for the new optimism: a significant easing of the credit crunch, improvement in consumer spending, a potential bottom in housing, a less-grim jobs picture and expectations that the government's massive stimulus spending could start boosting economic growth sooner than later.
Among the reasons for the new optimism: a significant easing of the credit crunch, improvement in consumer spending, a potential bottom in housing, a less-grim jobs picture and expectations that the government's massive stimulus spending could start boosting economic growth sooner than later.
Yup.
I've been saying for weeks that things are starting to turn around - much to the likely irritation of this boards' Obamabashers. The stock market is already well into the recovery - with both the DOW and the S&P pretty much recovered back to the point that they were at when Obama was sworn in (and the NASDAQ already recovered well beyond that and in positive territory for the year) we are now well over 20% up from the lows of early March. The NASDAQ has had 8 SOLID weeks of gains, and the S&P and DOW have been up 7 of the last 8 weeks - and so far look to be up again this week.
This is not because of some fluke - there are good reasons behind it. While the economy is still in recession, there have been a LOT of indicators over the last few weeks that are suggesting that we are either at or very, very near the bottom - and the markets has been responding appropriately.
There is no doubt this is going to be a very tough year, but by the end of the year, the picture will likely look very different and I expect next year to see a LOT of improvement.
All of this is very bad news for the Obamabashers of course, who were frantically hoping for a total collapse of the economy so that Obama could be shown to be failing and the door re-opened for the GOP.
Unfortunately for them, I doubt that either of those things are going to happen.
Of course the folks who back Obama will swear up and down that everything is looking better because of what Obama has done, but there are two problems with this:
1. He hasn't been in office nearly long enough to actually make change.
2. The CBO said that things were going to get better WITHOUT any additional government spending.
Of course no Obama supporter is bothering to talk about the fact that the U.S. government is broke for the year and is now operating on borrowed money until October 1st (That means they have already spent all taxes collected from 2007). And even when told about this, they still insist that they will never have their taxes raised, and they are probably right, all the government has to do is to start taking away tax credits to increase revenue, but they can stand right there and say "But we kept our promise, we didn't raise your taxes!"
The end result is the same, each year all of use will be writing bigger and bigger checks to the IRS, the government has no other choice, it is spending money way to fast for any other plan to work.
I've been saying for weeks that things are starting to turn around - much to the likely irritation of this boards' Obamabashers.
Since none of the stimulus has even kicked in yet and considering the CBO said in Jan 2009 the recession would end late this year, early next - it has little to do with obama.
Among the reasons for the new optimism: a significant easing of the credit crunch, improvement in consumer spending, a potential bottom in housing, a less-grim jobs picture and expectations that the government's massive stimulus spending could start boosting economic growth sooner than later.
This begs the question: If the economy is doing this on it's own, then why the need for the "massive stimulus spending [that] could start boosting economic growth sooner than later?"
I've held all along that the free marketplace will work itself out. These things you boast of are independent of the stimulus, at least as it is stated here. What gives?
Of course the folks who back Obama will swear up and down that everything is looking better because of what Obama has done, but there are two problems with this:
1. He hasn't been in office nearly long enough to actually make change.
2. The CBO said that things were going to get better WITHOUT any additional government spending.
Of course no Obama supporter is bothering to talk about the fact that the U.S. government is broke for the year and is now operating on borrowed money until October 1st (That means they have already spent all taxes collected from 2007). And even when told about this, they still insist that they will never have their taxes raised, and they are probably right, all the government has to do is to start taking away tax credits to increase revenue, but they can stand right there and say "But we kept our promise, we didn't raise your taxes!"
The end result is the same, each year all of use will be writing bigger and bigger checks to the IRS, the government has no other choice, it is spending money way to fast for any other plan to work.
It doesn't matter who is responsible for the recovery - Obama is the man in charge so he'll get the credit or blame - that's the way it works, and always has. The Obamabashers had hoped desperately that it would be blame - but now as it turns out, it's likely to be credit. We're already at the bottom and the stimulus money will kick in at just about the right time to give us a good boost.
This begs the question: If the economy is doing this on it's own, then why the need for the "massive stimulus spending [that] could start boosting economic growth sooner than later?"
I've held all along that the free marketplace will work itself out. These things you boast of are independent of the stimulus, at least as it is stated here. What gives?
Excellent question - one that should have been beaten to death by the media and others.
We all know the stimulus was anything but - just an opportunity to take advantage of the fear in the markets by implementing as much of big government expansion as possible.
The Zimbabwe stock market is up 2,000% year over year. The best performing stock market in the world. Guess their economy is going swimmingly
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.