Economists: How will America ever get out of this recession? (credit, borrowing)

[little elmer]

I'm all for advancement, but the train is heading right down the tunnel. This crisis may actually put off Americans' retirement plans, but the weight of the Boomers on entitlement programs will be monstrous.

The Coming Generational Storm - The MIT Press

[jimmyP]

ChuckB - Great analysis. I use SWOT analysis frequently in our businesses and it is a valuable tool.

[melcee]

With the rate Bernanke and Paulson are going, we'll soon be out of a recession ............and into a depression.

[skytrekker]

Both these Presidential candidates are full of it- no matter who wins, they are probably going to have to raise taxes. The current situation has the potential to be the worse period in American economic history since the depression.

FDR tried to basically follow the same moderate course as Hoover- with allot more 'hoopla'. However when the nation failed to pull out of the depression, the far left ate his lunch; he was in the end forced to make reforms that where needed; Starting the FDIC, Social Security, SEC, PLUS taxing the rich and corporations heavily. I frankly do not see how any politician with the negative dynamics that we have today- that are very similair to the End of roaring 20's- only today we are coming off two immense bubbles, IT and housing plus an almost totally unregulated financial system, all recipes for the disaster we have now.

A continuation of the same ultra laissez Faire economics that brought upon this mess, seems an unlikely solution- the current demographics in this country do not portend the same policies of the last 30 years.

[StoneOne]

Originally Posted by skytrekker

A continuation of the same ultra laissez Faire economics that brought upon this mess, seems an unlikely solution

We have never had this, at least since the late 19th century.

[texdav]

Having lived thru the 70's and the 80's recession ;people pretty much said the same thing but we survived it . But then credit was always tighter thnn than now. It may come as a shock when many go to a bank for a loan in years to come and they are refused a lone because they are use to easy credit.But loans will still be avialable ;just harder to qualify.

[Huckleberry3911948]

same way as brazil. austerity and alternative energy.

[goozer]

Originally Posted by Refugee56

I do not see how America will ever get out of this economic recession.

Sadly, I do not believe that an official "recession" has been declared yet (although many, many economists are opining that we are already there, including the former Fed Chief Paul Volcker). If we are not in a recession yet, I cannot imagine how poorly the economy will be limping along when we finally ARE in a recession.

[HappyTexan]

Well said goozer..I'm still waiting for the government to decide that we are in a recession.
Unless this time they are deciding to skip the "recession" and go right to depression.

[bchris02]

In my opinion we have been in recession since late in Q4 of 2007. The oil spike last fall from $60 to $90 over the holiday shopping season started the recession in the consumer sector. Of course that was against the backdrop of a housing and credit crisis that has been chipping away at the economy since mid-2007. I think the one silver lining of all this is cheaper oil, which will help our economy along. Imagine if we had the current financial meltdown along side of $170-$200 oil like Goldman Sachs was predicting we would have by now.