Re: The Economy, What's your take
The failure of government and our elected officials to address the issues of infrastructure and debt is indeed outrageous but it is a separate discussion vs. the current economy as posed by the OP. Clearly there is a slowdown in the economy. Everytime there is people freak. In most cases people need to be hit over the head with a bat to think beyond next week. Once again I bring it back to the personal level, If you have skills or services in demand on a personal level you will likely be fine. If you're depending on the government or the psychology of the consumer for your support than you are subjecting yourself to the vagaries of those entities.
People who are really aware of what is REALLY going on with our economy, our money system, our banks, our currency, our trade situation, and related topics, are
WELL AWARE of the puppet show and the psychology of consumers and investors, and how that is played by the "man behind the curtain". The Fed actually
causes many of these so called "cycles".
The media does indeed sensationalize and hype all sorts of news, including doom and gloom predictions of recession. And even economists do this to some extent, although with more sincerity: Larry King joked that "economists had correctly predicted 36 out of the last 2 recessions"! LOL!
That's all true. But it doesn't mean that anyone who sees trouble ahead is just a "nervous nellie" or a sensationalist.
And I totally disagree that "The failure of government and our elected officials to address the issues of infrastructure and debt is indeed outrageous but it is a separate discussion vs. the current economy."
It won't be (can't be) separate for long.
Let me put it this way: if there was a confidence man we knew, who went around trading on his goodwill and charm, issuing IOU's to a lot of people around town, including some rather powerful people, and pretending everything was fine, and manipulating things so that his financial situation looked better than it really was, -- and he kept at this life style for months and months, putting people off with even more IOU's, and paying off IOU's in money gotten from new IOU's, continually and consistently living beyond his means, never balancing his income and expenses. Month after month after month.
And then someone says "OMG! This can't continue! This isn't good! This guy is going to meet a sticky end, and lose many of these nice things, or at the very least, have to change his lifestyle." But, then someone else said "Oh, this guy will be fine. I believe in this guy. There are always these cycles. People are too gullible and need to look to the long term."
HELLO!?! The first person IS looking to the long term!
WE'VE ALL BEEN LIVING BEYOND OUR MEANS. Every one of us. Not at a personal financial level, but in the sense that what the dollar actually buys right now in terms of real goods and services
IS WAY MORE THAN IT SHOULD BUY. All because we have been playing a confidence game with the world.
It can't continue. It will end. And we will have to meet this sticky end. And it will affect all of us.
Unless we make some significant and far reaching changes, within a decade, or probably 5 years, you will see food prices rise dramatically, and oil prices rise dramatically, and unemployment rise dramatically, and the so-called 'standard of living' fall somewhat. And the US will lose it's unique place as the worlds only super-power, or even as the most important super-power.
I say this not because I don't love my country. I say it because I
do love my country.
I suggest that people might find
Francisco's Money Speech from Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" worth reading, although I definitely don't agree with every single word of it. Still, it's well worth reading.