Economy: News of America's Economic Death Greatly Exaggerated

DBKP ^ | May 1, 2008 | Chicagodudewhotrades

[mondoreb]

Is America in Economic Decline?

America in economic decline?

Everyday, it seems there is a new economic statistic about a weakening US economy or a news report about the US$ dropping in value against other currencies.

My answer is: NO.

Maybe right now the dollar is at a low level and portions of the American economy could be better, but the overall economy is solid and the dollar weakness is temporary. If you read history, it seems to be a good rule to never underestimate the American people or our economy. In fact, i think some of the nation’s best economic times lie ahead.

I’m writing this mostly because I’m a member of a very popular website called Little Green Footballs (www.littlegreenfootballs.com). Due to my online name (chicagodudewhotrades) I get asked a lot of stock market and economic questions by my fellow LGF’ers. Writing this I hope will help my LGF friends out. This is my first attempt at writing something like this, so don’t beat me up too bad!!!

I’m also writing this because I get tired of the mostly negative coverage of the economy by the national media. This is my small attempt to try and convince my fellow Americans that the economy isn’t as bad as portrayed.

What gives me the right to write about economic issues? In a word: Nothing. I’m not a economist or a CEO of a business. I don’t have a Ph.D in Economics or International Finance. The bulk of my professional trading experience comes from several years spent working as a clerk in the trading pits of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, I have been able to make a decent living from day-trading the last few years. Day-trading is a very brutal, Darwinian profession.

[mondoreb]

Is America's economy in decline? Chicagodudewhotrades--who survives in the brutal, economically-Darwinian world of daytrading--examines the issue and puts recent news of America's economic death into perspective.

[yldstrk]

Only in the Democrats’ dreams........

[flowerplough]

Schedule Greatly Exaggerated, maybe, but just go ask the Romans or the Brits about managing the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy.

[mondoreb]

The linkage with the Romans is, I believe, a bit harder to make than the Brits.

The Romans ran into trouble—over hundreds of years—for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was their declining fertility and the inability to get Romans to procreate.

The Brits are managing, given the extent of their heavier social costs dragging on their economy.

But a valid point raised, nevertheless.

[Brilliant]

Also as far as the media is concerned. You’d think we were in the middle of the Great Depression, and it turns out that we aren’t even in a mild recession, according to the statistics released yesterday.

[EGPWS]

America in economic decline?

If one has the time to watch and listen to the MSM and pundit's, YES.

If one is too busy working for a living and maintaining a family and household to watch and listen to the MSM and pundit's, NO.

[EGPWS]

But a valid point raised, nevertheless.

Valid because personal labor was lost to the Romans because they were rich enough to be a societal giver to the poor and less affluent because they could afford to give?

Or lost because they lost the true meaning of personal labor and sacrifice in giving via labor because of their affluence.

[mondoreb]

Or lost because they lost the true meaning of personal labor and sacrifice in giving via labor because of their affluence. I would say this was a large contributing factor. But as a society moves away from its agrarian roots and into affluence, it usually picks up a variety of bad habits--including loss of personal sacrifice for the common good. But the low birth rate (caused perhaps by that loss of values and pursuit of personal pleasure at the expense of family) was a major contributing factor.

[EGPWS]

I would say this was a large contributing factor.

A very large factor via complacent living via the lack of concern for survival on a personal level.