Posted on 08/19/2005 5:22:29 AM PDT by OESY
You lack facts.
Here are some selected Morningstar Index returns for the last three years: NOTE: These are AVERAGED ANNUALIZED over the 3 year period, not simply the total return over three years (example--20% annualized is apprx a 60% return over three years)
Small Value Index + 22.01%
Small Cap Index + 21.18
Mid Value Index + 20.71%
Mid Growth Index + 18.92%
Large Value Index + 12.27%
Large Cap Index + 10.35%
S&P 500 Index + 11.48%
NASDAQ Index + 16.38%
Your opinion is an opinion, but the FACTS show that the broad market has had an OUTSTANDING return over the last three years.
If in doubt, choose FACTS over opinion. May I suggest to you that before you post, try doing some FACTUAL checking first. It makes your post so much more credit worthy to read.
SOURCE: http://screen.morningstar.com/index/indexReturns3YearDesc.html
The stock market is lagging because people are putting all their cash into real estate. That is fine if you can take $ 350,000 cash out of your 401(k) to pay for a home outright. Some people are paying cash for homes in other states to prepare for retirement. Great, if you can do it.
In the meantime, speculators are buying homes they will never live in with plans to flip them at huge profits. Beware of homes being flipped in your area. You might be caught with your pants down later. Read more about real estate bubble? 'Nuff said.
Can anyone provide substantiation for the claim that wages are up?
Let's guess. Maybe for 1/3 of Americans who don't read the WSJ it's not booming?
Can anyone provide substantiation for the claim that wages - less dividends - are up?
And as usual on these threads the critics who say things could be better offer thoughtful and sourced opinions while those who take umbrage at any criticism on the jobs front offer thoughtless "clever" put downs.
What categories of jobs are being created according to BLS figures? Temporary agencies, food services and lodging, construction, government, health care. Yes, I know. Jobs is jobs.
What do labor studies by Northeastern University, Pew Hispanic Center, CIS say about those job categories? They say that recent immigrants are getting huge numbers (most?) of them (excluding government). I think that it is fair to say that these are the government-subsidized "cheap" labor folks which are highly prized by business.
Current recovery lags the classic recovery model in wage increases and jobs creation -- it's the impact of globalization and the economy is still adjusting. If that's Bush bashing then I am a Bush basher and proud of it.
Among good news indicators IMO is the higher-paying jobs available on dice.com. At the lowest point a couple of years ago the nationwide total was around 25,000 now it's getting close to 75,000. Yes, I know there are duplicate listings. I also know that during the dot con (yes, con) bubble it was close to 150,000.
Bottom line, it ain't the Great Depression and the general public ain't stupid.
You might consider that Bush has adopted the FDR receipe of priming the economy with deficit government dollars. FDR filled the job needs that private industry did not provide. FDR was doing OK until the Commies took him over.
Some history. "The Great Depression brought about severe economic hardships in America and around the world. People were opportunistic, wanting any type of advantage that could be given to them. One such group of people were the World War I veterans and their families; who wanted a bonus for their services in the Great War now, instead of in 1945. During this turbulent time, the United States government was very concerned with political uprisings that tried to overthrow the government. The government's great concern about riots and political uprisings during the Great Depression led to hasty actions to quell the Bonus March demonstrations, created animosity towards President Hoover, and eventually forced him out of office."
Actually it was a war that ended the Great Depression.
And for good reason: PJB's utterances usually are dead-on prophesies.
But then--insight was never a feature of the GWB-bots.
Yup.
Meanwhile, Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P remain UNDER the levels of 5 years ago.
And the USD remains UNDER the levels of 3 years ago.
I want someone with some degree of expertise on the subject to assess when nightly news for CBS, ABC, and NBC will essentially be out of business. 2008? 2009?
These ridiculous parent companies keep pouring more good money after bad in their news divisions, and their shareholders are tolerating this nonsense.
Well-wages are up, but not keeping with inflation over the last 2 years (median, not average.)
"Income" includes rents, dividends, interest, and pensions. A far different story than 'wages.'
More significant, it was only last month that total US private employment got back to the numbers pre-2001; but factory employment has NEVER increased since 2001.
That's WTO/MFN China at work.
My post factually showed the statement that the "market has not moved up much" runs against the facts.
The discussion had nothing to do with the five year history as you are implying, but I showed that members did not have his/her facts since the market has indeed moved up quite a bit over the last three years, regardless of its position versus historic highs.
That's not entirely accurate.
Dubya's deficits more closely mirror LBJ's "Great Society".
He's spending money like a drunken sailor on BOTH "guns and butter".
Read post #21.
then I would say they're not up, but down.
I would be interested to see a graph of real wages over the past twenty years.
I agree that Bush is spending money like a drunken sailor (a drunken RAT sailor at that), but his "guns" spending throws off a false reading.
True, the Defense Dept has had a big increase, but much of this money is going toward payroll, logistics, replacement parts, administration, troop rotation, hazard pay, etc.
I submit that the spending on the military has gone down if we talk what the dollars are buying. The Ruskies and the Chicoms are spending their Defense dollars on late generation ICBMs, strategic ICBM carrying submarines and fifth generation fighters and other advanced hardware.
America is spending its Defense dollars on payroll and logistics, etc., while cutting back on hardware procurement, eliminating some advanced weapon platforms and eliminating many military bases.
America has gotten WEAKER militarily under Bush relative to Russia and China.
That is not much "guns" spending from a factual angle.
Bush has to sell the economy and its his fault for the negative perception. Its not fair, but those are the rules.
They've exchanged their mantra of not trusting anyone over thirty, to ignorance is bliss.
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