[Few want to admit this ominous fact.]
Remain Calm! All is well!
/s
"The problem is clear: This isn't a nation of savers. In the past two years, America's personal savings rate reached its lowest level since the Great Depression. And in comparison to other industrialized countries, the United States ranked second to last in personal savings."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118964627975525938.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Salt Lake Tribune, United States - Sep 2, 2007 Americans have coped with their declining pay by going deeper in debt: The personal savings rate has been at the lowest level since the Great Depression. ...
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, CA - Sep 12, 2007 Add to that the fact that the US has had a negative savings rate recently for the first time since the Great Depression, and it's ominous. ...
Seems like this was a popular theme near the end of the 80’s, just in time for the election in 1988. It was also a popular theme in 1992. Funny how it never really came up while x42 was President, even when it became clear that there would be a dot.com bust
Cheer up Auntie, I would take anything I read in a Seattle newspaper as the gospel. Of course if I lived there and had to listen to west coast liberals all day every day I might cut my wrists.
Financial threads on FreeRepublic are almost completely worthless.
Most homeowners here think the RE market has bottomed and prices won’t be affected.
Most renters here think the bottom will fall out of the market and they were brilliant not to own real estate.
People in equities see only a bull market ahead once the Fed cuts interest rates later this year.
People in cash on the sidelines see a coming recession they are buffered from and will get great deals in stocks and real estate when both investments crash.
The fact is, these threads are ridiculous. If there are a handful of intelligent, knowledgeable and reasonable people on this forum, their voices are certainly drowned out by all of us who only see what we want to see.
I am a renter with cash and so I see a false US economy supported only by consumer confidence built upon debt and see it all unraveling into recession and a subsequent deep correction on Wall Street. I am looking to get deals when the long, drawn recession drags on. I am looking to buy a house when property values plunge in Sacramento and I think housing is going to continue tanking until 2010 and flatten until 2015.
I am no economic expert. I’m just seeing what I want to see and believing what I want to believe. But at least I am willing to admit it.
Complaints about over-consumption hold democracy in contempt.
I’ve been telling you for six years, death is a conspiracy of liberal media!
Heck, the savings rate is negative as of 2005 or 2006, I listen to Chuck Harder, his “For The People” show, a lot and he has been saying that for a while. He’s one of the few in the media that actually “get it.” He said the same thing I did a while back, what has kept the good times rolling (with the exception of Kawasaki B-)) was the easy flow of debt, as the commecial goes, “How do I do that, I’m in debt to my eyeballs.” Although show that “gets it” but it is local is Rob Verb and Casey Malone from Youngstown, Ohio, WKBN-AM 570kc, I called in the other day to bring that idea to the discussion table and they agreed with me. I think this game of musical chairs, the record is almost done and the 8-Track tape is wearing thin so hold on to your hats.
Damn! The party never even started for this consumer. I must have gone to the wrong address.
What a crock of BS!
We now have retirement funds that pay more then a stupid savings account
so "of course" people are using savings accounts less. And sure CC debt
is who's fault>? BUSH!@!
Try as they may, the MSM cannot bring on a great depression short of bombing
their own workplaces. And even then it wouldn't happen.
Seattle is run by the same style of Libs who run Oregon who love to
raise taxes and blame someone else for their own failures including the
dot.com debacle.
I lived in Seattle when they placed a vote for a .60 tax on a pack of cigs,
well, almost 90% voted against it. What happened? They passed the tax
anyway saying it for for the common good... The voters were to stupid
to vote correctly. And the voters still hold to their liberal standards!!
I moved from Seattle after 9/11 and will never look back.
Let them worship their FK-N Stalin statue...
We're all gonna DIE!!!!!
“U.S. manufacturing alive and well (The good news is we’re doomed! Part II)”
Many seemed to be suggesting that a 3 percent or so increase in manufacturing meant that we had nothing to worry about from exports. Now we learn that it is difficult to find second jobs.
I am not really a doom and gloom type person, but we must manufacturer more domestically and we must purchase domestic goods and put our own people to work.
I suspect that salary and wage structures would be weakened in the short term, and I also suspect people will have to purchase less expensive homes in less luxurious areas, again in the short term. But it will be unavoidable.
The countries from which we buy so much in consumer goods would tell us, “Manufacturing and exporting is the way to go.” And they are right. The USA must manufacture more, export more, and buy more from ourselves.
I will have much more confidence when, in malls and electronics outlets, I can again see “Made in USA” TVs, radio, cameras, video cameras, computers, etc.
A recent article on the Motley Fool’s British Web site offered “Five Ways to Prepare for a Recession.” The prescriptions: Don’t make big luxury purchases you can’t pay for with cash. Build an emergency fund. Live more frugally. Reduce your debt. Find more work.
Thankfully, hubby and I have been doing this most of our eight years of marriage.