.....Steve Forbes thinks that the doom and gloomers shouldn’t be listened to. He sees one quarter of bad news and then sees the economy coming back in the second quarter. A senior partner at Accel Venture Partners told me while we were waiting for a bus together that he’s watching the sales and other data from 250 startups reporting to Accel and he sees nothing but growth and is very optimistic. That optimism has been shared among the VC’s I’ve run into this week. Google execs are upbeat and are hiring and so are many other companies. Startups continue getting funded. Facebook’s executives tell me they are continuing to hire and expand at a rapid pace.
On the other hand, the subprime problems are very real. There are companies all across the board, however, that are still laying off workers-still struggling with the Telecom slow downs.
No. matter what we think about the mantra of Green collar workers touted by Mrs. Clinton, it is a new job market which will be worth watching, studying and investing in. Green does not have to be "New" Green company; but "Old" Big Oil already heavily investing in alternatives.
There are those who will wring their hands; but always Americans that will seize upon new opportunities to create the next Google-like experience. Just my opinion.
You can't always HOPE to ride one single wave, you'll have to stop and paddle to the next one, at some point.
I realize companies want to grow, expand, invest, sell and make money. My fear of a recession is based on the massive consumer debt built up over the years, and the fact that consumers can no longer extract barrels of money from the equity in their appreciating homes.
I hope the economy grows. But that requires that the tapped-out consumers continue to borrow and spend at historic rates. I am sure that is possible, but I am having great difficulty reconciling how it is possible.
It didn’t make sense to me that the “new economy” would support companies during the tech bubble that produced nothing and did nothing. The NASDAQ runup made no sense to me. Now, it doesn’t make sense to me that the consumer will continue uninterrupted now that the wealth-effect from housing appreciation has turned negative.
I am confused how consumers can find more debt to continue to shop till they drop, so predictions of growth don’t make sense to me. I’m sure I’m wrong, but I just can’t understand how the consumer can go deeper in debt that he currently is. I mean, there are frugal people who mostly buy what they need. These aren’t the people you need to stimulate the economy. You need the free spenders who party like no tomorrow, buy the latest gadgets, and spend constantly getting deeper and deeper in debt. I think those folks are going to hit a wall.
But like I said, I’m sure I’m wrong. I wasn’t wrong about the NASDAQ bubble or the housing bubble, but I’m sure I’m wrong this time and the tapped out consumers will find some new magic source of credit to continue spending like no tomorrow...
Please stop kidding around with that puss. It's the same puss we went through proving was worthless during the Carter maladministration. I know it's your opinion, but try thinking back to the "misery index" and how all the "wind farms" fell into ruin the minute oil prices fell back to reasonable and sustainable levels for YEARS!!!