Posted on 01/25/2009 5:00:00 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Posted on Wed, Jan. 14, 2009
Gore, Goldman executive discuss economy
By Harold Brubaker
Inquirer Staff Writer
In speeches yesterday in Philadelphia, a Goldman Sachs strategist said the U.S. economy was not "the 1930s revisited," and Al Gore said short-term thinking had been catastrophic for capitalism.
The economy is in an era of swinging between extremes, Goldman's Abby Joseph Cohen said at the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce economic-outlook breakfast.
"In the course of six to nine months, many investors and many businesspeople have gone from one extreme, fearing rip-roaring inflation, to the other extreme, fearing the extraordinarily negative consequences of deflation," said Cohen, senior U.S. investment strategist at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
"Our belief is that we are not entering a period of dramatic deflation. We do not think this will be the 1930s revisited," she said. "A true deflation is when incomes deflate not just for a few quarters, as we expect, but for a multiyear period."
Cohen said her firm predicted that the recession would end in six months or so, at least in terms of declining gross domestic product.
"We don't think this will be followed by extremely vigorous economic activity. First and foremost, the typical consumer is going to be careful for a long period of time, and that's appropriate," Cohen said.
Reasons for that, economists say, include the weak job market, the dramatic drop in housing prices in some parts of the country, and stock market declines, which have left many consumers feeling burned.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Ping!
It does not bode well for the future of this country that anybody at all gives a rat’s patootie about what Al Gore has to say about anything.
True ‘nuf. I’m guessing that when Gore/Goldman team up, they still don’t have a whole brain.
Al Gore seems to have an obsession with apocalyptic language.
Al, capitalism's fine. Even you can't hurt it. But you can abuse it.
Does the blind ask for help from the blind?
There will be no recession for the top management at Goldman Sachs, that’s fer sure.
And if things get bad for them, they've got the ear of the right people. Seems kind of banana republic - but it's how bailouts work.
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