Our GDP is now supported primarily by government spending, consumer spending and the ratio of investment by industry has very nearly flipped from nearly 7:3 goods to services, to 3.5:6.5 goods to services - almost a complete reversal.
Service products depend heavily on a healthy financial system to provide jobs. The world financial system is a mess.
But EVERYONE needs goods. Look at every country on the planet with a relatively healthy economy in this recession and you'll see their GDP is based first on production of goods, not services.
Furthermore, government spending is now a huge portion of our GDP. This is why they spend. If they didn't, we'd be seeing negative growth. Four quarters of that spells the "D" word and government is deathly afraid of that word.
I love FR econ threads. I learn so much: small is larger than large, increasing price increases demand, the government loans me money to buy stuff . . . and that is all in the past week.