Posted on 06/18/2013 5:50:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the economic history of our time, June 6, 2013, ought to occupy a special place. That’s the day the Federal Reserve disclosed that the net worth of American households — the value of what they own minus what they owe — hit $70 trillion, a record that exceeded the previous peak before the 2007-09 financial crisis. Higher stock prices and a long-awaited housing recovery are slowly restoring Americans’ lost wealth. By all rights, this symbolic crossing ought to improve confidence, prompt consumers to spend more freely and increase the economy’s growth.
Maybe it will. But don’t hold your breath.
The “wealth effect” isn’t what it used to be. For those who have forgotten, this refers to households’ tendency to spend some part of their increased real estate and stock market wealth and thereby boost the economy. During the boom years, Americans borrowed lavishly against rapidly appreciating home values. One Federal Reserve study estimated the extra cash at $700 billion annually from 2001 to 2005. Now psychology has changed. Careless optimism has given way to stubborn cautiousness. Wealth gains don’t translate into similar amounts of higher spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I’m sitting on an ARM. 2.5% I can unload 10 grand at any time and refi @ 4 fixed. Why bother?
actual numbers on that or is that just someone's 'feeling'?
Thanks for the link. Getting good solid numbers on China is dodgy, the video may have been entertaining but the best I've found so far with "actual numbers" is --
| US production = 2012: 15,684.8 Billions of Dollars US export of goods'n'services = 2012: 2,194.491 Billions of Dollars China exports 2012 = 2012: 2049.185 Billions of Dollars China GDP (million current US$, 2011)7 318 499 |
Usually working with money means we're either working with totals of record account balances, or we're working with 'estimates' which can be little better than biased feelings.
Jobs are not exported or imported. Any American can hire another American simply by accepting an offer of work for pay. You and I can do it by directly hiring someone or by paying someone else to hire for us. I've hired some and I'd really like to hire more, but with all the tax hikes I'm about ready to lay everyone off and just use my money to feed my family.
You can vote for tax cuts or you can do your own hiring. Let's not pretend that Obama will somehow "bring back some jobs" that have been sitting in some overseas warehouse.
I believe China has out-exported America now for a year or so.
As you say, that number is (very) rarely discussed, but what I’ve seen is we have passed the break-even point.
And every single metric, is in China’s corner.
We need to stop messing around, and bring back American jobs now.
We need to protect American jobs, and we need to stop selling our future.
It's your 'belief'. That says a lot, the fact that 1,344 million Chinese may or may not have exported more than 312 million Americans, but neither of us can quite say for sure with hard numbers.
The line has been crossed.
You can quibble, I’m not going to spend the time to research this more than I have so far now.
But (all) the momentum is with China. Every single metric.
Bring back US jobs. Now.
Sounds good, and since it's your idea then you first. First bring a job back, and then show us all how you did it. You may be starting something really big here.
Risk and rates going up.
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