Now before I go on, let me state that Obama is a socialist marxist who is the absolute worst president we have ever had. The only thing Obama has going for him (from our point of view) is that he is incredibly inept and in over his head. This is a good thing because had a somewhat competent marxist (like Hillary Clinton) gotten in, we'd be in much further along the socialist path.
That all said, I must say that based on my observations, the economy in the United States is still very strong. Sure, there are plenty of closed storefronts out there and a lot of retail places are going out of business. But if it was possible to go back in time to say 1992, or even 1973, I would be able to show you plenty of closed storefronts in those eras as well.
Let me tell you about my Thursday night in the Boston area. This was December 29, 2011 (in case somebody is discovering this post years from now). After work that night, my wife and I had to take care of personal business in the Boston area. Once that was done, we decided we would go out for dinner since we were in the city.
Well, forget about it. Every single restaurant in the city was absolutely slammed. There was a 2-hour wait for a table. So we decided to head out into the suburbs, up Route 1 into Saugus. Now this was around 6:30pm and Route 1 was bumper-to-bumper. We tried several restaurants and parking was near impossible and the couple of restaurants we tried to access had 1-2 hour wait. Also, we noticed that the shopping malls were jammed.
So up Route 1 we go to Route 128 south towards Woburn. On The Border, Joe's American Grill, etc., - absolutely jammed up with people. Nearly a two-hour wait in those joints. So now we decide to hit Burlington mall so that we could try Legal Seafoods. By now, it was coming up on 7:30 and the Burlington mall was so crowded that there were gridlocked lines of traffic trying to gain access. So forget that. So we try some of the restaurants near the mall. Now these are not fancy places but casual eating places like Macaroni Grill, Border Cafe, etc. Absolutely jam-packed.
Finally we end up at Margaritas in Bedford around 8:15pm. Still no easy parking so we parked in a housing area nearby. It's still a half hour wait for a table but we decided to bite the bullet. We finally get in there for a table and the waitstaff are stressed out of their minds. It ended up being a fairly decent meal but even as we walked out of there around 10pm, the place was still hopping and frenzied waitstaff were rushing to and fro with heaping plates of food and frosty margaritas.
Now that was just one night. But generally speaking, the traffic in the Boston area has never been worse. Gridlock like you wouldn't believe getting to and from work. Stores are constantly jammed and the restaurants everywhere are slammed busy night after night.
If this is a bad economy, I'd hat to see it when it starts picking up again. I might just have to hunker down in my home because I hate traffic and crowds.
If you look at BLS stats, New England is doing better than most of the country.
I’m sure all you wrote is true, even here in Tampa, Florida it depends on what your business you are in ......construction and related sectors dead....housing dead... restaurants ......fair.....retail....surviving...
I do see some new small business start ups....
I’m hearing and reading most businesses here are simply being squeezed by costs and trying to keep their doors open, but certainly not hiring anybody which long term is a problem....and not getting any better
When the SHTF I wonder if any part of the country will be a haven
It's true we're a lot worse off since Marxist thugs took over the White House and set out to destroy so much of America's wealth --$2,549,900,000,000 in the last six months alone-- but even a Marxist thug has limits as America's created wealth is still equal to that of all the rest of the world combined!
His butchering of America's health care is especially heinous considering half the world's patent medicines are developed by Americans, and even though there are still four million fewer people working now than before O was elected, the ones that are working produce a fourth of the world's economica activity. Not bad for just 1/20th of the world's population.