Articles like this have me nodding 'yes, yes, yup, sure, yes' while I'm reading them. But by now it's just too easy to write them.
What I'd like in such articles is some root-cause analysis and at least a few pointers on how to proceed.
What I'd like in such articles is some root-cause analysis and at least a few pointers on how to proceed.
I'm proceeding by living my life. I took a loss on my house when I sold it, not primarily because of economic concern, but largely because it was time to move elsewhere (having kids etc). I have a manageable debt, mitigation strategies if that debt becomes undesirable, am not against taking on more if it becomes more desirable. My intent is to diversify into markets that may go contrary to the general economy (particularly petroleum).
I don't think anybody knows what to do. The events of the time remind me of yesteryear's disasters -- the pundits don't have anything to say, but the tape is rolling so they're talking.
If you remember back to 2006, there were lots of things wrong with the economy that everybody loved to point out. A housing bubble that was about to pop. A consumer debt bubble and usurious credit card rates. A Web 2.0 Startup bubble with a bunch of dumb ideas. Anemic wage & job growth since the last recession. A derivatives time-bomb. Massive government deficit spending to finance the war on Iraq. High oil prices, partially caused by demand from China and India and partially because of speculation. A large current account deficit, and fears of dollar overvaluation. A student loan bubble where many students take out expensive loans for college and then can't find jobs afterwards.
The majority of these doomsaying prophecies turned out to wrong - by my count, the housing bubble, high oil prices, and the derivatives time bomb were right, and everything else either hasn't happened yet (credit cards, student loans, dollar devaluation) or turned out to be quite minor (Web2.0 popping). But just those three were enough to put a serious dent in the economy.
The 1930s were similar: people like to blame it on the Fed constricting the money supply, but it was really that, plus the gold standard, plus Smoot-Hawley, plus the Dust Bowl, plus the bursting of the stock market bubble, plus the bursting of the Florida real estate bubble. Any one of those might've been shrugged off, but all of them together was cataclysmic.
I don't believe we have seen the bottom of the market, but I'm hopeful that the American economy that emerges from our original mess will be much more rational & sustainable.
We must collectively recognize the need for long term economic vision or else repeatedly suffer the fickle repercussions of short sighted greed, and delusion. Our nation, all of its industries, all of our people don't exist in a vacuum. Each of our actions and individual productivity in aggregate results in shifts in our economic strength and resiliency.
And what about those 'projected returns' figures that never materialised?
And what about Earth's limited capacity to sustain unlimited needs?
And what about that huge desert in Iraq where once a great civilization flourished?
And finally what abt - "There is enough for everyone's need not for everyone's greed - MKG"
Intellectuality is not the only angle of looking at things. Try it out with any woman !
Its not about avoiding mines. We could go about drilling mines on the moon.
The point is this - 'Consumerism thats out of control. A need not unlike that of a child and that too which is ever growing (fuelled by ever-growing population). Its about growing up to be true producers - like nature'
Geithner Sees Evidence of a Financial Recovery http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/business/economy/17geithne...
Summers Says U.S. ‘Close to a Level Path’ to Recovery http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=antm...
Fed's Hoenig says U.S. recovery to be very slow http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE56D6CK20090714