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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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| bassexpander wrote: |
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
Two straight quarters of growth. I'll take that over the alternative, which was a very real possibility 12 months ago. Is it time to pop the cork on the champagne bottles yet? Maybe not, but clearly things are turning up.
In the meantime, don't let good news interfere with your pessimism. |
It's borrowed time, unfortunately.
How long could you go on filling your house with new furniture without paying for any of it? All Obama has done is throw a huge amount of money (Americans don't have) at the problem.
Do you pay off your credit cards, Ya-ta?
Personally, I think Americans need to seriously tighten their belts and taught to save rather than live off of credit. Borrowing huge amounts from China needs to end. Wal-mart's raping of small businesses with Chinese-made products needs to end. Local manufacturing and local people need to be supported. Environmentally-friendly businesses need to be grown and fostered. No more big-business bailouts. You say an airline or two might fail? GOOD! Maybe a new one will come along at cheaper operating costs.
Yes, times would be very difficult for a long time, but it would just have to be that way.
Otherwise, we just keep transferring our wealth to countries we inwardly know are our enemies: China, Saudi Arabia, other Middle-Eastern countries. When Americans began tightening their belts due to the recession, their natural enemies suffered a great deal -- even places like Iran, not to mention oil-bearing countries like Russia.
Is that entirely bad? |
Why 'unfortunately'? Considering how bad things were last winter, we are fortunate to get a chance to work things out.
I'm not sure what my personal financial status has to do with this, but I pay off my credit card purchases each month. I only use the credit card for the convenience of not carrying around wads of cash. Anyway, I reject the analogy of one family = one country.
However, I do concur that the credit card binge of recent history has been a disaster. Consumer demand crashed last winter and still is very very weak. This is creating the problem of low employment. We can't expect the government to prop up the economy forever, but we don't want people out there spending heedlessly again either.
I distinguish between good debt and bad debt. Good debt is investment for the future...education, high speed trains like the project in Florida, the 40% increase in wind energy construction last year. If anything, we need far more of this stuff. For thirty years we let investment for the future slide and now things are looking shabby.
Anyway, all of this is outside the point of the OP. Hurray that the economy has recovered enough to start growing again at ANY per cent. Every journey begins with one step. |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Hurray that the economy has recovered enough to start growing again at ANY per cent. Every journey begins with one step. |
Obama has loosened regulations on the banks a touch. That is fuelling some confidence at the minute, as well as his proposed job creation schemes.
We'll have to wait until the end of the first quarter for a better indication, but hopefully US companies will gradually start hiring again. |
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