Yeah, the markets are getting damn scary, along with everything else. You can bet that we are now in a serious recession, and in a couple of quarters once they have done the math it will be announced how we went into a recession after the bombing. There is just a huge chunk of our economy that has gone into holding. Unless it is for a flag or one of the essentials of life, people have stopped spending money. This too shall pass, but it will take time. In the meantime market free-fall, which gives a negative wealth effect and causes even more belt tightening. Greenspan needs to loosen things up even more, but he is just too damn conservative.
People are afraid to fly. There is no way to defend a plane completely at the airport, just can't happen, you can make a weapon out of just about anything, and easily conceal them. They need armed air marshals on EVERY flight, not just a random sampling. This is the only thing that will start to make people feel more confident about flying. Until this happens business travel and tourism are dead, a huge chunk of our economy. Gov't deficits are now a given as the unemployment is going to crimp taxes, require cash to pay the benefits, and the lack of profits and salaries are just causing tax revenues to plummet.
The bright side, is that when the bottom is finally reached, those with cash are going to have some great buying opportunities in completely oversold companies. But it seems like the bottom may not yet be in sight.
Rman |
