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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/15/2009 10:08:09 PM
From: steve harris	Respond to of 1575784

The doomsayers have a vested interest in talking down the economy, the end justifies the means. It really is that simple, liberal democrats have always created crises, so you'll believe that they are the only ones who can save you. Jim Wright: "We only want to help you." Democrats are the richest elected people running our nation, they don't need money, their only interest is power, more of it. Worked successfully with Clinton, "the worst economy in 50 years", which it wasn't. The public fell for it again, thanks to the failed unionized, tenured, homogenized, socialist indoctrination system they call public education.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/15/2009 10:30:52 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1575784

In addition, there is the fact that, at least at this point, this looks nothing, whatsoever, like the Great Depression. Message 25415825 Could it develop into one? Of course. If Obama continues to talk the economy down, I can personally guarantee it will get worse. Nowhere on record is there evidence of an economy growing stronger while the President was bashing it. I don't know. Maybe they couldn't get their hands on a nuke so they decided to fly the economy into the ground.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/16/2009 12:04:10 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 1575784

RE:"Hence the economy back then was much more focused on manufacturing than today where the economy is more service-oriented" Probably why we are in deep trouble now. No manufacturing.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/16/2009 9:10:59 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575784

"CJ and all, let me explain why I don't believe we're facing another Great Depression." You are ignoring a lot of important factors. Not the least of which is the collapse of the financial system. There very well may not be a solvent bank in the country, and the problems aren't restricted to the US. But, you know, who knows? It could all work out in the end. Regardless, there are some important challenges, and they are fundamental in nature. It is doubtful that we will come out of this with the same system we had going in. What that entails is an open question, though.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/16/2009 9:18:29 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575784

Do we REALLY need two cars per household? We usually do if it takes two incomes to support a typical family. Now if we reach 40% unemployment then I suppose you only need one.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (456814)	2/16/2009 1:14:31 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575784

And third, standards of living have risen so much that we're now incredibly spoiled. Hence most of us really don't know how far we'd have to fall before we actually get to another depression. Do we REALLY need two cars per household? How about one cell phone per family member? Cell phone rates haven't fallen any, suggesting that people still love their cell phones and can still afford them. High-definition TVs are still flying off the shelves at Costco, Best Buy, etc., though at a slower rate than before. Maybe I am misunderstanding you but you make it sound like we have a choice in the matter. We don't. We are doing everything we can to prevent it from happening but that doesn't mean it won't. Secondly, the Depression did not become a depression overnite. It took years. There was the Crash of 1929 but the markets actually recovered some in the next year only to go down again later. And unemployment didn't become 25% overnite....it gradually grew until it reached that number in 1933. Thirdly, we have three economic crises rolled into one. There is the subprime problem that has put out housing market into an economic depression. There are the credit problems that have developed due to the subprime crap. Those credit problems have spread to the rest of the world because we sold investors the instruments that contained the subprime crap. And finally, there is the extensive loan financing done by banks in countries like Iceland and the UK which now have become a serious problem because of the other two crises and have put those countries in serious economic jeopardy. In other words, the economic systems of the world have become very dysfunctional and have frozen up. They have stopped working. And every effort done so far has done little to unfreeze them. Having said that, like you, I believe we have become more sophisticated and more capable of dealing with stuff like this. Unfortunately, it took people too long to wake up to the problem. People like Cramer were screaming about this problem in the summer of 2007; others as early as April, 2007. No one listened. That has made things exponentially worse...because this economic crisis is acting like a computer virus. The longer its left unattended the more computers/countries it infects. Now the economic world is suffering from the flu with a full blown fever. Apparently Republican leaders don't fully understand the problem or they would not be behaving the way they are currently. Certainly you don't contract spending when you are in a deflationary spiral......that would just further contribute to the velocity of that spiral. Finally, a flight to gold happens when investors decide that either economic conditions have become inflationary or chaotic. Since October of last year, gold has been ramping like crazy: clearstation.etrade.com And its not because investors are worried about inflation.