Where is the US economy headed?

The backbone of America's success is its people, their ingenuity, their work, their business, yes their business. Big business requires big business to do it. Government provides the rules for the game, but they are not stars of the game, and they don't score points. They are not supposed to anyway, and the problem is Obama does not understand the above.

Government provides the board, the pieces, and the security. People move things about within that framework. Without the US government, there is no game to play here in the states.

The job of the government isn't to 'score points,' as you put it, but ensure that the game continues in perpetuity and is fair to the players involved. That's a valuable job, yet you never stop knocking them, and any attempt they make to enforce rules or make things fair for everyone is decried by you. It's not an accurate way to look at the situation.

You see the Federal government as the enemy of Big Business, when in truth, they are the greatest of friends they ever had.

Cycloptichorn

Looking through the BLS tables accompanying the 263K job loss headline...
There were the usual culprits: construction and manufacturing. Retail didn't fall as much as in earlier months. Health care again added jobs.
Accounting for 20% (53K) of the 263K was "non-educational local government." Government had actually be holding up quite well, until now.

going forwards state governments especially are in a hell of a mess. The ONLY way to avoid large state employee count cuts is to raise taxes, which is a bitch to do successfully.

Cyclops, the "points" is the wealth. Without wealth, we don't have anything. You must understand that wealth has to be produced, and it is business that does that, not government. People produce wealth, with their ingenuity, their motivation, through self interest, for profit, to produce their living. It is the American people, cyclops, not government, that get up every day and go to work, that produces wealth. It is farmers, miners, timber people, manufacturing, even people that push paper, but you have to create something out of raw materials. Starting that cycle, you begin with raw materials, crops, minerals, energy such as oil and gas, coal, uranium, timber products, then you must make something out of those things, transport them, assemble them, distribute them. For example, I think oil is the substance that drives much of our economy, and without it things would grind to a screeching halt, which would lead to massive poverty and starvation.

I think people have been so woefully spoiled and uneducated about the people and the businesses that produce our wealth, and the educational system is too busy teaching the kiddies about the rain forest, global warming, and how to sing Obama songs, that people are clueless about where things come from. People expect to walk into supermarkets and push the carts around, selecting whatever they want. Folks, wake up, do not take the wealth for granted.

This country is going to get a very big wake up call, if they do not catch onto the crisis that is brewing. We have taken our standard of living for granted, we have lived wonderfully but don't realize it. If you allow Obama to lead us down the primrose path, and allow him to blame and punish the very people that have built the wealth in this country, you are going to be in for a very big surprise, folks.

wow, really good input on these postings. I enjoyed reading a lot of them, However i like short to the point answers no matter where i am, no matter who i talk to, due to my NY background.............
we are heading for the toilet.

I disagree. We are already there and in serious denial.

okie, If you have kept abreast of the stock market, you would know that it works more on emotion than it does on logic or economic principles.

It goes up and down based on "current" news and trends with most taking their profit. The day-traders are the foolish ones who think they can outguess the market; it can't be done.

The best way to guage trends is to look at the long-term outlook of our economy and the world's. The biggest problem in our economy is the loss of jobs, because consumer spending used to make up 70% of our economy. Most companies that are now showing profit are those that have made the necessary cut in expenses (jobs), but they still have a big problem with job loss continuing to increase.

A recent poll have shown that most small businesses are planning to add jobs during the last quarter of this year. I think this christmas season will reveal much of how the uptick in consumer confidence is real.

Retailers are planning to cut back on inventory, but I still believe many will provide heavy discounts this christmas season in hopes of jump-starting the economy.

I don't worry too much about one 200 point drop in the DOW; it's how subsequent trades continues to stabilize the market with adequate trades.

Don't forget; I've said some time ago that I was going to sell off my YTD gains to transfer those funds into bonds, but after my first 25% transfer, I've studied my mix of funds and found them to be more than adequate to manage any storm of 5% one way or the other.

Reacting to one week's economic report to dramatically change any mix of funds is also a fool's game in my HO>.

The stock market can be best described as a gambling boat on steroids.

the markets go up, they go down, bouncing all around. More an more it looks akin to playing the slots, which is a fools game because the only thing that you know for sure is that if you play long enough the house will take a chunk of your money. In the case of the market, your money goes to fees and in loses created by insider trading and the super-fast computer trading systems.

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/suppl/empsit.cpseea1.txt
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS

....Total USA Employed.....Change
Carter
1980.. 99,302,000------------------
Reagan
1984 105,005,000....+ 5,703,000
Reagan
1988 114,968,000....+ 9,963,000
Bush I
1992 118,492,000....+ 3,524,000
Clinton
1996 126,708,000....+ 8,216,000
Clinton
2000 136,891,000....+ 10,183,000
Bush II
2004 139,252,000....+ 2,361,000
Bush II
2007 146,047,000....+ 6,795,000
Bush II
2008 145,362,000........- 685,000
Obama
2009 139,649,000....- 5,713,000 (as of August 31, 2009)

hawkeye, It's obvious you are not a long-term investor in the stock market that outperforms bank CDs, bonds, gold, and inflation.

My wife and I both have investments with Vanguard, and are living the good life because of our investments.

Welcome to A2K and to (one of) the Economics threads. Could you talk a bit about your perspective? The rest of us tend to repeat ourselves at great length.

okie, You rarely know what you are talking about; government has everything to do with our economy. It's that your view of this world is restricted by your ignorance.

You have probably never been able to understand that governments are responsible for the education of its children, and the ability of the people to work within the economy that provides the opportunity, competitiveness and creativity of its people.

Corrupt governments abound in this world, and its people suffer. Governments create the laws by which its people can practice a market economy, it's safeguards to protect its people from fraud, and establish the environment that promotes economic activity.

You continue to show your ignorance, because you do not have the basic understanding of economics or politics.

This chart again, with updated September data. It continues to show, to prove, that the unemployment rate is even worse with Obama's stimulus package than what Obama predicted without any stimulus at all. So the chart begs the question, which way is his plan stimulating things? And the U6 unemployment rate has now hit 17% in September.

U6 unemployment shown:

Keep an eye on CIT this week. They temporarily averted bankruptcy in July but they're in deep trouble. Guess who gets $1 billion under a loan agreement if CIT files under Chapter 11? Good old Goldman Sachs. Guess who gets nothing if CIT makes the filing -- the American taxpayer to the tune of $2.3 billion in TARP funds. Thanks, Henry Paulsen.

At least we said no when they asked for more. CIT's main customer base? Small and medium sized business. You know... the ones who need credit to create jobs to grow the ecomony.

WSJ

I'm beginning to get angry.

Okie -- get over it. Unemployment is bad and going to get worse. Estimates are all in the toilet because we're in an economy that went off the rails after decades of mismanagement. Stop trying to make this Obama's doing. It wasn't his doing. Pointing fingers is a useless exercise and it's time we stop playing the blame game and come up with some solutions.

Three more banks failed on Oct 2. FDIC list

Um.... they're outta money folks.

FDIC isn't in any danger, is it?