Where is the US economy headed?

Check out how the market is reacting to Obamanomics today...

@H2O MAN,

Already have. What can one say? "It's only a blip" is probably the best explanation assuming you don't define a blip using Einstein's Relativity Theorems.

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@H2O MAN,

H2O MAN wrote:

Check out how the market is reacting to Obamanomics today...

it is a tremor through the global economy as it nears collapse, it has little to do with Obama except in that he was not wise enough to see that the Great Recession was a warning, and that the proper response to that warning was to under take massive emergency reform to the global economic system. It might not have worked, but at least we would have gone down swinging rather than with our eyes closed.

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@hawkeye10,

Looks like -512 -4.3% is a final on the DOW. The S&P 500 did much worse and the NASDAQ worse still.

Fun times.

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@hawkeye10,

So that's why you can't see the funny side of it all? You've got your eyes closed. On going down I mean. The further down you go the funnier it gets.

What sort of massive reforms to the ges have you in mind starting from where J.K. Galbraith left off in his minor masterpiece The Great Crash. I bet you haven't one idea that I couldn't shred.

There's a collision between human nature and increasing industrial efficiency which I presume the Luddite theologian knew about. And the evolution of a type of intelligence which can handle these truly revolutionary times. I mean to say--2,000,000 years and in the blink of an eye on such a scale complaining that the bristles in the electric toothbrush are coming out or the windscreen washers having run out of water. With a squirt of Fairy Liquid in it.

All down to Jesus. Incredible.

"No martyr is among ye now". Everytime I pass a church that has a cross outside with the memory of Jesus fastened to it I feel as if I ought to weep.

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@spendius,

Quote:

"No martyr is among ye now". Everytime I pass a church that has a cross outside with the memory of Jesus fastened to it I feel as if I ought to weep.

Are you getting sentimental on us now Spendius? Why do you feel as if you ought to weep? What is going threw your mind at the moment Bob Dylan?

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@reasoning logic,

Obviously. I saw him sing that line out of a dark background with a spotlight just on his battered fissog. And what a beautiful song it is too.

It's not a sentiment. How do I know why I feel that way. Perhaps you will explain it for me then I can see what a silly moo I am.

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A quick summary: the Dow was down 4.2% (500 points) with the broader markets down by a larger %. European markets were down about 3.5%. The weakness in the U.S. economy (and with job's numbers coming tomorrow) and the deteriorating situation in Europe (spreading from Greece and Ireland to Spain and Italy) didn't help.
The dollar rose as did the price of U.S. treasury bills (bringing the yield on those to record lows). Our economy may be weak, but investors perceive it to be less weak compared to alternatives.
Oil fell 6.2% today and is down 10% in a month. I expect gas in my area to drop 15 cents a gallon by early next week.
Gold fell by 1% today after a big run up and mortgage rates had a nice drop, assuming you have the credit rating and the ability to find a bank willing to lend.

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@realjohnboy,

Quote:

The crisis has, however, been clarifying in several respects. To begin with, we can now say with some confidence that Washington will be doing nothing more to help the ailing economy. President Obama is trying to push a jobs agenda. But for the federal government to spur growth or create jobs, it has to spend additional money. The antediluvian Republicans who control Congress do not think that demand can be expanded in this way. They believe that the 2009 stimulus bill, which has prevented an even worse economy over the past two years, is actually responsible for the current weakness. Their Hooverite approach—embedded in the debt-ceiling compromise—demands that we address the risk of a double-dip recession by cutting public expenditure now rather than later.
So instead of trying to pull out of the stall, the economy simply will have to absorb whatever blow is coming. Some of the congressional Republicans who are preventing action to help the economy are simply intellectual primitives who reject modern economics on the same basis that they reject Darwin and climate science. Others are obviously cynical, desiring the worst possible economy as an aid to recapturing the White House and Senate in 2012. Still others simply do not believe that government action can ever be a force for good at any time or in any way. Whatever their motivations, there is something terribly sad about desperate and unemployed Americans looking for rescue to a party that lacks any inclination to alleviate their misery.

http://www.slate.com/id/2300840/

Good news for we revolutionaries...the fermentation will really get going now, and yes that is the agenda of some on the Right.

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@spendius,

Quote:

It's not a sentiment. How do I know why I feel that way. Perhaps you will explain it for me then I can see what a silly moo I am.

You should know by now that no one can figure you out! besides I think that you did a very good job of explaining how you felt!

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This is Armageddon and armageddon outta here!
Experientia docet.

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@hawkeye10,

The problem is hawk--what is a job? What is work?

It's no good "creating jobs" unless the jobs are economically useful. Is working in a pedicure salon a job in the way fixing the power lines after a blizzard is? Or a job in a poodle primping parlour. Is that a job?

I could make out that the pedicure salon and the poodle primping parlour are real jobs but I would have to be a bit severe on the customers of such businesses.

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@spendius,

There is something remotely silly about spending $200 on getting one's dog an enema and then tucking into a steak.

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@spendius,

Quote:

It's no good "creating jobs" unless the jobs are economically useful

How do you get around the rise of the machines problem?? I dont see where we need anywhere near the same amount of labor per capita as we once did, and yet people need to live, which at the moment means they need money. Socialism? Mandatory 20 hour work week? Get the women back into the kitchen and in front of the soap operas?

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@hawkeye10,

Now you're talking hawk.

But don't forget that the Devil makes work for idle hands.

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@spendius,

spendius wrote:

Now you're talking hawk.

But don't forget that the Devil makes work for idle hands.

Yes I know, it is another angle of the same problem. Come on now, just yesterday you were bragging on how smart you are.....lets hear what the way out is.

Lead on McDuff!

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

lets hear what the way out is.

The way out is already to late in my opinion! The profits from modern machinery should have been shared more equally. Without the labor force's labor we would never of had the technology that we have today, It was the laborers that gave us the free time to think and develop technology as we know it today.

We have been seeing the demise of civilization from the beginning of time because of greed.
It is just now getting worse because of the divide between the rich and poor has grown and now that the the economy has tanked you are going to see even more up rises and emotional outburst of anger amongst themselves and then they will come after you and me!
Even if we were able to make some sort of utopian society tomorrow it would still take a very long time for the problems of the past to work themselves out and even then it wont be utopia!

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@reasoning logic,

Quote:

The profits from modern machinery should have been shared more equally.

It was not too bad till the late 60's, back when employers felt that they were working for their employees, their communities, and the stockholders as well as for their own wealth creation. Them days are long gone though, it when they were the free market system was no longer sustainable. Waging war on government regulation was just the icing on the cake, because these guys are too stupid to understand that regulation is in their best interests over the long haul.

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@hawkeye10,

How is "...(R)egulation is in their best interest over the long haul."

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@realjohnboy,

realjohnboy wrote:

How is "...(R)egulation is in their best interest over the long haul."

We need to have some sort of structure or regulations but I do have to admit that there are some we could do without.

I bet that even you could think of something that you would want regulated if you thought hard about it!

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Where is the US economy headed?

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