Economy is bottoming out.

[Zachstar]

A week ago I was reading a story that seemed to indicate that in some small towns things are SLOWLY starting to recover.

Now I am reading more and more that makes me feel confident that late 2009 will start to see some recovery.

Fear is what drove most of this crisis. People have a boatload of money saved up that they are SLOWLY starting to spend and get flowing again. As confidence rises things will pick up.

Will we go back to pre-recession levels? Hell no! That was propped up by credit. At best we will get back to just before the real nosedive started.

The best thing to do now is to buy some American products. Nothing major just a few hundred dollars here and there. One step at a time and we will dig out of this.

[TarJak]

Whilst it would be nice if it were true there are those that don't belive it: http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/25/maga...ion=2009022509

[UnderseaLcpl]

I hope you're right ZS, but I don't see the economy pulling up before the effects of a trillion dollars' worth of "stimulus" hit the money supply.

What we have here is a textbook recipe for stagflation, now it is all about the timing. If the economy recovers before the inflation caused by rampant federal printing/borrowing, we might stave off severe recession for a bit longer. However, if the market responds to the increased money supply first (in the form of higher prices), then I'm afraid we're in for a lot more abuse.
The lower fuel prices we are enjoying may help, as some economists theorize, but they aren't going to offset the inflationary damage.

And that's to say nothing of the long-term effects of this kind of federal spending.
This one single bill has managed to spend more money than the entire Iraq War.
People can debate economic theory until they are blue in the face but every time the U.S. government has intervened on a large scale they have made the economic situation worse overall, rather than better.
As it is, Social Security, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt account for more than half of the budget. And the budget already runs at a defecit.
Coming along and dumping trillion on the debt and an additional 200-900 billion in expenses a year(estimates vary, a visit to www.gpo.gov shows wildy enthusiastic predictions for future defecit) is not going to help the situation.

The economy desperately needs time to catch up with the money supply and back it with actual production. Obama's administration is attempting to jump-start the process with directed spending, heedless of the catastrophic failures that similar measures have yielded in the past.


It's hard to say this without being offensive to my leftist colleagues here, but one of the things that continually pisses me off about the Democrats' economic policies is that they always think they have the damn answer. Then they fail, and then they come right back and say "our policy is good, it just needs a little more tweaking" and they just shrug off the damage they've done. And yes there are Republicans guilty of this too, make no mistake.

Obama has demonstrated the willingness to at least say that he wants to cut programs (150, I think, in the last budget committee report) but his actions say that he's going to replace them with more spending.
Even if he was some economic genius that could figure a centralized solution to the nation's woes, there are too many factors working against effective implementation of such legislation.

I don't see a bright outlook. The clouds may break here and there, for a bit, but the storm hasn't even begun.

[Zachstar]

That article from the news media is exactly why we are in this mess. They want people glued to the TV to watch what company will fall today.

Its fear mongering. The answer is simple. Do YOUR part to get the economy back on track.

Every little bit helps. For instance. How about planting a vegtable garden? They money you save from not having to buy tomatoes for instance is THAT much more that can flow into manufacturing.


The stimulus? It wont do much but the perception that the gov is not going to pull another Hoover REALLY helps things in the minds of the people.

What it MAY do tho is starve off the inevitable "mini recession" that we always have after a main recession. The long term goals like more broadband creates markets and installs more confidence.

[Zachstar]

This is much better.

http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn...covery-or-not/

Not too pie in sky and not fear mongering. A little ray of hope.

One step at a time folks. Day by day week by week month by month and before we know it the recession will have ended.

[PeriscopeDepth]

Confidence will NOT increase until:
1) The fraudsters (both government officials and private entities) are held accountable. Not by a tongue lashing in Congress but by being behind bars.
2) Private financial institutions and the government let everybody look at their books and see the true amount of bad debt out there.
3) Toxic debt is valued at a price that WILL NOT be subject to change and guaranteed by the Federal Government. IE, a plan that does not change every time they call a press conference.

The markets nose dive every time Barack and Timmy open their mouths in front of cameras because the above does not happen. The people that hold the real capital are smart enough to know when they are being lied to.

PD