Are We All Doomed Until 2010?

You have money for a haircut?

Seriously, I have been watching a lot of PBS lately, and between The Newshour, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley, and BBC World News, it does not bode well. Even those usually happy guys on the Nightly Business Report are not so jovial.

A lot of acknowledged ‘bright lights’ are being interviewed, and all seem to say that, until the housing market picks up, we are not going to see even stability. Because of the many factors they cite, that won’t be possible to be achieved until mid-2010 at the earliest.

The thing I find the most irritating is how the automakers are being given such a bad rap when they are not asking for even 5% of what Wall Street got, and are being held accountable in a way not forced on the ‘idiots of New York’.

I think they both should get the money, for the good of the country, and the Wall Street bankers should have government auditors crawling in every orifice until such time as the loans are repaid (and the auditors salaries should be INDIRECTLY paid by Wall Street) At least the car companies work to make something tangible.

If what we focus on expands, then I believe the state of the economy will not turn around anytime soon. Why? Because too many people seem to be enjoying chatting, emailing and blogging about how rotten times are right now. I’m not saying that the state of the economy rests entirely on perception. That would be absurd. But attitude has a lot to do with how quickly (or not) we can pull out of this.

During the Holocaust, prisoners which had a purpose to live (loved ones, family, a child, etc) were the only ones to survive the concentration camps. They had hope to hang onto. That’s what we need right now. But we can’t focus on hope when we are preoccupied with doom and gloom.

Changing our perception is a good first step.

Thanks for the comments.

Hi Kristine,
I agree. I don’t believe that attitude alone controls the economy. I’m one of the hopefuls and believe we will pull ourselves out of this mess. It would be nice to see all of the crooks who caused this mess spending a few decades in jail .

Hi Marc,
I am no economist so I am not sure if any of the bailout money will help or not. I do know that something had to be done.

Have a great holiday.

I believe that by 2010 most of us will think 2008 was a good year. Politicians have robbed us blind, and most of this problem was created by the fools you just voted back into Office. But I am glad Bush is leaving- he has really gone off the deep end too.

…Were .. Done ..

Our economic system is predicated on growth. Growth is predicated on production. Growth is predicated on consumption of resources. Resources are not infinite.

Growth is ultimately not sustainable. Resources can be substituted until there are no more available substitutes.

Human life on this planet is like a very complex version of rats in a cage. There comes a time when either species in either environment overtakes the resources needed to live. Growth slows, then halts. The limits in a cage are easy to see. The limits on a planet are difficult to ascertain, but are just as real.

The issues with the economy may be a glimpse of reaching the edge of sustainable human limits.

We need to find a new economic model that works with far fewer people using far fewer resources.

Thank you Urban Underbrink……..

I think that the world not only the us but the whole word is not going to get out of this money problem until 2010 for sure because look at how much Bush has spent in Irak in the last 8 years so that will hurt us i think the most. But not only is the war costing the tax payer money but also we have to worry about the stock market crashing like what happened in the depresstion if that happens than we really are in trouble but if that doesn’t happen and we hope that it doesn’t than we should be fine i also think that mr. obama should give us another check to help people for the holiday season but that didn’t happen even though it should. So i think we will survive but people need to watch what they spend and how they spend it. Happy Holidays

Urban Underbrink
“But I am glad Bush is leaving- he has really gone off the deep end too.”

I agree.

Me~~Too

[...] Are we doomed until 2010? [...]

I understand the thought’s many of you have stated. While I believe that there are some trying moments on Bush. You can actually lay most of this on the door step of the president before him. Bill Clinton. He, under the pressure of the Black caucus in the democratic party signed into law a more equitable package to allow low income and bad credit people ( in other words non repayers of debt ) to have a bigger blank check. This now put’s the burden of the economic mistake’s of the low income group on the backs of the tax payer. A mistake on the over zellousness of the Republicans to get rid of too much regulation of banks. A Failure of Wall Street to get the depth of understanding of what was needed in getting into the mortgage backed security business, based on a straw man argument of an old credit company called Beneficial Finance Company, using a different model of business than what Wall Street adopted. AND biggest of all is the mistake of the average greedy American who wanted more but delivered less, accross the board in the last 40 years.

In summary, the entire system will slow down. It must to correct it self. Many think it will be a recession that is the hope, but to pull it to the point of correct thinking on the part of our society again – due to the financial wheels that must turn, suspect it will be a full depression. Obama will only kill any future growth if he get’s his dream that is being reported by some of the figure out of the stimulus package. We will go back to a Jimmy Carter political sceen of late 70 that totaly killed the USA as business people to the world. With double digit interest and nearly as high inflation. That most likely means we will have a regeneration of Republicans growing in 2012 tossing out some of the Democrats in 2010 election will be a big help but it wont solve anything.

People have to learn to live on less, and within their means. Until that happens – there wont be personal financial security and everything will be unstable.

Hello Ian,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It will be an interesting 2009 and no one can predict which way the economy will go.

Regards, Ron

PS There is one big difference between Carter and Obama. Obama has a brain!