I’ve noticed very few threads about the economy here lately. Gums Magoo tried to fire one up but there was little interest. Are we in denial?
Anyway, if we go by the numbers, we are entering a Great Depression at least as bad as the 1930’s. The only difference is that the government is throwing paper money around at a rate that makes GW Bush look like an amateur. This seems to be easing the process, like entering a very hot bath very slowly. But of course we ARE still taking a bath.
"Job losses result in foreclosure 15% of the time and if the monthly average of 570,000 in the first quarter falls to 325,000, almost 3 million jobs will be lost by yearend and another 450,000 foreclosures and an unemployment rate of 11%. Experts say another 7.8 million jobs will be lost by the end of 2009, and industrial production will fall another 17%. This would cause the loss of 5.1 million more jobs as opposed to 2 million.
Industrial production was off 12.8% yoy, as capacity utilization fell to 69.3%, the lowest since records began in 1967. At the same time the amount of excess capacity utilization is unprecedented. Never mind lost jobs, the economy has to create 125,000 jobs a month just to absorb new entrants into the labor market. It will be at least six years before employment will grow again under the best of circumstances. We are already in a depression as bad as in the 1930s.
The elitists continue to throw money at the problem and after 75 years of going to the well, the debt structure is unsustainable. That is with many years of inflation. We all know as professionals what has to happen as a result of these policies. Then to add to the madness some economists have suggested negative interest rates. The act of the Fed lending money and paying you to borrow the funds. This supposedly would increase economic activity. The theory is for the Fed to increase inflation, which would make cash trash and force people to spend. There is a problem with that theory other than it wonâ??t work and that is people can buy gold and silver with their depreciating dollars. Even if they do not go up theyâ??ll hold their value, something the dollar wonâ??t do under those circumstances. All current problems can be traced to low interest rates and unsustainable levels of borrowing and spending. This theory in the long run increases the problem and causes further monetization. Such ideas as usual emanate from Harvard, that seat of illuminist intellectual power, the August hub of learning, which bestowed a masterâ??s degree on that idiot George W. Bush. Am I happy I chose Northeastern instead."
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article10554.html
Discuss?