The sky is falling. Okay, well maybe not yet but I sure have been reading a lot of articles about gloom and doom. Our budget deficit is around $9.5T (yeah, that’s trillion), real estate is declining rapidly, consumer prices are rising rapidly, loans are harder to come by, our national spending is increasing and is causing billions of dollars in increases to our national debt, consumer credit is out of control, layoffs are imminent at many companies, local and state governments are not hiring and I could go on and on.
What I can’t tell from all this is when the crisis starts. Is it time to panic yet? I’ve been practicing running around the yard yelling, "We’re all gonna die!!!!" so that I’m ready when the time is right.
Seriously though. How do we work our way out of this tough spot? Does it just take time for the magic to happen? Do we just hold on and keep doing what we’re doing? My gut tells me NO. The only solution that I can see is for a drastic change in behavior at the consumer level and at the governmental level. We need a drastic change in strategies here. The longer we wait to face our reality, the worse it’s going to be.
I read an article yesterday that talked about how a depression might actually be good for our country. After the initial shock that someone might think that, I read on. The author’s point is that we need a shock to our system. We need people to experience the pain of not having everything in order to alter their behavior. It’s hard to argue that something isn’t needed to change people’s approach to money management. While I don’t want to see our country go in to a depression, part of me wonders if we are headed there no matter what. If you only read one article that I’ve linked to here today, I’d make it the link in this paragraph.
.54 of every tax dollar goes to fund the war. Meanwhile, Bush threatened to veto the housing bill becus some money would go to states to rebuild blighted neighborhoods where crackheads and drug dealers have taken possession of foreclosed homes.
bush has run this country into the ground and we’re so overextended right now, how could we ever do more than swagger with Putin over Ukraine? He knows we can’t do anything more than talk and that’s emboldening him and North Korea and who knows who else.
Politicians live a cushy life; once elected to Congress, they’ll never have to worry about affording health insurance again, for the rest of their lives. Are they really in touch with what America needs? Why has it taken so long to rein in the credit card industry’s predatory practices? How did the sub-prime mess happen? It all comes down to greed, and the fat cats aren’t willing to rock the boat.
We are beyond overextended, in every way shape and form. Our military is being spread thin and we are mortgaging our kids future to feed that machine and pay the contractors. We are overextended on credit (personal and governmental), and it leads us into deep trouble. Fern is right, what exactly are we going to do about Russia and Georgia besides get all huffy? My family is moving overseas next month – coincidentally – and we are interested to see how things work elsewhere with finances and health insurance and all of that.
Jerry
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I have to agree that the Iraq war has made a huge impact to the US economy. Mr Bush in my opinion has done so much damage to the US that it might take a few presidents to recover from it (if at all possible). A depression might be exactly what’s needed.
Woah, hold up. You’re confusing the national deficit with the national debt (important distinction). The national deficit is actually projected to be $410 billion this year, while the national debt currently stands at 9.6T. Both of those numbers are very large and, in my opinion, very bad for the country. Ending the war in Iraq will help, but you won’t see all that cash go towards paying down the debt. Unfortunately, rectifying our national financial situation is going to require fewer government programs or a sizable increase in taxes, neither of which will make Americans very happy. I hope we can figure out how to get the nation out of the red. I’m just not sure how we’re going to do that in the near future.
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We do need depression as it makes us moving forward