Posted on 07/15/2009 4:31:32 AM PDT by arthurus
Thus far, analysis the financial collapse has been framed almost entirely in terms of money. All the research I’ve seen has delved into lending standards, securitization, inflation, interest rates, housing and the like.
Yet underneath this veneer lies one larger, mega-trend that has driven all of these themes to a greater or lesser degree. It created one of the largest stock bull markets we’ve ever seen from 1982-2001. It helped drive the Bubbles in Tech stocks AND Housing. And now it will guide the coming collapse in stocks and consumer spending.
That trend is AGE: specifically the Boomer generation and its retirement.
(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...
If you have been prudent, you are not in trouble. The one that are are the “consume till I drop” and “anyway my house will be worth more” types.
Oh great, now we will wait for the boomer bashers to show up on this thread. And it won’t take long. There are many freepers who hate boomers.
....401-K programs really became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s...boomers should have been the most financially secure generation in history...yet I remember guys in my company that put little or nothing in...and our company offered 50 cents on the dollar match...that’s money that a lot of guys left on the table...I expect that money is missed these days.
[Yet underneath this veneer lies one larger, mega-trend that has driven all of these themes to a greater or lesser degree.]
Greed. The love of money is the root of all evil which some having chased after have pierced themselves through.
America is now as dead as the republican party.
It is the LOSS of several things with their collective retirement:
Loss of experience. (Young, new people coming in have no ethics, work ethics, morals, want-to-learn, and innate hands and tool skills. With those, you can train people, without them? The company can’t survive.)
Loss of earning power.
Loss of the people themselves: There aren’t enough real workers.
Social security ain’t there no mo’.
Medicare and Medical are worthless against real illnesses.
401K started the stock market bounce, but are not large enough any with Obama’s 50% decline.
Innate learning skills a and school-book knowledge like reading, analysis, math, and discipline simply are not there any more.
From the article, "One key point is that it is Boomers that Obama is seeking to destroy. They are the middle class. The ones being taxed first, the ones hit hardest. The ones not able to find late career jobs. Without Boomers the recovery will be long and difficult."
I am one of the original boomers, born in 1946. I did enjoy great returns from my savings and investments and yes I did loose almost 25% in the first hit the market took. But despite advice from accountant and investment adviser, I moved everything into fixed, albeit low interest, instruments.
The greatest move "we", wife and I made, was years ago working to live debt free. We are happily amazed and pleased at how little we need in retirement living with out the burden of debt.
Unfortunately many Americans of many generations still let debt manage them and their lives. And of course the Federal and many State governments still can't or won't live within their means.
And that is a fact that transcends the Boomer generation into all.
The good news is that the geriatric crowd, demographically, is still the largest voting block and Obama hopefully will rue the day that he didn't figure out which demographic group his policies are aimed at destroying!
Boomers have a work ethic. They were part of families that survived real poverty in the depression and real sacrifice in WWII.
Unfortunately a sizable fraction of this cohort never left rebellion and continue to actively undermine the principles of this nation.
Even after the losses in theses accounts, Pelosi has proposed a "Windfall Retirement Tax" for excessive 401-K accounts.
I'm pretty comfortable with my decision.
It’s the 49 million American abortions and all their virtual children that’s killing us.
Oh, true, true.
Boomers (and their WWII generation parents) usually DID have a work ethic.
Boomer CHILDREN and GRANDCHILDREN don’t - in general and on average - have that same work ethic, knowledge, and ability and perseverance and innate skills set.
One chalk mark, $2
Knowing where to put it, $998
I a bit younger than you. I was born in 1957. I also took all my investments and moved them into low interest accounts. At least I’m not losing money. We too are living debt free and have cut down on spending. I don’t buy much extra stuff. I’d like to retire but that is a ways off for me and the wife. We are one of those that is going to get hit hard by all this stuff coming from D.C.
Well I am a boomer (and I wasn’t wiped out) and my children have a great work ethics (and weren’t wiped out either).
But my house was paid for a long time ago, and I saved like crazy.
I never understood the people who bought all on credit. But then this is the European immigrant in me.
Loss of the people themselves: There aren’t enough real workers.
innate learning skills a and school-book knowledge like reading, analysis, math, and discipline simply are not there any more.
Have you left your house lately? People have been complaining and bashing prior generations since the beginning of man. People have not changed from generation to generation.
Well I am a boomer (and I wasn’t wiped out) and my children have a great work ethics (and weren’t wiped out either).
But my house was paid for a long time ago, and I saved like crazy.
I never understood the people who bought all on credit. But then this is the European immigrant in me.
What a load of crapola. I love how the author states that he isn’t bashing boomers, then proceeds to do just that.
Here’s what we can ALL do to feel morally superior to boomers and end all of the problems they have brought to the world - let’s just kill’em!! If you buy into the load of crap such as Summers is pedaling, you also believe that it is boomers who have destroyed the Utopia called America by their very existence. So, kill the boomers end the problems.
Two of the skills that Gen X/Y’ers, Jones, whatever, have mastered are the skills of whining and blaming the older generations. Let’s look at the accomplishments of these generations by comparison: slowest generations to launch, highest bankruptcy rates, 8 years of Clinton, and their grandest accomplishment - 0bama!
Funny how the boomers don’t look so bad after that.
Some are even boomers themselves.
Oh, but the electronics, big house, nice cars, and eating out were more important than that 50 cent dollar match.
Besides, he’ll just have to cry loud enough and the state will come in and stick a gun in YOUR face to make you pay for his “grasshopper” nature.
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