Posted on 04/12/2010 6:01:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown and the deep, long recession that followed, the decline of America has become the preferred intellectual preoccupation of the eliteleft, right, and center. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist, has argued that the Obama administration's tepid response to the recession and the financial meltdown will sandbag the U.S. recovery. Historian Niall Ferguson has made the case that high debt and profligate spending will cause the downfall of a once mighty American empire. Harvard economist Ken Rogoff frets that the United States could become the next Greece. In January, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, once dubbed "l'Americain," delivered a blistering speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that criticized the U.S.-led model of global capitalism.
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But the long-term decline of the U.S. economy has been greatly exaggerated. America is coming back stronger, better, and faster than nearly anyone expectedand faster than most of its international rivals. The Dow Jones industrial average, hovering near 11,000, is up 70 percent in the past year, and auto sales in the first quarter were up 16 percent from 2009. The economy added 162,000 jobs in March, including 17,000 in manufacturing. The dollar has gained strength, and the United States is back to its familiar position of lapping Europe and Japan in growth. Among large economies, only China, India, and Brazil are growing more rapidly than the United Statesand they're doing so off a much smaller base. If the U.S. economy grows at a 3.6 percent rate this year, as Macroeconomic Advisers projects, it'll create $513 billion in new economic activityequal to the GDP of Indonesia.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I’m in the NW section of Illinois. Everyone I know around here is scared to death of what’s happening.
Of course, living in a democrap-dominated state doesn’t help, either.
There is grass and weeds growing up through all the cracks in the countless empty parking lots. We went to get some fast food at a drive through and the lady came to the window and said they they were out of business. They were just there removing the equipment.
I bought 15 dollar part for my boat trailer to haul it out to the state I live in, and paid almost 2 dollars in state and local city sales taxes. (5.5% to state, 4.5% to city and 3% to county; = 13%)
No wonder business is closing there faster than they can get up a for sale sign. And this is only the beginning.
vaudine
>>> but I believe that we have the capability to rise above this. We always have.
This would be true if so much of the economy were not based upon speculation.
The more speculation that exists, the easier it is to be controlled by an elite few... and personally, I don’t trust most of them. I think they have learned that once you can cause major swings to the market, that the profit potential in doing so is unlimited.
Yes, we can recover from the recession even with a huge drag like Obama. However the recession could have been ended already if the right president were in place. And Obama hasn’t even begun his most anti-business (cap and trade) policies yet.
Resolve health care, get the govt out of GM and the banking industry and we might have a chance of recovery.
Uhhuh... keep up the lies leftists... your chickens are coming home to roost... and they will be pooping in your mess kit.
LLS
LLS
All of the positive ‘news’ about the economy that I have read is written in the future tense.
LLS
LLS
I hope your friend keeps his job in the finance industry.
A friend of mine lost his job in the title insurance business. He found another job about two years later in the.......health insurance industry.
Talk about being snake bit.
Terrific graphic. Visible proof of how quickly we’ve managed to recover from previous recessions (even ones where the initial rate of descent into unemployment was faster than this one) under both D and R administrations. These bumbling boobs quite clearly have extended the length of this downturn far beyond the normal length, and tens of millions of Americans have suffered as a consequence. Americans typically vote their pocketbooks.
Slate might think we’ll be firing on 8 cylinders by next fall, but if R’s do a good enough job educating the public, they will be howling mad we haven’t yet returned anywhere near full employment.
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So what accounts for the pervasive gloom?
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We have Chicago-style thugs in The Oval Office, House and Senate.
And they are intent on bankrupting the country...and buy votes with
all the goodies (bread and ciruses) they will give away.
Anyone else familiar with the phrase, “ whisling past the graveyard?”
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