Posted on 07/07/2010 7:09:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Want to be invited to A-list parties? Want people to think you are smart? Then don't smile and don't say anything positive--especially about the economy. Pessimism has become so pervasive that people will believe just about anything, as long as it is negative.
Over the July 4 weekend, after a jobs report that showed 83,000 new private-sector jobs were created in June, the Drudge Report had not one but two headlines that compared the U.S. economy of 2010 to that of 1932. In other words, the U.S. is back in Depression. This is a complete overreaction and is indicative of the severe case of economic hypochondria that seems to have gripped the nation and the world.
One symptom of this disease is that common sense is suspended. The simple explanation is tossed aside and data releases are dredged and sifted to find the most dire possible explanation for any economic information.
For example, every 10 years the United States Government conducts a census, and every 10 years the government hires hundreds of thousands of very temporary workers to help in the effort. Some time between April and June total employment goes up and down by an amount that often swamps the underlying trends of employment.
In May total payrolls increased 433,000, but then fell by 125,000 in June. So rather than explain this to people, the Pouting Pundits of Pessimism said things like, "All the jobs in May were government jobs." And then last Friday, after the June jobs report, they said, "Jobs fell for the first time in seven months." Both of these reactions were misleading.
They could have said, "Once we adjust for the Census, private-sector payrolls increased by 33,000 in May, and then accelerated in June to 83,000."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
What about the 100,000 illegals that enter each month? It’s good to know we have them (almost) covered. We need to create 150-200 thousand jobs per month to even begin to climb out. At that rate, we would be back to where we were in about 10 years. Without illegals, maybe half that length of time.
No won’t happen, nothing to see here, no worries. The ‘One’ has everything well in hand and happy days are just around the corner. Big bowls of green shoots and skittles and all you can eat. Did you see that story about Lindsay Lohan getting 90 days? Is American Idol on tonight?
By this time next year. Watch and see. Massive tax increases on the way. Businesses taking their profits this year instead of pushing them into next year. That won't help hiring next year one iota. The list goes on and on. There is absolutely nothing on the horizon that will prevent economic collapse starting about the 2nd quarter of next year.
Pouting Pundits of Pessimism = Nattering nabobs of negativism?
Hmmmmm.... I don’t know, maybe the fact that Fannie and Freddie “forced” a bailout to save the economy from total destruction has something to do with the pessimism? Especially since NOTHING has been done to prevent the same thing from happening again.
I don’t know... the fact that $1 trillion dollars did absolutely nothing for creating jobs... maybe that has caused just a tiny bit of negativity.
Or the fact that the federal government felt it necessary to take over the health insurance industry in the name of, “saving the economy”. Or taking over financial institutions and car companies to also “save the economy”.
I don’t know. Maybe just maybe the hijacking of the flow of money through a bogus financial reform package in the name of “saving the economy” is causing a little uneasiness as well.
Or the future prospect of state, federal, and local taxes flying through the roof, to “save the economy” has caused just a little gloom and doom.
Unemployment through the roof... Europe facing a HUGE uphill battle... Elected officials as corrupt as banana republics... an aging population expecting gold plated benefits... two wars... oil disasters... border drug wars...
You’d have to be a real fool to stand there calmly and think the future of this economy is candy and roses.
Are you saying that I am dumb? I have two degrees, one of them is in electrical engineering.
no one is claiming that the economy is “candy and roses”.
no one is claiming that the economy is “candy and roses”.
1932 nope .... we’re at about spring 1931 levels when they were still thinking they could pull out of a deflationary death spiral back in the day ... the ultimate reality of how f#$%ed we actually are has not hit yet.
yet they ignore the vast amount of people who are just giving up every month...not even continuing to look for work and on top of that...no discussion of the cost of stimulus, etc...
Each one of these jobs is costing an enormous amount of money to create and when the stimulus ends it will all crash.
It is more like 1932 than not...
And if my mother had wheels, she'd be a bus. Based on actual (trailing) earnings , the PE ratio for the S&P is about 19.
Me too. McCain sickens me and MCCain - Feingold gave the Dems control but electing the usurper has and will cause irreparable harm.
That’s true. But our government is making the same mistakes: using easy money (”ZIRP”) to try to pull forward demand rather than create conditions favorable for sustainable economic growth (low taxes, reduced regulation, stable monetary policy).
In 2012, many will be longing for the ‘good ole days’ of 2010:
1) gas was 3.00 a gallon rather than 15.00
2) there was no 3 hour wait just to enter a grocery store in order to select one of two items on the shelf
3) water ran all day
4) the north had heat for the winter and the south had air conditioning in the summer
5) you could still swim in the Gulf
In 1932 how much of our debt was owned by China?
This article is BS! We’re about to enter a “3rd wave” of foreclosures and short sales that will crush traditional home sales by being priced 25-30% lower. Most people are at least partially dependant on their home for retirement. Can’t retire as you intended if you’re under water with your house, your taxes skyrocket with 2011, cap and trade increases your utilities and everything else and Obamacare is put into play.
Now we have a $2.4T deficit, 17% unemployment, and DJIA flirting with 8,000.
And it’s not 1932?
Oh sure, everything is just hunky-dory, that is, unless you happen to be one of the 15 million American citizens who’ve lost their jobs and have little prospect of every finding one again. Other than that, happy days are here again, right Forbes?
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