I would encourage all Freepers to turn off their Fox News -- and occasionally even Rush Limbaugh -- and get their financial news from resources that include a broad international perspective that doesn't have a political agenda here in the U.S. Bloomberg radio is a good example of this, especially when they have astute guests who can give a good overall picture of things.
One guest on a show last year indicated that his bank's investment decisions (I think he may have been a big shot at the Bundesbank of Germany) are predicated on the assumption that the U.S. is going to be in a de facto recession through most of this decade.
Another similar guest who was weighing in on the U.S. election this year mentioned that nobody in either campaign was talking about the things they knew were problematic but weren't worth talking about because they had no politically viable solutions to them. He predicted that the biggest crisis the U.S. will face in the next four years will be the official bankruptcy of the state of California.
Just a FWIW here ...
As a contrast the elementary school-level economics of Fox and Limbaugh, I recommend people check out the BBC business news. A global perspective is explored there...ah, but the Beeb won’t confirm brainless prejudices and get the peasants all riled up in return for exposure to commercials.
I’ve tried to preach exactly this, but folks won’t listen. They prefer simplistic bromides to actual analysis.
As a coincidence, many people voting for Romney/Ryan thought Ryan had an actual plan to balance the budget. He doesn’t. Never did.
The most ironic thing in all of this are the people who continue to think that taking down the banks for fraud is somehow an attack on “the free market,” when in fact the TBTF banks are the primary reason why we no longer have anything remotely resembling a free market.