Let me start off by addressing your comments first southwind ..
Yes I am one of those who advocated that people NOT pay their unsecured debts as I have done .. You can feel free to blame “people like me “ but I should remind you that I predicted much of this economic crisis long before it started , if you want I can find you a link to my DOOM JOURNAL … anyone who pays their credit cards and has no further use for their credit is foolish . In this depression a credit score is about to go the way of the dinosaur .. I’m doing what’s best for MYSELF and using every resource at my disposal to prepare for what’s coming .. And I am VERY aware of what’s yet to come .. I think someday if your able to look back 5 years from now you’ll see that I’m taking the appropriate steps to preserve myself .
As for the issue of breaking into homes and living illegally , that’s not something I’m doing myself , however I fully advocate it .. There are millions of vacant homes , if a person needs shelter and it’s not being used then I say by all means use it . This topic is harder to look at right now in the present , but as unemployment skyrockets and homelessness increases you’ll see more clearly what I mean .. providing shelter for the American population is a national security issue that we will be forced to address at some point further down the line ..
To your points freedom4all … things are actually not that much worse due to obama .. His hands are tied .. If he did NOT print money and backstop the banks, insurance companies etc we would be in a far worse spot today due to deflation . A scary pod cast that I listened to today even talked about signs that deflation is STILL in effect even after the massive amount of printing by the government .
I know that when I say it’s a good thing we kept the banks afloat people start to complain about it … … how would you feel if your social security check wasn’t deposited direct deposit into your bank account , or your paycheck … how would you feel if your credit cards were shut off tomorrow .. And while yes it is happening today for certain people , it’s not happening for everyone .As for the insurance companies , they are necessary for commerce to flourish .. Otherwise when your going to buy a car you had better have the total amount at closing , same goes for homes .
The president is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t …There is no traditional way out of the situation that we find ourselves in . It’s easy for people to forget about the events of last year , but I remember when fear was rife in the markets … today the pure terror has abated , I can’t tell you how many times I hear people saying things like “ oh the economy always recovers give it time “ or “ your so down , look the dow’s at 10,000 “ The population is once again sleeping . This is both good and bad , it’s good because consumers will once again spend money and hope abounds … ( increased consumer spending means a slowing deterioration rate ) this is bad because it’s completely false ..
The most logical thing people can do right now is cash out their 401k’s buy a house with a garden and start gearing up to go the next decade without consumer goods ..
As to your general outlook on the economy freedom4all , I’d say you’re a deflationist … that means you want to see a completely balanced budget , no bank bailouts , no stimulus , nothing of any kind .. Stop for a minute and think about every state government and even the federal government , with an almost 2 trillion deficit for this year the only way to right that ship would be for MASSIVE cuts across every spectrum of the United States ..(now at this point you might say if we hadn’t bailed out banks and whatnot we wouldn’t have that 2 trillion dollar debt , ah but we would due to the collateral fallout in the financial system , in fact all we’ve done is transfer public debt to private debt ) I’m talking wage cuts for all government employees that would still be left after the culling , massive cuts to social services , massive cuts to the military … the amount of money we would have to cut out of the budgets would be paralyzing for our nation … now am I denying that there’s isn’t fat on the governments bone ? Absolutely not , there is probably about a few hundred billion that we can squeeze out of the government by way of cuts … but there are not trillions of dollars ..
Are countries choices are as I see it , either a quick death or a slow death … so far slow doesn’t seem that bad ( and I only say that because I am currently employed ) ..
There is no way out from under debt that is 370% of GDP … :mf_boff:
