Are We Better Off...?

[Polk]

I'd say we're improving. The economy is much better shape than it was nine months ago. We've gone from falling off a cliff to a small decline in the second quarter. Third quarter numbers will likely show another small decline or potentially a small increase. In either case, most experts project positive growth in the fourth quarter. The employment picture has not improved significantly, but that's to be expected as job growth is typically a lagging indicator.

In foreign policy, the amount of continuity is probably the most interesting factor. Some of that has to do with the fact that Bush's Iraq policy moved more toward the position preferred by Democrats (setting up a timetable for withdrawal), but a lot of it has to do with an unwilling by the Obama administration to challenge conventional wisdom. The only real shift we've seen has been rhetorical.

 

[midcan5]

I was watching TV last evening and this ad came on for this sleek looking car, I was hoping .... ah, and yes it was American, a Buick, not the Buick we bought this year, but beautiful. So people, yes, we are improving and a little steadier than the past couple of years. So as that dimwit Bush said with a slight addition, shop but save too. LOL


"At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols." Aldous Huxley

 

[Titanic Sailor]

I think it's probably the lowest form of a copout to throw the word racist or racism out there, when it's completely inappropriate. It's subhuman actually.

I don't think any of these rich, candy ass lawyers gives two craps about the debt they are piling on this nation and future kids, and I see difficult times ahead. Hell, these are some of the worst times I've ever seen in my life. I feel like I have a second job trying to find friends work. I know friends who have lost homes. I know many struggling. The middle class is under attack, and all because Obama couldn't cut spending and reduce taxation to spur jobs and the economy. It was government and the rich first, and here we are today. We needed this government cut in half yesterday and actually REFORMED. I won't see it in my lifetime, don't think the American people have the courage for the government they should have. Instead, they are getting the government they deserve, an oppressive thief.

 

[rightwinger]

Here is the point we were at 9 months ago. In just one year, Americans had lost $11 Trillion in personal wealth. That is the money people had in their homes, retirement funds and investments. In just one year we lost an equivalent of the national debt for the last 40 years

Americans See 18% of Wealth Vanish - WSJ.com

The wealth of American families plunged nearly 18% in 2008, erasing years of sharp gains on housing and stocks and marking the biggest loss since the Federal Reserve began keeping track after World War II.

The Fed said Thursday that U.S. households' net worth tumbled by $11 trillion -- a decline in a single year that equals the combined annual output of Germany, Japan and the U.K. The data signal the end of an epoch defined by first and second homes, rising retirement funds and ever-fatter portfolios.

Past downturns have been mere blips compared with the losses Americans faced last year, which set them back to below 2004 levels. "In the postwar period, we've never had anything other than very modest declines. That life experience led many people to think that houses were a one-way bet," says Douglas Cliggott, the chief investment officer of Dover Management LLC.

So, are we better off than we were 9 months ago?

Stock Market is up 19% since January
Housing prices are beginning to rise

We are starting to regain some of that lost wealth from the previous administration

 

[Titanic Sailor]

We are starting to regain some of that lost wealth from the previous administration

I swear to God, he said that.

Go ask the American people if they are seeing this new found wealth.

 

[rightwinger]

We are starting to regain some of that lost wealth from the previous administration

I swear to God, he said that.

Go ask the American people if they are seeing this new found wealth.[/QUOTE]




Yes, Thank-you, I am

I look at my 401K which I was counting on for my retirement. It had lost 4 years worth of gains in the last year of Bush. It has now regained about 75% of those losses.

I look at the value of my home which had lost $60,000 in value in 2008. Comparable home sales show I have regained $25,000 of that. Homes which sat unsold for close to a year are starting to sell again.

So, yes I am seeing it and so are most Americans

 

[Titanic Sailor]

hahahahaha. Excellent. Now that's a selfish neocommunist with blinders folks.

 

[The Rabbi]

There was bound to be some kind of recovery.
But with the stimulus having only spent about 10% of what was allocated you can't attribute it to the stimulus. House prices are rising in part because the gov't is subsidizing loans to people who can't afford to pay for them. Sound familiar? How did we get here to begin with?
But unemployment continues to rise. We have lost many jobs since January, and are about to lose more as GM closes Saturn. Employers are looking at a bunch of new taxes and mandates courtesy of team Obama and saying we're gonna wait and see before hiring anyone.
The only bright spots are overseas. Those countries eschewed an Obama type bail out and are seeing their economies recover nicely, without the burden of enormous gov't deficits. Any US company doing a lot of business overseas will be doing well, especially since they get paid in Euros and then translate those earnings into weaker dollars.

 

[rightwinger]

hahahahaha. Excellent. Now that's a selfish neocommunist with blinders folks.

Thank-you

Given you have nothing to rebut what I have posted...I will accept your concession of defeat

 

[Midnight Marauder]

Many Democrats on this board seem to have great expectations and feel things are moving along swimmingly...

That's right, they're relying solely on feel. They have willingly suspended all intellect and critical thinking so they can enjoy the cult experience. And a byproduct of this, extremely thin skin.

Meanwhile, Obama laughs at them. He told Michelle, as he left the stage during one of the campaign stops, "They're drinkin' the juice!" And they are.

 

[Ravi]

hmmmm....my IRAs have all improved since January.

I've made more money this year than last year.

Bought two new cars.

Joined the Y.

Yep, I'm better off.

 

[AllieBaba]

I work for the state. Our wages are frozen, so I didn't get my yearly raise. We now have to take furloughs, so my wages will go down. My insurance was switched from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to an HMO. Welfare applicants have increased by 20 percent.

But so long as the elitist crap bags are doing better by snapping up the cheap cars and getting fat off the people they've screwed over, everything's good.

 

[rightwinger]

Many Democrats on this board seem to have great expectations and feel things are moving along swimmingly...

That's right, they're relying solely on feel. They have willingly suspended all intellect and critical thinking so they can enjoy the cult experience. And a byproduct of this, extremely thin skin.

Meanwhile, Obama laughs at them. He told Michelle, as he left the stage during one of the campaign stops, "They're drinkin' the juice!" And they are.

Looks like the "I hate Obama" crowd is so wrapped up in praying for the economy to fail that they turn into ostriches with their heads firmly buried.

What is so "feel" about

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators being up for five consecutive months?

The stock market rising 40% since the Stimulus passed?

All leading economists acknowledging that we are emerging from the largest recession in
70 years?


To the "I hate Obama" crowd, the economy is failing because they say it is

 

[Ravi]

I work for the state. Our wages are frozen, so I didn't get my yearly raise. We now have to take furloughs, so my wages will go down. My insurance was switched from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to an HMO. Welfare applicants have increased by 20 percent.

But so long as the elitist crap bags are doing better by snapping up the cheap cars and getting fat off the people they've screwed over, everything's good.

Thanks, from your favorite elitist crap bag.

 

[AllieBaba]

Glad to oblige, Rav.

Oh, also, the company my son worked for shut down, so he's been unemployed all summer.

On the up side, the schools are THROWING money at students. So if you're so inclined, this is a REALLY good time to head back to school. It won't last forever. This is from my son, who just started trade school and was amazed at how much he received, and how easy it was.

 

[Ravi]

My daughter just now got a job after trying for six months. Things are definitely improving.

 

[AllieBaba]

Not nationwide they aren't.

But congrats to your daughter.

The plant closing down was probably a great thing, personally, for my boy. He'd worked there two years and it was hard work that takes a toll on people physically and emotionally. People yelling at the crews telling them to go faster, to make the deadline...but then yelling at them again when injuries occurr, and the whole time doing very physically demanding, dangerous work at breakneck speed.

He's absolutely giddy about being in school. He bought a college t-shirt and made me take pics of him with his student body card, it's just so cute.

 

[AllieBaba]

Good heavens, I think he worked there three years.

Time gets away.

 

[Old Rocks]

I work for the state. Our wages are frozen, so I didn't get my yearly raise. We now have to take furloughs, so my wages will go down. My insurance was switched from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to an HMO. Welfare applicants have increased by 20 percent.

But so long as the elitist crap bags are doing better by snapping up the cheap cars and getting fat off the people they've screwed over, everything's good.

Ah hah, so you are one of those government drones you constantly whine about.

And I work for a private capitalistic company. Based in Russia. And much of the steel, armor plate, that we roll goes to Isreal. While our workforce has been reduced by more than half, and most have seen short work weeks, we are still hanging on. They have not changed our benefits a bit, actually increased them, for we fossils, last year.

So you work for a government agency in the US, and I work for a Russian company in the US, and I have fared better than you. Interesting world.

 

[Sweet Willy]

All you have to ask yourself is this: Was I happier when gasoline was $5 a gallon?