Mattress Economy -or- Why We're Stagnating

[eagleseven]

RealClearPolitics - Obama Economy Sends Americans to Their Mattresses

Home mortgage interest rates are the lowest in history, but house sales are plunging. Banks can make money easily because of the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, but they're not making many loans. Major corporations are sitting on something like $2 trillion in cash, but they're not investing.

Unemployment is running at 10 percent, rounded off, for the 11th straight month, but few employers are hiring and a million people have stopped looking for work in the last year. Small-business hiring is at a nine-month low, and retail sales are tailing off.

Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing.

I call it the mattress economy.

People seem to be following this investment strategy. Step one: Go to Mattress Discounters and buy the biggest mattress you can find. Step two: Take it home, and stuff all your money in it. Step three: Lie down, and get some rest.

How does the public respond to uncertainty? They stop spending and stop investing, out of fear. A nation that does not spend nor invest, cannot grow.

What is causing this uncertainty? President Obama's endless series of befuddling "comprehensive reform packages" and disregard for the national debt, of course.

 

[topspin]

grasshopper I'll hold my hand out to you when you try to get on the train much too late. The economy will most def boom again, maybe inspite of Obama vs becuase of.

 

[eagleseven]

The economy will most def boom again, maybe inspite of Obama vs becuase of.

Will it boom in one year, or ten? For the millions of unemployed and underemployed, they need recovery ASAP.

 

[topspin]

oh shit the dumbass unemployed are fucked

 

[william the wie]

Well Strauss & Howe in "Generations" were claiming in 1992 that the boom would resume in 2020. Every analysis of age based spending patterns in the US has been making similar claims ever since then. Most analyses of the housing market put turnaround at about 2016 at the earliest (real estate is the biggest source of wealth in the economy). "The stock trader's Almanac" combining both the four year presidential cycle and 10 year census cycle again point to 2020-1 as the turnaround time.

 

[Pepe]

Well Strauss & Howe in "Generations" were claiming in 1992 that the boom would resume in 2020. Every analysis of age based spending patterns in the US has been making similar claims ever since then. Most analyses of the housing market put turnaround at about 2016 at the earliest (real estate is the biggest source of wealth in the economy). "The stock trader's Almanac" combining both the four year presidential cycle and 10 year census cycle again point to 2020-1 as the turnaround time.

From my perusings, I would say a turnaround by 2020 would be optimistic.

If we could get rid of Obama and his worthless sychophants today and replace the entire lot with some folks with good common sense to make the required structural changes to Entitlements and Discretionary spending along with the requisite Regulatory and Tax Policy changes, it would be 2030 before UE returned to the 5% level.

My two condensed cents.

 

[topspin]

Well see 3 percent growth this year.

 

[boedicca]

Oh goody. And that won't create enough jobs to put a dent in unemployment.

If this were a non-Obamanized recovery, growth would have ranged between 5% and 9% for the 3 quarters.

 

[topspin]

You can have a good growing economy and high unemployment. It's called lagging indicators. It will take years to unwind the high unemployment.

 

[boedicca]

The reason it will take years is because Obama's gargantuan growth of the size of government, huge deficits, staggering debt, and increased taxes are sucking all of the oxygen out of the private sector.

 

[topspin]

Yeah cause the poor did great under bush clinton ? Globalization is and has been ass fucking the poor for two decades. No one is changing that. That horse left the barn.

 

[Modbert]

Historically, jobs have always been the last lagging indicator coming out of any sort of recession/depression.

 

[boedicca]

Historically, economic growth during the recovery phase has been much stronger, thus creating jobs.

 

[Modbert]

Historically, economic growth during the recovery phase has been much stronger, thus creating jobs.

Link? Historically, there were actually jobs that people would be hired for. If you haven't noticed, we've lost a great deal of jobs overseas which are not coming back. Cheap labor and no regulations in certain countries will do that. All these corporations can just move on to the next third world place after they sucked dry that one.

You act as if this is completely all Obama's fault, I laugh at your partisanship in the process. In the last thirty years, the only fiscal responsible President was Clinton. Reagan and neither Bush could claim such a thing. In fact, under Clinton, the size of Government actually shrank. This depression was a long time coming and a result of ill-made policies.

 

[topspin]

Wow Clinton didn't have a republican congress forcing the cuts. Lol

 

[william the wie]

Given that the banking industry has been coming apart since at least the 1975 bank runs that ended private deposit insurance I think something is being ignored here. The financial industry has been being bypassed by topflight borrowers since the 1960s with private placement of longterm debt with insurance companies and pension funds. Also US corporate tax laws encourage levels of indebtedness that can charitably be described as stark raving mad. The banking industry has been on life support for more than a year and is unlikely to go back out into the world. Who in their right mind is going to entrust their saving to the modern version of a buggy whip factory?

 

[mudwhistle]

RealClearPolitics - Obama Economy Sends Americans to Their Mattresses

Home mortgage interest rates are the lowest in history, but house sales are plunging. Banks can make money easily because of the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, but they're not making many loans. Major corporations are sitting on something like $2 trillion in cash, but they're not investing.

Unemployment is running at 10 percent, rounded off, for the 11th straight month, but few employers are hiring and a million people have stopped looking for work in the last year. Small-business hiring is at a nine-month low, and retail sales are tailing off.

Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing.

I call it the mattress economy.

People seem to be following this investment strategy. Step one: Go to Mattress Discounters and buy the biggest mattress you can find. Step two: Take it home, and stuff all your money in it. Step three: Lie down, and get some rest.

How does the public respond to uncertainty? They stop spending and stop investing, out of fear. A nation that does not spend nor invest, cannot grow.

What is causing this uncertainty? President Obama's endless series of befuddling "comprehensive reform packages" and disregard for the national debt, of course.

But...but.....but.....it's all Boooooosh's fauuuuult.

 

[topspin]

Market was dogshit 01 to 07. Lol

 

[foggedinn]

I suppose deflation will make all the mattress stuffers right. Maybe we'll be back to $35 oz. gold.