It makes for boring news, that's for sure.

"THAT'S RIGHT DIANNE, GAS PRICES ARE UP BY ANOTHER FEW CENTS AGAIN THIS WEEK!"

America has had its century of dominance just like England, now it's China/asia's turn

Probably not. England dominated at a more primitive time in which global economies didn't exist and it could easily flex its military power and countries would be conquered. I think America's "dominance" is attributed to many more factors. 1) Yes, we do spend the most on amongst any country on our military 2) Being on the winning side of WWII and helping to rebuild Europe 3) Oil being traded in dollars and 4) Trading, loaning and being in debt with a lot of different countries in the world. America is special in that it is rather new country by comparison and all and all an experiment of democracy and capitalism, we fail sometimes and sometimes succeed. I think China/Asia is already a empire I guess but its largely due to exports and specifically exports to America, so I think it will have a hard time growing if we are declining steeply. Essentially the world is a lot smaller than it used to be and countries are very connecting, lose one and all will hurt.

meh. we'll take everybody else down with us.

From my personal, work-related and educational, background, this has affected me a lot and caught a lot of my attention.

I meet a lot of people in my job, mostly white collar or business owners, and a lot of them are feeling the pressure from the gas prices. Futhermore, locally, a lot of new constructions have slowed down. I work for a company that does construction lending for new homes and I can tell from the amount of processing of these loans and lines of credit that there is a major slow down in my city.

It's very unfortunate that there are so many concurrent issues that are really weighing on the economy, so instance: inflation, weak dollar, unemployment, credit scrunch, sub-prime mortgage crisis, and gas prices. But only two of these I believe really are long term and very important to the economy and that's inflation and credit available to the country.

Since credit is a facet of market rates (mostly, affordable rates both to consumers and to lenders), and inflation is the worst enemy of market rates, we see the Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place. They have to fight off inflation (which would mean targeting a higher Fed Funds Rate) but at the sametime keep market rates low to help cure the credit scrunch.

Personally, I'm a classicalist. I would rather like to see the Fed take a more hands off approach when it comes to issues. A significant portion of the situation we are in currently can probably be attributed to the Fed ratcheting up market rates too quickly in the past 6 years. This kind of artificial "tuning" doesn't match what the market finds as fair, I think that's a major flaw in this monetary control system that the US Government employs.

So to answer your question, yes, there's significant affects to all business in America -- business being the driving force to the economy (which a lot of people seem to lose sight of in all the social issues that are currently going on in the States).

hands of aproach?didn't oyu read? the ULTRA LIBERALISM AND AUTO-REGULATION ARE TO BLAME!!11! :)

hands-off approach from the fed hasn't got much to do with either of those.

And yeah I think those bankers have proven that you can't trust them. So if everybody stops giving them money auto - regulation works if not it doesn't.

thank you for your answer.

My problem is, I read a lot about economics, finance etc.. I know about the consumtion rate, unemployment etc..

What I wanted to know is if people seems to realize what's happening. are you talking about it? Most of the us citizen have now more debt then they own.

So yes the bush Cheques didn't work, yes real estate is falling down, unemployment growing bigger as ever, starbucks coffee closing etc..

But how do people, in real life, interact with each other, in families, non business sectors.

gracias for more infos to all us citizen ;)

It'll be a while before there will be any real certifiable evidence whether the stimulus checks helped or not. This is because that this money is meant to help pay for debt or buy new items. This should be reflected on financial statements across all industries. Hopefully, financial analysts will start noticing these things by the end of Q3 (and financial statements will be arriving for this quarter in Novemeber or December sometime). So we won't know whether or not those checks helped until then.

The average worker probably doesn't notice much change to his life beyond paying more at the gas pump. But his employer(s) definitely notice. This could in turn reach the average worker by costing him his job.

I'm in the banking industry so I do talk about this stuff a lot with clients and other employees. I don't think that many people outside the financial or government industries, or who are affected by these (by owning their own business or working in departments that monitor closely the ebb and flows of what the market is doing).

As for the debt issues with Americans, from a strictly financial perspective, there are years that any typical American will spend more money than they made. However, if you look over the course of a typical American's lifetime, their average income increases while their typical expenditures decrease (that's probably old age wisdom). Debt is often used as a tax shield as well, for instance mortgages and home equity lines of credit can be used for tax breaks. So while it looks like an individual has spent more than they've earned, this will be returned in the form of tax breaks the following year or even better yet, if HELOCs are used for home improvement, they are actually making money on top of that by adding more equity to the house. The point of all this is that debt has its uses and shouldn't be viewed as an entirely negative thing. It has its drawbacks and its positives.

This shouldn't be looked at like end of the world type stuff. Typically, the USA has gone through recessions every 4 years or so. But even today, the USA isn't technically in a recession. These ups and downs of the market are natural for any economy in the world. The thing that needs to be corrected by the governement is legislation passed to help prevent the unnatural events (like subprime crisis which has caused most of the problems the US faces today).

I hope that answers your questions.

so what, invade some more countries, steal some more of their oil while "fighting terrorism", it'll all come back to normal... no reason to panic.

We will be accepting bets now:

a) Invasion of Iran in 2008
b) Invasion of Iran in 2009
c) Invasion of Iran in 2010
d) It's a feint and they plan to invade Pakistan

It's more than likely... but I don't think US is going to initiate but rather a certain ally in the middle east whose name begins with IS and ends with RAEL.



It's Israel! tehehehe!

Only if they try the WOMD approach again.

I think the "War for Human rights and freedom" theme will be used again. Or maybe thay can help their "ally" Musharraf...

I'm pretty sure what's going to happen will be quite similar to what happened to Syria (LINK!).

I think Israel's mindset, which is pretty accurate, is that they're surrounded by nations that hate them -- Lebanon, Palestine, Iran and Syria. I think it's reasonable to assume that if Iran did develop nuclear weapons (which is very probable since they had close ties with North Korea and North Korea was implicated in the Syria reactors that were being built before their destruction in the air-raid linked above), that Israel would feel intense pressure to expand their military and anti-missile shields. In other words, it would trigger an arms race in the middle east between Syria, Iran and Israel and make conflict in the middle east even more inevitable.

uhm, you might want to consult a map. Palestine is not a nation. Egypt and Jordan are both neighbors of Israel and at some time at war with it, so probably not biig fans either.
Iran is not even close to Israel.

Also I believe it's pretty certain that Israel already has nuclear weapons. And I doubt that Iran's leaders would be suicidal enough to develop them, not after what happened to Iraq (which didn't even have anything).

But that's just my view.

Egypt gets billions of dollars from the USA for being friends with Israel. Israel gets the same deal pretty much. Jordan has peace treaties and normalized relations with Israel so they are not a likely player in this. And yeah everybody knows Israel has nukes. They just won't admit it officially.

I think you wrote Israel instead of Lebanon there?

And yeah I agree that they (Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon) are unlikely to start a war with Israel. But I still find that more likely than a direct attack (other than WMODs if they had them) from Iran. cause the troops would have to cross Iraq and either Jordan or Syria first.

Nope Israel gets billions of dollars in "aid" from the US after the Camp David Accords. And I agree about Iran. It's more or less just saber rattling from the neocon and likud nutters.

oh ok.

From Israel's perspective, there's really no choice to them. If Iran were to get nuclear weapons, it would SERIOUSLY compromise their safety. They won't wait for the international community to let them air-strike Iran. It makes no sense to let Iran keep stalling (they've been doing this since 2003,LINK!).

Palestinians would argue that they're their own people and not ruled by anyone other than Palestinians. Which. State of Palestine

Any oil in Syria? I was always betting for that.

Not sure they'll attack Iran now that they have the missiles that they can launch on Israel in case of invasion, or they might invade anyway, dunno. Send in SEAL teams to disable the missiles or something :D

some but not worth a war.

c) Invasion of Iran in 2010

Wasting their resources for their wars won't do them any good.
Additionally, I can't wait for the current situation of one car per person in rich countries to die. go petrol price go !

i was talking to some chick studying abroad here in america and she was like "why is everything so spread out here"

the reason there's one car per person is because if there wasn't you couldn't leave your house, we don't have any public transit except in major cities

Makes no difference to my life

I assume you buy food?

Waitrose, good food honestly priced. Whether a grain of rice costs next to nothing or a little more than next to nothing doesn't really make any impact on me.

LordFUCK

Lord*VoO!

No effect on me whatsoever, only thing is that now I pay $40 to fill up the tank of my honda rather than $20 from a couple of years ago. I love seeing all these huge jacked up SUVs and Trucks and Hummers here in southern CA, because they are just gonna keep paying and paying and paying for having such rediculously big vehicles.

Some financial bank institutes speak about a default of General Motors next year. the action has already lost more than 60% of its value in one year.

Same goes for the big industries non respectfull of the environnment (not all of them)

Starbuckcofee is closing 600 stores, 12 000 people fired.

Of course its not only the US.

Some financial bank institutes speak about a default of General Motors next year. the action has already lost more than 60% of its value in one year.


this has nothing to do with the current crisis:
1/ GM "loses" 3b USD per quarter (or per month can't remember), as its strategy (big SUVs & pickups) is a failure (and not only because of the rise of gas-price).
As GM has "only" 24b USD left in cash (plus a credit line with some US banks for a few b USD), you can easily see why some speak of a default next year.

2/ action lost 60%: in general, the spot of a share doesn't reflect the real value of the company (ex: BNP share was cut in half this year, not beacuase the bank is in danger, but because BNP is a bank, and almost everyone short financials)

please explain, what is a default?

a default = event when a client does not respect to pay what he has commited himself to. (ex: delay of payment, payment in shares whereas he was supposed to pay in cash, not a full payment, etc etc)

therefore I'm answering to the guys critizising the hummers and pickup owners.

About the % of their value their action lose, its somehow reflects the thrust people give to a company.

Look at Bear stearn, Freddie mac & Fannie mae..
The FED give their support, there is a small rebound, and at the end of the day bear stears was merged into JP Morgan and both Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae lost ~25% of their value.

When your action lose 25% in one day and you have millions of it, when you have already lost a lot in a year, it reflects a close default / foreclosure.

GM was one of the biggest leader of the US for a long time.

An american depression would severely affect everyone in the west.

Already in the uk food/fuel/utilities/transport have all gone up noticeably. It all seems a bit fked up atm hearing stuff like we shouldn't be expecting any pay rises in pay reviews this year and stuff like that.

underdeveloped countries can be fun to visit because theyre so cheap it makes you feel really wealthy and now that spain, greece etc are almost up to par with sweden in prices on consumption usa is the next country on my list

I'm studying in Argentina. 5 to one, it's for sure one of the advantage of a strong currency. Taking profit of it is part of the regulation system.

As far as the rising gas prices, I am all for it because in the long run people will begin to wise up and buy smaller, fuel efficient cars that are better for the environment and peoples well being. People need to adjust better than trying to bull through it, the Saudis know we live on oil and its time to prove them semi wrong :p

Most people on this site probably aren't in a financial situation which this is truly affecting. But I know plenty of people who are having trouble finding jobs, or who have been laid off. Also, tons and tons of people are losing their houses :(

That's more what I was thinking about. Not a financial view, but like every-day difference.

the gas, the job harder to get, people fired etc..

I'll be looking for a job next year, and I already know it will be a not so good period in France for job rate..

Selling my house in new york and moving.

To sweden? :D

Not a very good time to do that atm imo. Or a way to get at least something out of it, depends whether you are an optimist or pessimist.

dont think i'm really affected by the US ruining their economy by now, but whole globalisation/liberalism shit is making an impact imo. plenty of stuff going down the tubes.. :/

wtf :<?

Fatality will never get his Ferrari, gotta feel bad for the kid.

Liberalism and conservatism both have their fair share of problems. Most people have little or no understanding of either concept, easily misled by ambitious politicians who happily distort definitions and ruin understandings. The common idiot simply chooses a side and fights to the death. But while even a retarded squirrel could defeat Stephen Hawking in a fist-fight, you should not let retarded squirrels dictate policy.

Three of the main problems with liberalism are:

1. It stretches the government too thin. There are only X amount of tax-dollars and Y amount of workers.

Divide X and Y by 10 million government functions.
Divide X and Y by 10 government functions.

2. People who are not criminals or morons can be victimized by government discrimination. This practice can also prevent innovation and the finding of solutions other than government intervention.

3. Government is an imperfect construct. What makes it any more likely to succeed than a non-government construct?

This concludes your political science lesson.

The way americans use the word liberalism is so retarded.

In the US context, liberalism and conservatism are for me a way for rich country to protect their interest, getting on others markets to play, pushing debts a bit further off the reasonable limit

In the process of globalization :
IMF lends money to developping countries against :
1) new openning market with less trade barriers
2) more taxes
3) privatising the national services

US and Europe have big big trade barriers, and a high protectionnism.

Ultra/Neo liberalism say, as Adam Smith once said, the market is auto-regulated by an invisible hand. Now a days, we see some interventionism and some social democracy in the US, like the new deal back in the 30's, it seems we haven't learned from the History, and what happend once is happening again.

So it is a fact : Ultra liberalism isn't autoregulated, it should be checked and regulated before we break this funny toy.

Credit crunch arriving to europe now aswell.

Feel really bad for the U.S and Canada for having such close ties. Before when I used to go to washington state i'd find mostly everything cheaper. Nowadays theres no point of going, especially now that the gas prices are going up.

Why do you think the current situation is a proof of liberalist market system failing? I see it as a well deserved reality check. The current crisis can threaten basic living standards of the bottom ranks of class hierarchy but, on the other hand, people in the higher ranks might finally realize the life is not about their house/car/consumption because these things can be easily reduced in value or taken away if the society malfunctions. There is already a wide range of people who are ashamed of their previous lifestyle and trying to repent for it. This should ultimately lead to stronger and more balanced global economy once the dust has settled down (and until we forget it and repeat the same mistakes all over again).

we are repeating the same mistakes with the subprimes crisis we had on other crisis before.

Seems we aren't able to look at the past and get the lesson about the stupid mistakes we do.

subprime crisis was avoidable, with rules, more regulation : with the glass steagall act not removed.

The return on investment and equity will always need to grow in a capitalistic world. Something has to rise, after all the productivity optimization, workforce is also quite busy.


Privatizing profits, nationalizing lost, again, because some people wanted to earn to much out of nothing, taking highly stupid risks.

yayyyyyyy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjY4Wj_-Zec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w9EksAo5hY