Monday, February 02, 2009
What recession?
Or is the bad economy being overstated to sell a political agenda, to ram through more government regulations and stimulus packages? "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste" so said Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Now here's what I'm getting at, it's by now incontrovertible wisdom that this period we're now in is second only to the Great Depression in the scope of its seriousness but I will submit there is a rather large chunk of people right now who are not the least bit affected by the Bad Economy. I've been in stores that are constantly raising the prices of their cold cuts but I've noticed the same lines of regulars getting their usual cuts of meat, same amounts too. If the bad times are affecting everyone I've failed to notice. These people probably paid their mortgage off or are heading well in that direction, they are living responsibly, well within their means and so why should the wrong decisions of the fiscally irresponsible among us affect them? I consider myself to belong to this group, paid all my credit cards off long ago and operate well within my budget. Nothing's changed for me despite the players getting hit hard, I still spend the usual amount I've always spent. Never even went near a mortgage, ACORN could have approached me and I would have smelled a swindle a mile away. I've always swung the rent and managed. I've never lost a job or been laid off but I'm hearing this economic melodrama every night on the evening news and how our President says we have to do something and do it now, time's a-wastin' So how come the same people keep buying a pound of Ovengold?
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I wondered the same thing as the Super Bowl ads seemed to be pretty much the same, it's not like they don't think people are buying stuff anymore.
ReplyDeleteI've almost reached the point or the conclusion that nearly everything we hear these days is pure propaganda. Geez I wonder if porno pete's been affected?
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a likely conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell it's the people who have risked the most and made poor decisions who are the most affected. You don't have to get all stimulused over it, just let it be and it'll right itself.
ReplyDeleteCatch ya tomorrow, it's been fun today!
ReplyDeleteThis whole enonomy debacle was caused by obsessive overuse of credit---ALL credit. People who have been living today off of what they thought they had coming for income, say in 2015, are in deep shit. The government is in the same position. We have as a nation spent our national income from 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. That my friends has been a disaster waiting to happen, and it is happening NOW. Knock knock---anybody home up there? The lights on but nobodies home in the heads of most politicians. The only way to fix things is to stop being "stuck on stupid"! This porkulus package will, IMO, make things worse---not better!
ReplyDeleteThere have been a record number of layoffs, so presumably those folks have cut back..one of those feed back cycles where the place that laid them off finds they have fewer customers, they lay off some more ad infinitum. Read somewhere that for the first time in a very long time Americans are saving rather than buying (and the economists who ranted about it for years are now mad that the population isn't helping to 'buy' our way out of the economic doldrums). As a country, we invented 'Marketing', the selling of stuff to people who don't need it and can't afford it. This deal about fixing the 'infrastructure' sounds appealing..problem is, the pols have problems sorting pork from infrastructure. :)
ReplyDeleteYes, there are many layoffs BB, very true, but I do wonder how much of the constant media attention of the bad situation is just feeding people's fears and creating the cycle of more of the same? As for me, I just re-entered the work force, so if anything I am able to spend more (although I have less time to spend it!)
ReplyDeleteAnd as Z-man suggested could Washington be trying to push their agenda by using the economy to do so? I think it really is a possibility. They are really pushing hard for a stimulus package that will not help the economy one bit, but they know it will give the illusion that "something" is being done, so people can feel comfortable to spend again.
Don't be fooled by those who argue for spending vs. saving. If you hear someone on the news or wherever advocating for the former over the latter just know that they've no credibility on the subject despite their "credentials".
ReplyDeleteThere were a flurry of these folks that argued that the first stimulus package didn't work because people saved their stimulus check rather than having spent it.
Truth is, if you take your money and put it in the bank, the bank in turn lends it out to someone else who essentially ends up spending it (say to purchase some new equipment for their business or to build a new store, etc.).
The very worst part in all of this at present is the fact that Senate Republicans aren't looking as if they'll abandon the bill and let the Democrats own it as they did in the House. No no no....instead, the Republicans in the Senate apparently want to tweak just enough that they'd then be willing to sign on to it.
That my friends is a recipe for disaster.
Spending vs. saving, as I blogged about many moons ago you can't take it with you. Now I'm a big saver, have a decent account, maybe not by Dr. Laura standards in attracting the opposite sex but the issue becomes what if you never spend it? say you bequeath it and then the bequeathees eventually bequeath that, it's just money lying around hardly ever getting spent. HOW does that help the economy to hum along? I've looked back on my life and folks might say I spent too much but hey maybe I lubed the economy in my own way. OR to put it another way isn't the whole goal of saving eventually to spend it? I still go to restaurants and diners and help my local Mom and Pop liquor store get along, maybe fear fueled by hype will be our own undoing.
ReplyDeleteActually I thought the first stimulus checks people used to pay off credit card debts, which also isn't a bad thing in and of itself, it doesn't stimulate right away but it does free up those people to spend future income on new stuff instead of going to pay their debts.
ReplyDeleteditto
ReplyDelete"...it's just money lying around hardly ever getting spent. HOW does that help the economy to hum along?"
ReplyDeleteCome on Z..do you honestly think when you put money in the bank that it literally just sits there until the day you decide to come get it?
Hell no. It's loaned to someone else. And, the day you come to cash in, the money owed to you is taken from someone elses savings account. That's how banks operate.
That's how savings gets spent.
Now, if you just tuck it under your mattress...well...that's another story.
* Ironically enough the Word Verification is "Monesy". LOL
Doesn't it just come down to our usual theme of living in moderation (like, living within your means?)
ReplyDeleteI've always said the money in your bank account is not really yours but I'm all for enjoying life too. I know people who feel the main purpose of their bank accounts is to pay bills but this ain't living. All those people who didn't lose homes and paid off their credit cards, the ones who are spending money now, they're the ones who are keeping our economy afloat not the ones who had delusions of grandeur.
ReplyDeleteWell the recession of course is real now, because my husband's salary has been cut 10% (as has everyone at his company) but this was done to prevent layoffs. He's freaking out of course, but I say at least for now he still has a job, so no major purchases for a while but we'll be fine.
ReplyDelete& all because other people f****d up.
ReplyDelete