Worldwide economy

[ted26]

Noticed a thread early overtaken by two people talking about the state of the worldwide economy at present and thought i would provoke a deep discussion on what you all think!

I am personally effected by this as i face redundancy at work and am pretty stressed at the moment with mortgage payments and e-cig juice to pay for

What you think folks!, Big depression, medium recession, or are the governments gonna sort this problem out

Hows this affecting your country?

 

[Kit]

Noticed a thread early overtaken by two people talking about the state of the worldwide economy at present and thought i would provoke a deep discussion on what you all think!

I am personally effected by this as i face redundancy at work and am pretty stressed at the moment with mortgage payments and e-cig juice to pay for

What you think folks!, Big depression, medium recession, or are the governments gonna sort this problem out

Hows this affecting your country?

Labour has wrecked the UK its now a namby bamby state..it ridiculous i dont get me started on tax and petrol,etc !

 

[CaSHMeRe]

let me grab some popcorn !!!!

 

[leaford]

Dammit, why does everyone have better smilies than me?

 

[leaford]

Er, I mean, cool smilie, Cash!

 

[Kit]

This is the kind of crap we get in the UK each week from labour.

 

[Kate]

"... i face redundancy at work ..." - sorry to hear that Ted.

Personally, I don't feel depressed at all ...

 

[CaSHMeRe]

Dammit, why does everyone have better smilies than me?

Er, I mean, cool smilie, Cash!

 

[ted26]

I am starting to hate the uk and want to go live abroad

Any Canadians in the house

 

[ted26]

"... i face redundancy at work ..." - sorry to hear that Ted.

Personally, I don't feel depressed at all ...

I dont appreciate your humour kate and have heard god is also making cutbacks

 

[gashin]

We just have to prepare psychologically for the fact that Asia and Russia are going to be wealthier than the West in a few years. China already has a larger middle class than the U.S. and its economy is speeding ahead at around 10% growth in GDP each year (all thanks to free market capitalism) while Russia is resurrecting as a powerful political and energy force with a growth rate of 7%. In contrast America's financial institutions are failing and we're the most in debt nation in the world and are facing oil price controls from countries that hate us.

America is no longer a productive, economically viable nation. We consumer far more than we produce and our education system continues to pump out mindless consumers of imports. It's the inherent result of living in excess for so long - we come to expect it because we have been spoon-fed by the baby boomer generation instead of only now realizing that other countries have surpassed us in practically all fields (except the military ).

 

[leaford]

Yeah, I was laid off from my part time job, so I can sympathize, Ted.

I was off work due to my broken toe, and they replaced me and reduced me to "on-call" status. The "don't call us, we'll call you" type of on-call. They told me right after my doctor released me for regular duty.

They never call.


But answering the topic, I'm at least a little worried that this really could turn into another great depression. And not necessarily due to the current financial problems, but maybe because of our attempts to solve them. It is shaping up really fast to be two trains of dominoes, one obvious and one shadowy, both waiting for some klutz to start them falling. And Bush is as likely a klutz as I could think of.

It would also help if the general public knew more about the economy. It ws the public panic and rush on the banks to withdraw their accounts that really tipped the economy over the brink during the great depression. I was watching local news footage of at least a few people doing just that at local Washington Mutual branches.

Really, though, as bad and widespread as this is in the credit and financial industries, the economy as a whole really is still strong, and it will recover if we can keep at least the most important institutions propped up long enough. But if we fail, and they fall anyhow, the ripple effect will take a LOT with them.

 

[leaford]

Don't count the US and trhe West out yet, Gash. To what extent China and Russia are succeeding, it is because they are becoming more like us. Freeer people enjoying a freeer economy. But both have been showing signs of reversing course, backpedaling. The rise of the east isn't some unavoidable destiny. They can yet screw it up for themselves by stifiling their own people.

And, on our own side, although it's a popular view, I don't agree that the west is in any kind of inevitable decline, either. Sure, right now if nothing changes we will eventually lose our place at the top as China and or Russia surpass our GDP and standards of living.

But that's the nature of having two new competitors in the global free economy. And isn't competition what a free market is all about? Wasn't that the whole point of convincing them to open their markets to begin with? In the end greater competition benefits the economy, and the consumers, as a whole. A strong China makes the global economy stronger as a whole, including us, too. And if they surpass us for a while, we'll get back on top eventually. We're real good at competing.

Don't buy the "lazy westerner" stereotype. It's as false as the asian math whiz or the corrupt chinese merchant.

Of course I've only slept 3 hours in the past two days, so I could just be dreaming.

 

[billster88]

I can agree with all of you guys to a certain degree...but remember one thing about the West(N.America).. we have never really starved or had really bad economic or political upheaval in the last 70 or so years..the East has had such ..and that memory of standing in line to get a loaf of bread will be what keeps them from spending like we do here...we have "eyes bigger than our stomach" over here..I doubt they buy stuff like Oreo Pizza's in the East..when they start to buy that stuff..then they will beat us out..'till then..we are in a class by ourselves..any thoughts?

 

[TropicalBob]

We Americans have no idea how this will shake out. My first idea though is exactly what responsible Congress members are trying to do: Taxpayers need to be shareholders in the companies they rescue. Salaries of fat cats (one chief of a bankrupt company gets $17,000 PER HOUR) must be cut to no more than the President of the United States is paid. Strict oversight is essential; no more back room deals in cigar smoke-filled rooms. Freedom to cheat is over!

As already said, don't really get me started. I'm ... livid.

 

[TheEmperorOfIceCream]

People, it's a period of change. The east looks strong because personal freedom is still in its infancy there, so corporate effort (small c, dictionary definition) pays off. That will fade as the guy in the street starts accruing wealth and the concomitant bollocks that accompany it.

That said, I'm profoundly glad I'm not carrying any debt right now.

Emp

 

[Mr.Darcy]

i worked in a very successful analytical laboratory for the last ten years-business was booming,and the cash was tumbling in...

this year,business fell away rapidly...
i was made redundant recently,as the laboratory pulled out of the country...and there are no decent jobs available for someone in my line of work-believe me ive looked...and the competition,even for crappy jobs,is fierce...

theres too many people,and not enough work...
its a nightmare situation to be in,i can tell you...

 

[ted26]

Seems my job is safe for now so will have time to look around for another but as mr d says the market isn't good at this point in time.(best of luck mr d)

Should the American government prop up the economy with the taxpayers money or not? thoughts.....

 

[Mr.Darcy]

cheers Ted.

 

[gashin]

Job losses are healthy for the economy - they redirect labor to areas that America can actually compete against other countries in. I found a job easily after college with only a few part-time office jobs and working at Albertsons - doesn't pay much (12-14 hr + overtime) but it's really secure because pharmacy demand is only increasing. Just gotta get into the industries that are growing and can never be outsourced - health field..... military technology... name a few lol. America's industries are failing because we simply don't have the brain power and hard workers relative to the workaholic people of Asia - we're lagging behind in IT, medical technologies, cars, electronics, computers, etc. Russia just has tons of oil and natural resources and is making strong alliances with the oil producing nations we hate, Iran and Venezuela and will probably have a strong influence in Afghanistan and Iraq again once US forces are reduced or leave.