Who thinks the economy is good??......as if I need to ask......

I'm sick and tired of hearing the mass media saying the economy is doing well.

FOR WHO????? Maybe corporate whore business!!!

Everything is up in price....gas, domestic products (some of that increase due to gas prices), property taxes - have you LOOKED at your property taxes lately? It's insane how much they're going up 'cause this stupid money hungry administration keeps' reducing state funds.

The only things not going up are jobs and our paychecks. And with no jobs and no paychecks, there's no health insurance.

I feel bad for the Democrat that gets into office in '09......there's going to be a hell of a mess to clean up and it ain't gonna smell good either.

support.

Otherwise, it sucks.

needed underwear. it was a week day, but it still seemed deserted except for workers. and no real line at checkout.


ooh! economy is zooming.

Americans work longer and take fewer vacations than before. And wages have been stagnant while prices have risen. Nobody does anything during the week because we're all at work. In fact, I find it hard to get simple stuff like a haircut or doctor's appointment because of my work schedule. Working 60-80 hours a week is not unheard of.

For many people I know the daily routine is get up, go to work, come home late, sleep, repeat. Stuff like laundry and grocery shopping needs to be scheduled in for the weekends. It's sick.

Repubs always talk about the employment rate (95%) and homeownership to prove that the economy is good. What good is that when the quality of our lives is down and we don't have job security and so much of our lives depends on our job.

for the first time in at least 5 years, because all my clothing is wearing out and the thrift shops have not been forthcoming for replacements.

The place was deserted.

When I'd go into a store, I'd have half a dozen sales people introduce themselves, and not in that "I'm a floorwalker and I just KNOW you want to steal" way, more in the "I'm starving to death on commission" way.

Part of the problem has got to be their stock, though. I went in looking for classic stuff, for jeans, for plain shirts and shorts. What I found was sleazy stuff caked with glitter, lace and ruffles plus a small department of sea foam green and pale turquoise double knit. It was dismally the same from store to store, 20 year old bar slut to 80 year old cruise queen with nobody in between. It also showed how much farther we are on the road to monopoly: no variation, no competition, no choice.

So yeah, the economy sucks. Some of it is the fault of people who have been stiffing their workers on fair wages for decades. Some of it is the fault of monopolization, when a central buyer screws up as badly as this one has, everybody keeps what little money they have in their pockets. Some of it is pure buyer fatigue. After 30 years on a credit card binge, folks are discovering they can't fill that empty spot with consumer junk they have no way to pay for in the future.

In any case, only a complete and radical restructuring of our economy is going to improve things, starting with living wages at the bottom and adequate down time for all. Two weeks a year is NOT enough to recharge one's batteries, and hourly workers who depend on overtime don't feel free to take even that.

If we don't do it, we'd better get used to "Going Out Of Business!" signs in store windows, because that's next.

He cites the stock market, but he's only partially dollar-cost-averaging his union employer's contributions.

He cites all the construction, but that can stop mid stride if the wind blows toward the house of cards. And there are FOR LEASE signs up all over as decades old businesses close everywhere.

He doesn't think real estate prices will come back to earth, but will continue upward.

He laughed in when telling me that gold went back down (I told him I bought gold recently but have touted it since it was under $300).

It's hard being good pals with a closet liberal who doggedly holds onto neocon feelgood propaganda talking points.

Just curious since we've had some bad days here recently.

Even when it was was topping 11,400 in the last few weeks, I wasn't impressed.
I like to use the Federal Reserve Banks' own CPI calculator,
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm
to factor in inflation and get a more accurate idea how 'great' the economy is.

Back in Jan. 2000 the Dow topped 11,700. In today's dollars we would need the Dow to be at 13,758 to equal or be comparable to the 11,700 number.

Or, 11,400 now (in 2006) is equivalent to the 9,779 in 2000. This is using the Fed's own website. The rate of inflation is probably greater than this, but this is what they are admitting to.

So, IMHO, we are NOT keeping up at all. However, they are doing a fairly good job at manipulating the data, and/or lying about it, and a good job at concealing the coming crisis.

Time to buy more gold again - while the prices are low.

considering that Bush has made all the wrong decisions.

Productivity gains are still amazingly strong, due largely to continued mechanization. Growth is very strong in Asia, increasing the $700B of US exports. Employment is high, even though many people are losing ground and not making that much. Inflation is increasing, which is bad but often happens during a sustained period of growth.

One reason for continued growth is the massive fiscal stimulus caused by Bush's deficit. It's not sustainable, although for the present it's keeping the numbers up.

The problem is that most people are losing ground. Wages (including real minimum wages) are declining every year, unionization is down, prices are up, and employment is less secure and comes with fewer benefits.

If we had the same economic numbers with better distribution of wealth, the country would be OK. But we don't -- we're back to the Gilded Age. The administration should not be able to hide behind "the economy" -- they should be measured on how their policies affect all Americans.

but that's mostly because of all the deficit spending that's been going on lately. I've got to hand it to these people, they've managed to keep this going without all of the wheels falling off longer than I expected. That's not to say there aren't cracks in the facade at this point. A couple of observations on this:

My oldest child went to a local history site for their class field trip. No big deal right? Well at the beginning of the year the school district notified us that they had canceled all field trips due to the high price of diesel. They must have had enough money at the end of the year to afford taking the class to a place ~5 miles from their school. When the kids got there the site was closed since the site's budget had been cut. Thankfully for the kids four volunteers agreed to come out (on their own time and for no compensation) to talk to the kids about the site's history.

It's the same where I work (I work for state government). We have had our federal budget cut or frozen and have had to make due with what we have. I expect more work and responsibilities and less resources to accomplish them. I believe this is going on everywhere and is backed up by the gov's productivity numbers; which just mean we are doing more with less (and thus getting paid less to do it).

I believe the wheels haven't fallen off at this point because the extremely rich and powerful have a vested interest in keeping this perpetual motion machine going. I fear for what will happen when they no longer have interest.

I live in a medium-sized town in Michigan and everything is shit here. I went to Chicago for business about a month ago, though, and there was very little indication there that so many people were struggling. I could tell that there were because I'm used to looking for the signs, and listening to the conversations of people in businesses (ie. I stopped at Starbucks one morning and overheard the employees talking about where they got their Masters degrees). But it would be entirely possible there to have no idea that people were struggling, if you lived in a nice suburb and had a good job.

The gap between the rich and poor is widening more every day. The people who are on the rich side of things, or think they are, believe that the economy is great. Those of us on the other end of the spectrum see how far things have fallen in such a relatively short time.

and in my city, Seattle, the rents have gone down the past few years and there are plenty of jobs around. seems like most people are doing fairly well here right now, and the people i know run the spectrum of economics.

or did you mean that people in the cities who aren't struggling have no idea what it's like in smaller towns and rural america?

Don't know what it's like in the smaller towns and rural areas of the country.

I think that in larger cities are still doing quite well (at least in pockets - I'm not blind to the reality that there are many parts of big cities that are in the grips of poverty as well) and it would be pretty easy to be in a bubble and remain unaware that the same opportunities didn't exist everywhere else.

Here in red state hell there are jobs everywhere, but they're all <$12 p/hr McJobs. Trying to make a real living here is an exercise in futility.

I am just hoping we can avoid a total collapse of the dollar and a depression worse that 1929.

This is my gut feeling: 60% chance we crash, 40% chance they are able to avoid a collapse/crash. But, it's still ugly.

I wish I felt more optimistic about the future, but I don't.
I am trying to plan and prepare for a worst case scenario.

or not is a very individual thing if you have blinders on.
If I just looked at my own situation I'd say it was great,
however I see more of the big picture and can say it ain't
all that great. Not the worst I've ever seen but headed that way.