Recession

Hi,

For months now, I have been hearing how horrible the US economy is and how Bush did such a bad job. I may be a little naive but can anyone give me the facts on the recession or tell me where to find them? Because frankly, from what I've seen around me, life hasn't drastically changed. Gas prices may have gone up and many people are sensitive to rapid inflation of gas prices. However, they have fallen considerably from how they were a few weeks ago.

I also understand that one part of it is from people being unable to sell their houses for the price they wanted. Which caused many people to lose a lot of money. Also, some people have been losing their jobs as the unemployment rate has increased slightly.

I was wondering how the US government and Bush are responsible for the recession that everyone is talking about, what the other causes and effects of the recession are, and is it something to be worried about.

The word recession is thrown around too liberally.
Really it is just a SMALL dip.
THat would be more accurate.

We're actually not receeding anymore, well, not right now, but the trend has been the same. The stock market is picking back up, gas prices have gone down/ and either stay down or stay put. It's getting better.

The economy is bad because of all the spending we're doing fighting the war in iraq.
Personally, i find it it odd how gas went frm $25 a barrell to $100 a barrell in a couple of years :x
But im not an economist, so im not exactly sure on everything.
Your food costs a lot because of ethanol though, they used vegetables like corn in ethanol production and since ethanol isnt subsidized it costs more.

You sure that food prices haven't gone up because it takes diesel to make the trucks run, which in turn carry your food to your supermarkets? etc

[SIZE="2"]Ethanol isn't used as a main method of producing gas in the United States. It's been deemed too impractical by politicians. It's used more frequently in Southern America. The gas prices are caused by gas companies who always have more than enough gas in their reserves. All they simply do is take advantage of "public perception" in order to raise prices extremely high. They have more than enough gas to last them five-ten years within their personal property.

Calvinist, I need more time to answer your question without simply blaming the recession on "x" or "y." Because if we do blame the recession on "x" or "y" we should also come up with a reason why it's getting better because "x" is not so bad or "y" no longer exists. The recession has still hit a lot of people hard and I argue that we're still in a recession right now. I worked as a secretary within a commercial law firm and the lawyers I worked with lost a lot of clients due to the recession and some of them decided to just close down their business. It's also tough to say what exactly causes a recession. There is no simple answer. It's a mix of politics, economics, and social perception. Right now I'm trying to find a holistic answer to your question but it'll take some time. I apologize. [/SIZE]

I don't know what you guys think about this, but imo it's rediculous:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

A debt of over 9,000,000,000,000 dollars? >_>

I don't know what you guys think about this, but imo it's rediculous:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

[SIZE="2"]A debt of over 9,000,000,000,000 dollars? >_>

Must...resist...can't..temptation..too..big

IT'S OVER 9000!!![/SIZE]

[COLOR="Teal"]Everything is going up. Milk a few years ago was like 1.50 a gallon, now its almost $3.50 where I live. In Alaska, Milk is like $7 a gallon. Food is going up for sure.

At this rate, I'm gonna be paying $20 for a freaking cup of milk for my cereal. [/COLOR]

Well, part of that's just normal inflation - you used to be able to get candies for 1 cent, now they're 50, etc. It happens, can't do anything about it. And, not everything is going up - one of the reason's we're like this is because prices are *dropping* in the housing market.

But @TC, the economy is a little topsy-turvy at the moment because people aren't buying enough. That's what those rebate checks were for, to get you to buy stuff. Bush and Congress, at least in the beginning for the latter, wanted to go to war - it doesn't matter what war it is (except WWII. If my grandfather isn't BSing, we had enough BURNING AMERICAN FREEDOM [read: rabid patriotism] to fix our economy, cure cancer, and eliminate the unemployed), wars will drain money. We also have an overly large national debt, as has been previously pointed out.
But really, unless you're a businessman, nothing much has changed - normal stuff is about a dollar more expensive overall and a few businesses have closed. If you haven't noticed it in real life, don't start worrying now.

Please note that my information has been entirely gleaned from the evening news on a variety of local stations/my parents discussing their economic situation, so I might not know what I'm talking about/about the situations of others. Low-middle class SoCal here.

Everything is going up. Milk a few years ago was like 1.50 a gallon, now its almost $3.50 where I live. In Alaska, Milk is like $7 a gallon. Food is going up for sure.

It's still cheap in America. We pay 8 dollars for 1 gallon of milk over here in Norway, and it's been like that since forever.

It's still cheap in America. We pay 8 dollars for 1 gallon of milk over here in Norway, and it's been like that since forever.

More like Norway has been expensive since forever

ever heard about the oil peak?

You sure that food prices haven't gone up because it takes diesel to make the trucks run, which in turn carry your food to your supermarkets? etc

This is right, the inflation of gasoline has caused everything to go up to a degree. Those delivery trucks need to charge more to haul the food, so the customer feels the reprecussions of that as supermarkets must charge more.

In my opinion there is no way around the inflating gas prices. Our generation is the first to be dependent on another country's exports. I liked the discovery channel show on the earth being depleted of gasoline by 2020 or something like that. I dont recall the exact year they gave, but its irrelevant, the important part from it is that it has been predicted to happen.

War does cause more national debt, but that hardly contributes to loss of jobs, etc. I believe the nation will enter a recession though when all the 'baby boomers' retire. All those seniors collecting their 401ks and SS, and all their jobs being filled with new workers making minimum. The entire middle class will be no more, an hour glass effect if you will, either you'll be rich or poor. More on this 'hour glass effect' can be found in the Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki (author of "Rich dad poor dad" another great read) book "Why we want you to be rich".

War does cause more national debt, but that hardly contributes to loss of jobs, etc. I believe the nation will enter a recession though when all the 'baby boomers' retire. All those seniors collecting their 401ks and SS, and all their jobs being filled with new workers making minimum. The entire middle class will be no more, an hour glass effect if you will, either you'll be rich or poor. More on this 'hour glass effect' can be found in the Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki (author of "Rich dad poor dad" another great read) book "Why we want you to be rich".

Wow...
You really don't understand how the Social Security Program works...
...
I've read plenty of your other posts and I am beginning to believe you have some sort of sick cynicism about Federal Aid Programs that rob everyone and toss money at leeches (not saying that it doesn't happen- but its not the ONLY thing Aid does)
....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Secu...ed_States)
^

Really it's a TINY TINY drop in the bucket of spending compared to MANY other American endeavors.
And a small tax INCREASE could eliminate that too.
----
I am not FOR social Security for the elderly however-
I am for handicapped aid- but not old people aid.

Wow...
You really don't understand how the Social Security Program works...
...
I've read plenty of your other posts and I am beginning to believe you have some sort of sick cynicism about Federal Aid Programs that rob everyone and toss money at leeches (not saying that it doesn't happen- but its not the ONLY thing Aid does)
....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Secu...ed_States)
^

Really it's a TINY TINY drop in the bucket of spending compared to MANY other American endeavors.
And a small tax INCREASE could eliminate that too.
----
I am not FOR social Security for the elderly however-
I am for handicapped aid- but not old people aid.

Very interesting article, I love wikipedia. Anyways, in the very first paragraph it says

...2006, Social Security was the largest budgeted federal spending category, at nearly $550 billion or 21% of overall spending. In 2008, spending of $610 billion is forecast....

That sounds like more than a "TINY TINY drop in the bucket of spending compared to MANY other American endeavors" (I like the choice of word, endeavor, makes it sound more important).

This recession doesn't seem too bad right now. But things need to get worse before they're better right?

anyway, if we think about it, we complain too much =p

Sure we're paying an arm in the leg for gas, but have you checked anywhere else that's NOT in the U.S.? It's like twice what we pay in LITERS not gallons, which means we pay less (not counting inflations rates and the constant change of prices)

We cheap and poor americans now

meh we were in an up going, now we're in a down going. so that means we go up in a little while (or contiue to plummet <<< too negative be positive Recession go BOOM )

we pay more for water then gas so suck it up buttercup.
its like what 1.59 for 591 ml of water.
enough fking said its bs if you ask me.

It's still cheap in America. We pay 8 dollars for 1 gallon of milk over here in Norway, and it's been like that since forever.

That strikes me as odd :f6:

From Wiki:
"Norwegians enjoy the second highest GDP per-capita (after Luxembourg) and third highest GDP (PPP) per-capita in the world, and has maintained first place in the world in the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) for six consecutive years (2001-2006)."
"The country is richly endowed with natural resources including petroleum, hydropower, fish, forests, and minerals."

Then again, it's Wiki, and what do I know.