I just picked a few news articles at random dealing with our national and global economies. The articles are mostly opinion, but the opinions of people who make their living talking about the where-with-all that controls how we make our living… We gots issues folks…
The GM story hit home, as St. Paul is trying desperately to save a Ford plant that has been here for over 80 years and which was supposed to close this year. Right now it’s hanging by a thread with a tentative one-year extension.
I think the economy is going to get worse before it starts to get better, don’t you? But these downturns do go in cycles, and (so far) there have always been subsequent upturns eventually. I’d hate to be retiring right now - most 401(k)s are tanking.
Well, from what I’ve gathered, we are just beginning the slide, and it is going to be much worse. We are looking at high inflation and higher unemployment. The pundits are suggesting that it isn’t going to be a short-term down cycle, that it will be years before we can recover. That pretty much matches up with my assessment that we cannot recover until we find an alternative source of affordable energy. I hate to keep talking about the energy issue, but the world economy has been driven by relatively cheap energy, and energy affects EVERYTHING that we do.
We’ve had one hell of a great party the last two decades, and now we get to pay for it.
Maybe we ought to get the government to commit themselves to one of those debt consolidation outfits? 
We’ve only just begun…
Remember more for less? Well the game has changed…
You’re such a bluebird of happiness JT! Actually I think they’ve been downsizing at least some products for quite a while now, I think we’ve just been pretty easy to fool. 
Anita,
As someone I can’t remember once said: “I don’t make the news, I just report it.” 
The article is just one of many more to come that will give us the same news. Our standard of living will continue to fall and we’ll pay more for it. It doesn’t mean we should run to the garden, sit there and eat worms… But we do need to become vigilant about what is happening to stave off the worst of it. There are three things you will hear repeatedly over the next few years; “But I thought…” “I didn’t know…” and the classic, “No one told me…”
the liberals dream of another carter economy… double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, MISERY INDEX, gas lines for miles…
I see dead people…
hopefully president mccain will allow new oil drilling, more oil refining, coal to oil and building nuke plants and of course cutting taxes and letting private business run the economy…
but president mccain probably will be crippled by a leftist congress for the first two years…
we’ll have a new newt in 2010…
-Imp
Keep smokin’ that shit, Imp. You’re gonna need it.
Oil prices are high enough now that we have no choice but to look to nuclear, so we agree on something. I thought the three hundred million dollar prize for a breakthrough battery was also a great idea. But that’s about it. More oil exploration will come, and clean coal technologies will also, but those will be slow coming on line. Conservation is the only thing that will prevent a collapse in the short run. I’m betting a high efficiency solar cell comined with new battery technology will probably be the winner. The rest will just fall into place over years.
no shit here tent. no delusions about people either…
conservation doesn’t cut it.
we need more oil and we will drill for it. right through a fucking polar bear or caribou’s head if need be.
dreams of jetson’s technology doesn’t cut it either.
falling in place indeed…
-Imp
Another news blurb: msnbc.msn.com/id/25575073/ People (some) are beginning to wake up and are down-sizing their expenditures. What I thought interesting is that it isn’t just tips on how to save a buck on a specific item, but a slight shift in the general perspective. As frugality (need instead of want) becomes more prevalent in the general population, it will become increasingly acceptable to more and more people. It can’t happen fast enough. This is the kind of letting the air out of the balloon slowly that we need.
I call bullshit. If they cut the Hummer from their line-up, those poor, unfortunate oil moguls of Dubai won’t be able to build more rotating 7.3 billion dollar hotels.
The economy will get better … if we start to trim the population of unwanted/unneeded fat … like illegal aliens and welfare parents.
Bullets aren’t really very expensive. Especially if one is capable of doing the numbers.
Another blurb. This one from a government (Britain). Interesting that the current line of reasoning is attached to wartime rationing… msnbc.msn.com/id/25642713. Makes me wonder how long before our government acknowledges the need for people to tighten up.
And yet another… msnbc.msn.com/id/25701521.
At this rate of increase, we’ll be paying $1.14.4 for the same dollar we’re spending today. That assumes that the rate of increase stays the same. The feds have no choice but to slowly begin increasing interest rates if this continues, which further depresses the economy… Hello stagflation! Are we having fun yet, folks?