Is The Current Financial Crisis WORSE Than The Great Depression?

BizBooks

15 years ago

yes. its MUCH worse in alot of ways.

but you'll see it in much different ways then the great depression...

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Black Hat Cat Banned 15 years ago

Uh, no.
The only thing worse about it is the over-the-top media coverage from the doom and gloom crowd.
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- Zachary R. Skinner 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by blackhatcat
  
  Uh, no.
  The only thing worse about it is the over-the-top media coverage from the doom and gloom crowd.
  
  Did anyone actually take the time to read the article?
  
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bgmacaw

15 years ago

If I was trying to sell people on a financial product, like gold, I would certainly say that the current financial crisis is worse the the Great Depression.

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YellowDot Software

15 years ago

The figure I really want to see is how much more debt exists than money to repay it. That's a real big problem

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Eric Stanley

15 years ago

Originally Posted by YellowDot Software

The figure I really want to see is how much more debt exists than money to repay it. That's a real big problem

In our monetary systems (US, UK, EU and many others) -- Without debt, there is no money creation. New debt = new money. When this process stops (credit freezes) there are high and mighty consequences.

And to think some people have no idea that the Federal Reserve is NOT a government institution. The Federal Reserve is just about as federal as Federal Express.

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goindeep

15 years ago

Yeaaah... Its much worse....

NOT!

Because im pretty sure my great-grandmother was standing around eating rotten bread when here i am this very moment eating greek yoghurt with blueberries/raspberries and typing to you over the inter. After this i will be driving to work then finishing early because its christmas eve here and we are having the fam over for "kloppse" or "German Meatballs"....

Yeah....Its really bad...

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Zachary R. Skinner

15 years ago

Originally Posted by GoinDeep

Yeaaah... Its much worse....

NOT!

Because im pretty sure my great-grandmother was standing around eating rotten bread when here i am this very moment eating greek yoghurt with blueberries/raspberries and typing to you over the inter. After this i will be driving to work then finishing early because its christmas eve here and we are having the fam over for "kloppse" or "German Meatballs"....

Yeah....Its really bad...

First of all, I'm not trying to depress anyone.

Secondly, the great depression didn't actually reach its peak until 1931....2+ years after the stock market crash. You can look it up in wikipedia.

One thing is very clear from the above article: we are only in the very early stages of the financial crisis.

What was interesting about the article I listed (and apparently few people took the time to actually read) is that by every single financial measure, things are worse now than in 1929. In fact, much worse because derivatives were still in their infancy in the 20s and the dollar was stilled pinned to gold.

What this means in real terms is hard to say. I would like to think that people in the rich countries will not be eating rotten bread 2 years from now but the indicators are far from good.

In any event, based on the info contained within the article, it looks like things will get much worse before they get better.....sorry to burst anyones bubble.

The very good news is that as things worsen, the internet will create numerous opportunities to reap huge profits.

Important point: The internet didn't exist during the 20's or any other comparable financial downturn.

By creating businesses now on the internet it's possible to not only survive but thrive during the coming depression. This is fantastic news as internet marketers.

Think of how much more attractive your money-making info products will be this time next year?

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Dean Shainin

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Eric Stanley

In our monetary systems (US, UK, EU and many others) -- Without debt, there is no money creation. New debt = new money. When this process stops (credit freezes) there are high and mighty consequences.

And to think some people have no idea that the Federal Reserve is NOT a government institution. The Federal Reserve is just about as federal as Federal Express.

I read yesterday that the Federal Reserve is not disclosing their balance sheet (called transparency) (what they were supposed to do) so looks like they might end up getting sued. All the people want to know is what's on their books. Good luck...

Unless the Feds do this people will not have much confidence in the system...

Cheers,
Dean

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JV3STUDIO 15 years ago

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

If I was trying to sell people on a financial product, like gold, I would certainly say that the current financial crisis is worse the the Great Depression.

Exactly.

A lot of respected financial institutions often give very bad advice and I do better when I go with the opposite of what they say.

Regards

Johan
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Amy Bass

15 years ago

Yes I do believe it will be worse than the great depression for one main reason. In the great depression prices went DOWN and you could buy MORE with your dollar.

Today it will be a depression, but instead of prices going down they will go up dramatically in a term called Hyperstagflation. So your dollar will buy much much less.

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jimrpips

Banned 15 years ago

[DELETED]

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The 13th Warrior

15 years ago

Originally Posted by jimrpips

so get your bad weather gear in order, batten down the hatches, and sail safely through the storm

Great post, except, the premise to the overwhelming majority of people is that this is something, like a phase.

But what about a storm that gets worse and never ends?

At a certain point, baring sheer luck, if you don't get to the treatment of a cancer early enough, its just a matter of time.

Most countries in the world are getting to our situation, most news won't report that.

Most News is like TMZ, useless drivel and civil engineering for the mindless masses or them trying to turn you into the mindless masses.

The story, among many, not told about the Titanic, is that the rafts were for the rich only, and some or most of the working crew were locked in, to go down with the ship.

What the organizers of this PLANNED economic atrocity, thru sheer blind arrogence, will not realize is their life rafts for the "privaledged" few are going to mirror the Titanic, their arrogence,greed, lack of consciousness, humanity and pompus pride WILL get those "rafts" sunk also, like the unfinished portion of the Titanic that the iceberg "just happen" to hit.

Simple scenario, though most will not believe till they see it :

Armies, weapons cost (money)....

Food to feed armies and arm them with supplies cost (money)....

The ability to have influence and power is directly related to how you command and dispense commerce to willing parties, again (money).....

The only reason people follow or obey or accept councel from any so-called leader or government is the ability to direct, inform, manage or dispense out resources to them for their family and them to live, resources to be gotten with what...? (money)

Power , money and influence is like smack..., they will never tackle the problem at its source because they are making ridiculous amounts now, billionaires want to be trillionaires and so on. Can never get enough. Even if a drug user knows it will probably O.D., like the rich person, the high is too good to put down, even at the expense of destroying everything.

The Queen of England makes about $325,000,000 (million) in INTEREST, ALONE, on the money she has, either PER MINUTE or PER DAY. Just one example. To whose benefit does this serve? What persons or kingdoms is this saving?

Simply read what happened when the farmers would'nt sell to the Germans when the German mark went to about 1 million marks equalling one $1 U.S. Dollar. The farmers would not sell for that worthless currency.

The federal reserve, the foreign banks and central banks think they have the world and governments in their pocket, and they do, ....for now.

Get ready for another Tea Party. They are slowly bringin on the attributes of what started that nugget in history.

So whos fault is it we starve, have no jobs, money devalues, have famine, corrupt governments, undrinkable water, fires, houses buried under mud, wars, killing people, killing in the name of religion, race and political affinities and basically treating everything and everyone like ****?

Yes, the world and universe is here to serve "me", and if "I" can afford to take the entire planet earth and wipe my ass with it, then throw it away, whose business is it anyway?

Do whatever you choose with impunity, because, hey, I want to be like those guys, isn't that what we will eventually become if we get enough money and power, new faces in government and economics, same ole routine, like that guy who is getting "punished".....stole $50 million dollars.....whats his "punishment of deterrent"?

Gee, he has to stay under "house arrest", doing time in his 50 room mansion.

Oh punish me, pleeeeease. And keep some of the money.

If you are good or evil, you cannot, under the current world system, run a government or finance a war without banks.

Obama, hope? Not even the next 15 presidents will solve the problem. Members in his cabinet are the CAUSE and beneficiaries of the problem, no punishment. The next and next president , democrate, republican, greenparty, whatever, is going to do the same thing.

Millionaires having fun, at the worlds expense. The systems will not withstand this rotting, eroding foundation of hypocracy, legalized criminal activity, robbery and corruption for very long.

A system in place to compensate for the fallout has not been invented yet and will be too late to deal with.

Their plan is quite insulting to people of even moderate intelligence.

I get my arm chopped off, and all they can offer is putting a blanket over it so me and a passersby can't see blood and horror. That , temporarily will work, for ohhhh, about a few seconds and up to a minute before the problem compounds worse.

I don't want to talk to the CEO of American car companies. I want to grill and chastise the stock holders who pay their salary and dictate their agenda.

Wasting time talking and analyizing snake-dung, I want to talk to the actual snake who crapped it out.

While we are talking to useless dung, the snake is out slithering upon another prey among many.

If the entire government and its president simply wait to react and OBEY to what the Federal Reserve dictates, why are we listening to the president?

Let's talk to the REAL f***in boss and its either them or us.

Wasting time talking to caddies.

I don't want to hear or talk to Bernake/Greenspan...., these are "waterboys", telephone devices thru which communication ensues.., I want the name and face's of the actual owners of the Federal Reserve and the Central Banks, the pink slip holders in fact and practice, to be known, seen ,judged,ostrasized and harrassed , not hide behind layers of officers, sub-chapters,sub-corps, and shadows, the real A-hole Emperors, Demons of Darkness.

We could only hope a Vampire or Frankenstein would take over, far less of an evil.

The Banks of the World rule governments, end of class.

The 13 th Warrior

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Kay King

15 years ago

That article makes some good points - it's something I've spent some time learning about recently and he is right on when he points out

The most extraordinary thing is that the mainstream media has never attempted to compare the current economic environment to the one preceding the Great Depression. In essence, it is assumed outright that the Great Depression can never possibly happen again, ever, thus obviating the need for such a comparison.

We live in a society of "quick fixes" and are not as well positioned as previous generations to survive a long term financial crisis. We are accustomed to buying what we need rather than making it or growing it. The average person has $9-10,000 in credit card debt - and perhaps a mortgage and one or two car payments.

The next threat to consumers is that although new regulations have been passed banning predatory practices by credit card companies - the companies were able to delay implementation until July 2010. They have already begun positioning themselves by raising interest rates without cause and by lowering credit limits with little notice. These changes are no longer limited to those with questionable credit - but are being applied even to those with excellent credit histories. This has the potential of leading to even higher default rates (by design) - and more bailouts of those same companies.

There are also two more types of high risk mortgages that have interest rates that will reset beginning in 2009. Default rates on these are already high and will go higher when the interest is adjusted.

There are direct correlations between what happened in the 20's and 30's and what is happening now - but no clearcut evidence of what will work to ease or solve the crisis. Initially, there was little or no action by government after the 1929 crash because it was believe the situation would correct itself and those in power did not want to unbalance the budget.

The first part of the "new deal" was a wild flinging of money at any program that might help solve the problem - with a rubber stamp Congress approving anything sent to them. Most of the initial efforts to stop the free-falling economy were aimed at saving those at top income levels with the theory the funds would "trickle down". It didn't work that way.

The second part of the "new deal" focused on helping those at the bottom of the heap with huge public works job programs and establishment of Social Security, federally insured bank deposits, rights of workers, etc.

Thing is - economists today don't know if the second part of that massive spending would have worked though it did help ease the situation at the time. The end of the Depression was the beginning of WWII - with the massive increase in manufacturing and jobs required to support and supply troops.

We don't know yet how bad this recession will be or how long it will last but those working online have a better chance to position themselves to avoid economic problems than those who rely on a "day job".

kay

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Zachary R. Skinner

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

We don't know yet how bad this recession will be or how long it will last but those working online have a better chance to position themselves to avoid economic problems than those who rely on a "day job".

kay

My point exactly.

By all indicators things will get much worse before they get better.

If you have been hesitating on building an internet business this article should be an end to your hesitation.

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Mike Wright

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

We don't know yet how bad this recession will be or how long it will last but those working online have a better chance to position themselves to avoid economic problems than those who rely on a "day job".

kay

That pre-supposes that customers refusing to buy stuff
in the real world will somehow be willing to spend on the
Internet. The hard fact is that there is less money or credit
around ...and people/businesses are increasingly reluctant
to spend/invest what little they may have.

I agree with the OP ...the worst is yet to come

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Ricky Parker

15 years ago

Not even close to being as worse as the Great Depression. (not that I was around)

The reason it seems to be so bad for some is because nowadays way more people sit on their ass and cry and complain about things. And don't go and take some action to change their situation.

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KimW

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Ricky Parker

Not even close to being as worse as the Great Depression. (not that I was around)

The reason it seems to be so bad for some is because nowadays way more people sit on their ass and cry and complain about things. And don't go and take some action to change their situation.

No, the reason it seems so bad is because it IS bad. Apparently only a few have a real clue about the situation.
Most are commenting on what they see right now.
What some have pointed out is that we are only in the beginning stages of what is to come.
As you said, you weren't around for the great depression. If you had been there would be two things about you I'd be able to safely say.
1: Right now you would be very scared.
2: You would be one of the small percentage,mainly older folks who DID live through the first one, that is actually prepared for this time.
I'm sure many of us older Warriors have parents and ralatives who lived through the first one,and to be honest, we aint seen nothing yet.
While I'm glad some are very optimistic,ie,people just need to postion themselves to make money in this economy, the fact is,if the money aint there ,then very few are going to be able to make that money.
America has gone downhill for the past few decades.The politicians and corporations have sold us out.
Since there is a new rule that politics and religion cannot be discussed,I have to end my post here.
Maybe right now it seems this isn't as bad as the first one, but that's only due to not having the knowledge and/or experience of not having lived through the first one,and this one is going to get a lot worse before it begins to get any better.
Many of you and myslef are at the moment still very lucky, but if you really think it's not bad, ask any of those RECORD numbers who have lost their jobs and/or homes.

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The 13th Warrior 15 years ago

Leadership now and in the future?

Laughable.

While people are losing their jobs and homes.....,

Marshalls evicting people putting their stuff and their families, physically, on the street....,

People under past disasters have been simply left hanging like Katrina and other disasters, once they evacuate, are basically on their own, beaureaucratic back-log of years to get the basic services they were promised, that THEIR taxes paid for...,

The corporations that got the money STILL ain't loaning out like they said they would, their "so-called" losses are now covered, thanks to the 1040 program,and in their book now can foreclose without deals AND still make a profit OFF THOSE FORECLOSURES....,

The President is busy handing out pardons, mostly to his business burglury buddies that makes Oceans 11 look like Charlie Brown and the Peanuts cartoon, like candy on Halloween...,

And the President elect, Mr. Hope for Dopes, is playing golf and sportin his chest by the pool and beach in Hawaii, while every day that goes on gets worse...,

YOUR leaders, the country is having an heart attack, and rather than get the ER and crash unit on it, stat, they are playing "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".

If these guys were doctors in the emergency unit, the mortality rate would be in the 90% range.

Of course, percentages of death is routine and acceptable, losses of life and finance in general,for YOUR family, not theirs and their friends.

The 13 th Warrior
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Thomas

15 years ago

Sorry to take this off-topic but...

Originally Posted by The 13 th Warrior

The Queen of England makes about $325,000,000 (million) in INTEREST, ALONE, on the money she has, either PER MINUTE or PER DAY. Just one example. To whose benefit does this serve? What persons or kingdoms is this saving?

It benefits the British State and the Commonwealth: As Queen of 16 countries, she's an immenesly powerful woman but the majority of her wealth actually belongs to the State. In the grand-scheme-of-things, Elizabeth Windsor (the person, as opposed to the sovereign) is not really that wealthy at all. (It's actually very hard to tell what belongs to her personally... most estimates seem to be within the range of £200 million and £800 million, which is the equivalent of between approx. U.S.$300 million and U.S.$ 1,100 million. While that's still a hell of a lot, it's entirely insufficient to generate U.S. $325 million in interest over any practical time-scale, not to mention that fact that most of it is illiquid anyway).

Tommy.

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The 13th Warrior

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Thomas

It benefits the British State and the Commonwealth: As Queen of 16 countries, she's an immenesly powerful woman but the majority of her wealth actually belongs to the State. In the grand-scheme-of-things, Elizabeth Windsor (the person, as opposed to the sovereign) is not really that wealthy at all. (It's actually very hard to tell what belongs to her personally... most estimates seem to be within the range of £200 million and £800 million, which is the equivalent of between approx. U.S.$300 million and U.S.$ 1,100 million. While that's still a hell of a lot, it's entirely insufficient to generate U.S. $325 million in interest over any practical time-scale, not to mention that fact that most of it is illiquid anyway).

Really?

When the economics and jobs worldwide get worse, we'll see if you are right.

Markets and financial mechanics based on smoke and mirrors.

Someone buys your deed or something, gets a loan based on that deed, profit on the spread, then the bank sells that loan to another institution, turns it into something else or packages it with something else to sell to some other financial institution or government for some new annuity type creation, the original loan is restructured and profited off that, and on and on it goes.

Try to find what someone or company is worth. Layers of hidden wealth to protect their entity.

You believe its 800 million pounds? Compared to Englands wealth generation over the centuries, which mostly belonged to the Land Lords, Barons, Dukes, etc., a corporation, that is ONLY a FEW years old, can make "800 million pounds" just by rolling over in bed and farting.

You can still own stuff, simply by putting it in someone else's name , foundation, chapter, etc., but its still yours.

You are forgetting inheritence. Money gained and passed down thru how many centuries?

The 13 th Warrior

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The 13th Warrior 15 years ago

What will America do to generate REAL income, that won't or can't be outsourced?

Who needs to buy from us?

Pretty much gave away the patents and technology just so that they would not pay for labor and other cost, like environment.

Maybe we should be like others and be EASY with corps on the environment because of cost, just let them dump waste and lead indescrimately, like in India.

Then maybe we can have a baby with a twin growing inside of his pancreas.

The 13 th Warrior
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- The 13th Warrior 15 years ago
  
  Presidents, Kings, Dukes, Earls, Barons, higher govt and state officials make a lot of their wealth raiding the TILL anyhow, or legally giving projects to their buddies that they have stock in or business relations with, like building bridges to nowhere.
  
  How much has the taxpayer made Cheney a rich man? He may have a retirement home in Dubai among his other ungodly profits, just as an example, one man, not counting other govt. officials.
  
  Just get into office to serve the good people huh? Like the Red Cross or Salvation Army, huh, self-less, righteous, humble service to the good families and citizens of earth.
  
  Don't buy it, dudes.
  
  The 13 th Warrior
  
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  The 13th Warrior 15 years ago
  
  The power of recovery, the belief is in that, some how, some one, some way, it will survive and move on.
  
  Maybe. The belief is also, it HAS to, their is no other option, because it will never be allowed to run amok. Maybe.
  
  The belief also is that it will never be that bad, at least in THAT persons lifetime to see any serious calamities, which exposes most of our selfishness, anyhow.
  
  Let the future take care and worry for themselves, it seems.
  
  Rome and Egypt- they are still here, so belief in that recovery and survival is possible.
  
  But compared to their power, wealth and sciences in their peak, they are an economic and military paraplegic amputee with 70% scar tissue over burn victims body sitting in a wheelchair operated by blowin thru a straw because most of the body parts are barely usable.
  
  How much can a body(earth) take? Sure, you can recover from cancer, or gangrene by amputation, or removed gallbladder, removed lung, replaced heart, but how much more can the body take?
  
  After that kind of treatment and survival , can you still get away with doing with what got you in the hospital in the first place?
  
  The 13 th Warrior
  
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robocallaghan

15 years ago

Its fair to say that this will not be a footnote in the history books but a chapter or two.

Rob.

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Ldimilo

15 years ago

Recession? Where? All I see is opportunity

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Chris Lockwood

15 years ago

It's not even close, and saying times are worse now just shows someone's lack of knowledge about history (or agenda in promoting fear). Might as well compare Iraq to World War II.

Try talking to someone who lived through the Great Depression. If they're honest they will tell you how spoiled people are now compared to then.

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Ric Raftis

15 years ago

Certainly at this stage there is no comparison. But, as said above, more time is needed to see if this current crisis develops into a very sad experience for people.

All the same, there will no doubt be many job losses, many have already been seen. A lot of these people will look to the internet for alternative income sources.

I also believe that many businesses will also move rapidly away from print advertising such as Yellow Pages and newspapers to using the internet where their advertising and promotion is not only far more cost effective, but can also be monitored.

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patfl

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Zachary R. Skinner

Hey warriors,

This article is from a very respected financial instiution and they are saying that the current financial crisis is WORSE than the great depression :confused:

What are your thoughts?

Those same very respected institutions didn't see anything coming...

They want to sell their BS, and fear is good for business.

Patrice

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thegoddessofeleven

15 years ago

The whole situation irritates the heck out of me.

Granted, I'm young, and I'm certainly no economist. But, come on. They're telling us that our society DEPENDS on the majority of us living outside our means and going into debt. When we finally reign things in and start living sensibly, the whole world literally goes to shambles. Sounds like we've built a system that needs to be allowed to fail so we can rebuild one with logic and order.

And then they wrench our money away from us anyway, in the form of taxdollars spent to bail out private institutions who never shared one dime of their wealth when times were good for them.

Ugh. Don't even get me started.

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BizBooks

15 years ago

"hyperstagflation"

Googled it.. so much to read...

Thank You!!

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Kevin Marshall

15 years ago

I think that the world economy is in big trouble, but I am trying to get ahead of the curve by starting my Internet Marketing business! We all are going to have to be more creative to make money in the future.

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BillyBee

15 years ago

I am not a gloom-and-doomer, but the link below will take you to an interview conducted on a Los Angeles radio station that is pretty sobering.

Just listen to the first 5 minutes of this. You will probably want listen to whole interview.

Here's the link:

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/182...%20%282%29.mp3

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AverageGuy

15 years ago

IMHO, yes, it is worse. We are in depression now. What results this depression? Personally, I think it is because of these "elite" guys in wall street, and CEOs, these rich guys. Their greedy made this happen. The financial system was ok, but these guys' greedy make them used the system to "rob" people. Now, the government has to save them, but where the $ come from? The government can not just print $. it will make things worse.

The worst thing is: because of this depression, the entire financial system is in crisis. Many people lost confidence in wall street. $ comes and $ goes, it is normal. but if people lost confidence in this financial system, that's a diastaer. See madoff, how much $ general people lost because of him? he was so famous, and he did this for so long a time, how could this happen? will you believe anyone else from wall street?

econmy may come back in several years, but how long does it take to restore general people's confidence?

just my 2 cents.

david

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acreativetouch

15 years ago

Isn't it going into a deflation? EVERYTHING is becoming lesser and lesser in value.

I get a marketing newsletter, and that is what is being warned about. What is worse than the Great Depression is that our US economy had a building point....then. Yes we were crashed, but we had a foundation to our economy.

Now we don't and the world's economy is dependent on the US dollar, and the US economy is dependant not on gold but IOU's and debt...which means, it has no solid-gold / silver / platinum based foundation which means a free-fall without any breaks. Now, I'm not an economist, so I'm listening to experts who are. I didn't get a chance to read the article, but I will.

What is scary about this current downward spiral is that with the foundation on gold, we could reach a bottom and come back up....now, without a precious metal core to our economy, we have no foundation...so we have an economic bottomless pit.

I agree that IN ANY CLIMATE, you can profit off it...IF you understand the economic cycle. But, this hasn't happened in US history because the Gold Standard stood until 1974 when Nixon removed it. So, we have no historic precedent by which to evaluate probability patterns, to my knowledge. This one is a tricky one to plan for because our monetary system has no solid foundation. So, what do we do?

If there are any economists in the group, I would appreciate some input here too.

Dorothy

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derekwong28

15 years ago

Having gone through a depression 10 years ago during the Asian Financial Crisis, I would say this is probably not as scary as it sounds. If you get deflation, your purchasing power will remain or even increase provided your income remains steady. Having said that, I am much more worried this time because now I am in business on my own and that like many other people, my investments had been hit badly.

During the Great Depression, it was thought that the main reason why things turned out so bad was that banks were allowed to collapsed and people's savings weren't insured. That meant that nobody was willing to put money into the banks. Another reason was protectionism and I hope that we will not make these same mistakes again.

As far as the argument about global asset bubbles. Although I agree with that, it is worthwhile remembering that in the 1930's, the American economy accounted for over half the world's economy. Therefore, just the bursting of the American bubble was enough.

My hunch is the current situation will turn out like Japan, whose economy has been anaemic since its bubble bursted in 1989. But Japan is wealthy enough so that hardships are relatively contained over there. Therefore, I am much more worried about poorer countries this time.

Another worry is that the Feds are printing money indiscriminately. I am quite scared about what the result could be down the line.

Derek

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jimrpips

Banned 15 years ago

[DELETED]

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Kay King

15 years ago

That pre-supposes that customers refusing to buy stuff
in the real world will somehow be willing to spend on the
Internet. The hard fact is that there is less money or credit
around ...and people/businesses are increasingly reluctant
to spend/invest what little they may have.

True to a great extent - but looking at cutbacks I've made (as I think it is going to get worse I'm doing what I can to keep myself stable) I notice my own online spending has replaced much of my offline spending and much of it is only on standard items that I replace here and there. Not paying the 7% state sales tax is worth it on many items when shipping is free.

Gas prices are likely to shoot up again towards summer and consumers have become much more accustomed to buying online. Marketers have the ability to change course quickly and move to a different product, etc - and that beats working in a store with fixed lines of products. Plus - consumers have gotten more accustomed to buying online in the past 2-3 years.

kay

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myob 15 years ago

According to the World Economic Forum--the Davos people--for the second straight year judged the United States as possessing the most competitive economy in the world. Then came Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Singapore. People with incomes of over $30 million are expected to spend more in 2009 than ever before. The economic bears may be very surprised.
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gareth

15 years ago

If its not handled correctly western civilization and democracy could be over.

It is bigger than any previous economic event - hense worse in that sense. But due to "progress" each depression each century seems easier to live through than the previous one.

So is it worse ? Only if some terrorists exploit the turmoil and waste a few million people or if china/russia decide they are done with us.

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Gareth M Thomas
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Zachary R. Skinner

15 years ago

Originally Posted by gareth

So is it worse ? Only if some terrorists exploit the turmoil and waste a few million people or if china/russia decide they are done with us.

What happens if china and russia decide they are done with us? Aren't the chinese heavily invested in our economy?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this....

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gareth

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Zachary R. Skinner

What happens if china and russia decide they are done with us? Aren't the chinese heavily invested in our economy?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by this....

I shouldnt have posted that remark as its political.

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mgk1

15 years ago

gosh, I sure hope it isn't. So many people out of work this Christmas. I do hope things will improve over the new year.

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