Chicago On It's Way To Becoming The Next Detroit?

9 years ago

A lot of cities big and small are heading down that path.

Syracuse is using 20 million in emergency funds to keep thing going.....exactly what do you do when the economy is going full blast, and you still can't balance the budget?!?!

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Kay King

9 years ago

Interesting - and chilling - interview with Peter Schiff

Peter Schiff Says The Real Financial Crisis Is About to Hit | Wall Street Daily

He is the economist who accurately predicted the recession long before it happened - and he says now "that was a preliminary recession". His view is the propping up of the economy by two administrations in the form of bailouts will only make the problem worse in the long run.

I hope he's wrong. The plan we've had is to prop up the economy until it can begin to recover on it's own....it's worked that way before but doesn't seem to be working as well this time. That concerns me.

Schiff's most chilling comment is "eventually we will run out of fools willing to lend to us..."

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ThomM

9 years ago

Something I've always wondered about.
If a person or business constantly borrows money and then has to borrow more money to pay back what they first borrowed it leads to bankruptcy. That's a bad thing.
If a government (any level) does the same thing it's called improving the economy and is a good thing?
It's not like they are using the money to make more money like businesses and people try to do.

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Kay King

9 years ago

Interesting to look at Google results about financial matters in the US. There were plenty of articles through the end of 2014. Then in Jan, in the State of the Union message - we were told the financial crisis is over. Articles seemed to stop. It was like we all believed the problems were in the past. It made no sense to me but I'm not a finance expert.

The absence of economic reporting may be over as I've seen some new info out there:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-0...conomic-crisis

We've exceed 18 trillion in debt now - and you don't have to be a genius to realize you can't continue on that path forever. Some say it's not a problem - and perhaps it isn't right up until the moment it becomes a problem.

Edit: Maybe it's human nature. We fear something and have dire predictions but then we get used to a harsher reality and to us that begins to look like a recovery? There seems to be more optimism now about the economy but I don't understand why that's true. Makes me wonder what part of "good" I'm not seeing.

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MikeAmbrosio

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

Interesting to look at Google results about financial matters in the US. There were plenty of articles through the end of 2014. Then in Jan, in the State of the Union message - we were told the financial crisis is over. Articles seemed to stop. It was like we all believed the problems were in the past. It made no sense to me but I'm not a finance expert.

The absence of economic reporting may be over as I've seen some new info out there:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-0...conomic-crisis

We've exceed 18 trillion in debt now - and you don't have to be a genius to realize you can't continue on that path forever. Some say it's not a problem - and perhaps it isn't right up until the moment it becomes a problem.

Edit: Maybe it's human nature. We fear something and have dire predictions but then we get used to a harsher reality and to us that begins to look like a recovery? There seems to be more optimism now about the economy but I don't understand why that's true. Makes me wonder what part of "good" I'm not seeing.

Ah, don't worry Kay. By the end of the day you'll have any NUMBER of financial "experts" weigh in and tell you why things are great and why things are not.

Stay tuned...

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Joe Mobley

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

There seems to be more optimism now about the economy but I don't understand why that's true.

Those with a political agenda are reporting more optimism about the economy.

It has been my experience that those with a political agenda are often at variance with the facts at hand.

Originally Posted by Kay King

Makes me wonder what part of "good" I'm not seeing.

Your vision is excellent. There is little "good" to see.

Joe Mobley

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TLTheLiberator

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Joe Mobley

Those with a political agenda are reporting more optimism about the economy.

It has been my experience that those with a political agenda are often at variance with the facts at hand.

Your vision is excellent. There is little "good" to see.

Joe Mobley

About Chicago, the idiot Stossel didn't even say the tax base is leaving Chicago in droves like they did in Detroit which would signal a major problem - but he didn't even say that was happening.

And since the thread morphed into a another "chicken little" thread about the U.S. economy...

Let's see...

According to wikepedia, the guy is not an economist, so anyone who describes him as as one - would be mistaken. But hey, wikipedia could be wrong and also everyone's entitled to their opinion.

BTW, he also just happens to sell gold which dovetails right into his chicken little utterings.

Peter Schiff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He also predicted gold at $5K back in 2012...

Trader smacks down Peter Schiff:

There's a couple facts for you Joe.

This dude IMHO, is a glorified, wall street Glenn Beck - (without the odorous social commentary) - scaring the crap out of folks while selling them gold etc. -

What a business model.

BTW, the economy has recovered from losing a whopping 700-800K jobs per month back in 2009 to now generating 200K jobs per month for the last 12 months.

That's another fact Joe.

2014 was the best job creation year since the late 1990s.

That's another fact Joe.

The yearly deficit has come down from 1.4 trill in 2009 to about 400 billion by the end of 2015.

That's another fact Joe.

So therefore folks will still fight over themselves to lend us any money we need to meet all our obligations until we have a balanced budget and then we won't have to borrow anything from anyone.

Historic Fact Joe:

We had a 2 balanced budgets back in the late 1990s and as a matter of FACT, we handed the admin of #43 a 200 billion plus yearly surplus.

BTW,

...our ability to pay back lenders was never in any doubt whatsoever, by anyone until saboteurs (folks who happen to think like you) started playing political games with the debt ceiling.

We're not where we want to be... (and no responsible person is saying we have a rip-roaring economy right now)

... but at least we're out of the danger zone in regards to the debt situation and as far as job creation is concerned -

and BTW...

... we'd be a whole lot further along in the recovery if it had not been for the ass-backwards, kamikaze like, saboteurs (BTW, people who think like yourself)...

... playing political games with the American economy and American lives over the last 6 years.

You're entitled to believe anything you want Joe but I wouldn't even bet your life on this guy's prediction of another supposedly even worse crash than the great recession - anytime soon.

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Kay King

9 years ago

They're already in hock for water and are doing extremely little about conservation.

I was literally shocked watching the news out of CA last week. The person speaking talks about 4 year severe drought and how this year is not expected to improve.

They show 40% of CA in a disastrous drought situation - say an area of the state WILL RUN OUT OF WATER in one year if the drought continues.

Then they say "for that reason, lawn watering and car washing may be restricted". Seriously? That's their plan?

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TimPhelan

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Kay King

I was literally shocked watching the news out of CA last week. The person speaking talks about 4 year severe drought and how this year is not expected to improve.

They show 40% of CA in a disastrous drought situation - say an area of the state WILL RUN OUT OF WATER in one year if the drought continues.

Then they say "for that reason, lawn watering and car washing may be restricted". Seriously? That's their plan?

Water conservation/restrictions are part of the plan and a very inexpensive effective way to deal with a drought. We have had water rationing before in California. We are also spending billions of dollars on water desalination projects. Not sure what other solutions there are.

The crews are building what boosters say represents California's best hope for a drought-proof water supply: the largest ocean desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. The $1 billion project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day for San Diego County when it opens in 2016...

Fifteen desalination projects are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay.

Nation's largest ocean desalination plant goes up near San Diego; Future of the California coast? - San Jose Mercury News

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TimPhelan

9 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

He also predicted gold at $5K back in 2012...

Yeah, he also has made some predictions about hyperinflation and unemployment in 2009: "I know inflation is going to get worse in 2010. Whether it's going to run out of control or it's going to take until 2011 or 2012, but I know we're going to have a major currency crisis coming soon. It's going to dwarf the financial crisis and it's going to send consumer prices absolutely ballistic, as well as interest rates and unemployment."

Lol.

The economy in California is doing just fine. We went through several years growth of around 4% and this year will pass Brazil as the 7th largest economy even though Brazil has 5 times our population. Plus, we have dealt with the budget problems from a few years back and now have a surplus. Not bad for a bunch of left wing socialists!

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ThomM

9 years ago

Originally Posted by TimPhelan

Yeah, he also has made some predictions about hyperinflation and unemployment in 2009: "I know inflation is going to get worse in 2010. Whether it's going to run out of control or it's going to take until 2011 or 2012, but I know we're going to have a major currency crisis coming soon. It's going to dwarf the financial crisis and it's going to send consumer prices absolutely ballistic, as well as interest rates and unemployment."

Lol.

The economy in California is doing just fine. We went through several years growth of around 4% and this year will pass Brazil as the 7th largest economy even though Brazil has 5 times our population. Plus, we have dealt with the budget problems from a few years back and now have a surplus. Not bad for a bunch of left wing socialists!

Yea not bad at all.

Before the bottling plant opened, the spring in Millard Canyon was once used as a source of local drinking water. Then, in the early 2000s, the Cabazon Water District sold the spring water rights to the Morongo Tribe for $3 million. Soon afterwards, the tribe announced a 25-year deal with the Perrier Group of America, owned by Nestlé, to produce Arrowhead water.Nestle taps reservation for water despite drought

Real smart move.

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Cali16

9 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

BTW, the economy has recovered from losing a whopping 700-800K jobs per month back in 2009 to now generating 200K jobs per month for the last 12 months.

Unfortunately, those "job generation" statistics mean very little when many, if not most, of those jobs are part-time, minimum wage (or just slightly above) that come with little to no benefits. No one can survive (i.e. support themselves sufficiently) on those types of jobs, let alone support a family.

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TLTheLiberator

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Cali16

Unfortunately, those "job generation" statistics mean very little when many, if not most, of those jobs are part-time, minimum wage (or just slightly above) that come with little to no benefits.

No one can survive (i.e. support themselves sufficiently) on those types of jobs, let alone support a family.

Great observation.

IMHO, a bunch of crappy jobs being generated is better than no jobs being generated at all.

As and if the economy continues to get better, we should see businesses acting more generous toward their workers in order to retain them.

Millions of high paying jobs could easily be generated if we'd simply upgrade this nation's infrastructure, go green and invest in our people.

But as it is nowadays, its one sluggish step at a time for the recovery from the Great Recession.

Some job creation stats are here and according to the article and Source: National Employment Law Project, a little under half the jobs created are low paying ones.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/bu...paid-ones.html

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seasoned

9 years ago

In a LOT of ways, Chicago has been like Detroit for YEARS! That is NOT a compliment! HECK, a lot of people point out a problem in the US that is not NEARLY as bad as they say, and mainly affects 4 places. The 2 biggest of the 4? Detroit and Chicago! Yeah, they are trying to hurt the US, and the ones that have the biggest Ponzi schemes should be the first to show problems. It has really been known forever, but this IS what caused Charles all that trouble, around 1921! But HEY, 8 years later a bunch of people that went all in to the stock market, and HEAVILY in debt, ended up seeing how things could quickly turn. And don't forget that a lot of those pensions will be in STOCK! What happens THEN? Well, around 2001 a lot of people had similar problems and questions with THEIR pensions. THEY WERE in a good reliable stock until a little company called ENRON bought them out. As for THEM? Well, they no longer had enough to retire!

Steve