Can Someone Please Pick Up "Hope and Change" and...

A lot more Wall Street folks understand the truths of Austrian economics than most people realize. They know that now that the election's over, the 545 will start pumping paper into the economy trying to heat it up again, when the real problem is that there's already too much national and consumer debt out there to ever pay off, our manufacturing base is gone, and when all the deleveraging that's going on is over, inflation's going to ramp up.

When that happens, foreign countries stop lending, and since we spent all that money we borrowed on wars and entitlements, instead of capital investment, we have no capability to produce goods to redeem our dollars with. Combine inflation (almost 2 trillion over the last 3 months, plus what's coming) with a glut of dollars already on the international market, and it's not a pretty picture.

As Peter Schiff says, at some point, the Dow and the price of an ounce of gold will cross paths. Gold's going a lot higher and the Dow's going a lot lower in the long run, unless the politicians suddenly decide to institute a better fiscal policy than we've seen in the last 40 years or so.

Hope's a wonderful thing, but with out REAL change and drastically reduced spending by the Federal Government, neither of which I expect to happen, hope's not going to be enough to prevent a long and ugly depression. Almost everything I've heard proposed on both sides of the aisle in DC is going to prolong the problem, not correct it.

You can't consume more than you produce indefinately, whether you're a household or a country. We're about to learn that lesson in a very dramatic way.

billythrilly7th said:

I know they aren't his policies that led to the crisis, but I truly believed that people giddy on hope and change would buy buy buy today.

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I totally splurged today.

billythrilly7th said:

I really hope you are wrong.

Can hope be enough to prevent someone else's statement about hope not being enough from coming true?

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Remember the old saying, "You can't fool mother nature?" There are natural laws of economics. Just because your name is John Maynard Keynes, or you happen to believe the things he said, does not negate those natural laws. The same law that has applied to every fiat currency ever issued applies to the dollar as well.

In the early stages, it's early to disguise, but exponential growth always wins in the end. Today's dollar has the purchasing power of a nickle in 1913.

However, when I was a teenager, I could buy a gallon of gas for a (still circulating) silver quarter and a really nice suit for the price of an ounce of gold.

Today, I can still buy a gallon of gas for the current CASH VALUE of a SILVER quarter, and I can still buy a really nice suit for the price of an ounce of gold.

Goods haven't increased much at all in price. The value of the dollar, however, has been on a downward spiral for almost 100 years, and really accelerated after Nixon completed the disconnection between gold and paper currency.

ETA: I really would prefer to be wrong. I'm retired, and the dollars I have today represent the total of my earnings ever. Unless I play the market right, I'm going to hate the days of $50 gas and $100 hamburgers.

billythrilly7th said:

Thank you.

We the people could end this nightmare by going out and spending.

Just spend.

And things can turn around.

It's pretty simple.

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I have done my part. The marble is bee-you-ti-ful!

billythrilly7th said:

Thank you.

We the people could end this nightmare by going out and spending.

Just spend.

And things can turn around.

It's pretty simple.

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*runs out to buy more cute Halloween costumes*

Can you lend me a twenty, Billy?

To be honest, Billy, I suspect Obama wants to try and help the American people restucture their lives toward less consumerism. I don't know for certain that he'll try that. But he's smart enough to know that "endless growth" is a lie and that we need to think about a new way of engaging in our economy.

Does clearance shopping count?

I'm looking for a second job. That's gotta count.

But he's smart enough to know that "endless growth" is a lie

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For awhile, a few years back, I had decided that the "American Dream" was a lie. Then I figured out that the dream we're being sold on these days isn't the same one they were talking about when the phrase was coined back in the 30's.

The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.

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Just as the right to the pursuit of happiness isn't the same as having a right to happiness.

Maybe the hope that was stirred last night will hold. I hope so. And no offense, but I don't think any of us have any business sitting on the sidelines or the porch.

The work's just starting, and hope won't do the work. But it might help get folks up in the morning and out the door.

As long as everyone isn't going out and spending on credit...

That reminds me: http://www.petitiononline.com/cccir299/petition.html

What about thrift stores. . . Do they count?



Oh, oh, we ate out today. And what I spend groceries should sustain the economy since all the neighborhood children insist on hanging around through meal time. My mom warned me that if I fed them once, they'd just keep coming back.

C.bronco said:

That reminds me: http://www.petitiononline.com/cccir299/petition.html

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If only it was a petition to remove credit from the equation altogether...

My Hubby is enlisted Army, we make WAY less than $100K a year. Yeah, definitely have to budget. But we at least get to shop at the commissary which does have slightly better prices. Dang kids, think they need 3 whole meals a day. Pfff.

I'm starting to shop at Costco. For one. And a big freezer...

Do you know you can buy a lot -- I mean probably two weeks' worth (for one guy) of chicken -- for like $15? Like $1.49 a pound. That's a lot of chicken. Like I'll be eating chicken until Thanksgiving.

And I probably have enough shampoo until 2012.

maestrowork said:

I'm starting to shop at Costco. For one. And a big freezer...

Do you know you can buy a lot -- I mean probably two weeks' worth (for one guy) of chicken -- for like $15? Like $1.49 a pound. That's a lot of chicken. Like I'll be eating chicken until Thanksgiving.

And I probably have enough shampoo until 2012.

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Ahh, it's so cute when a man discovers the thrill of a bargain for the first time.

MacAllister said:

I've been watching the price of groceries go up and up and up and wondering how on EARTH anyone is supposed to pay a mortgage and feed a couple of kids anything like a healthy, balanced diet, on less than $100K a year.

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It's VERY hard. We just added the cost of two girls in college to that budget and the belts they are a-tightenin' around these here parts. Probably the only thing that helps us is that we don't buy anything on credit at all.

MacAllister said:

I've been watching the price of groceries go up and up and up and wondering how on EARTH anyone is supposed to pay a mortgage and feed a couple of kids anything like a healthy, balanced diet, on less than $100K a year.

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I literally live on ramen and peanut butter sandwiches.

Bartholomew said:

I literally live on ramen and peanut butter sandwiches.

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Bart, slowly pour in two beaten eggs when the noodles are about cooked and you have my version of egg drop soup.

And for a healthy alternative, instead of jelly on you peanut butter sandwich, try sliced banana - or, slice an apple and load it up with peanut butter.

Another tip - for fruit that's a day past its prime - it goes into a blender with a container of any flavored yougart and a few ice cubes for a great tasting smoothie.