fast1

I believe that this recession is unique in that it's a combination of a cyclical downturn in consumer demand coupled with a near collapse of financial institutions. In retrospect you can clearly see that the economy was in decline beginning in December 2007, and then we had the collapse in housing prices which precipitated the near collapse of financial institutions. Our government will try to stave off a depression by incurring trillion dollar deficits for many years to come. When you pile on the looming unfunded SS and Medicare mandates, things could get really ugly. Medicare expenses in particular will be very troublesome within the next four years.

Sorry to be so negative, but I just don't buy into the things will get better soon message being offered by many economists, since the optimism is based solely on time frames of prior recessions. Bottom line is that consumers are being very conservative with their spending and in my opinion, that's a prudent approach.

KeninBlaine

Fast1: I agree. No one likes pessimism, because by nature it is a little depressing. But unfortunately some of the pessimists (such as Roubini and Taleb) have been right more often than the optimists in the last year or so. GM's Wagoner has tried to present the typical optimistic upbeat outlook for years, despite the unraveling of GM's market share. That sense of optimism did nothing to help GM.

Roubini:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ProjZmApbV0

richc

This economy ain’t gonna be fixed quick and remember, the fixes might be worse than the problem.

ryangambrill

RonCT

We will all just have to see. But I remember the last 2 major recessions when all the pundits said "the foundation of the economy is a wreck, we may never come out of this thing, etc." I'm already seeing a significant increase in my business. Inventory is down, demand is up. One never knows for sure, but in a fluid and dynamic economic market place one has to believe things will self-correct. If we don't believe that, then we all might as well give up. I'm not saying things are rosie, just that we've been in terrible economic times before (remember 11% unemployment and 18-20% interest rates?) and we'll be in them in the future too.

MHC2S

Ron for President,