Who still thinks there will be an economic "recovery"?

As in, at some point we go back so-called "normal", houses start appreciating like mad, well-paying jobs fall out of the skies, ordinary people start buying flat screen TVs and RVs and taking trips to Cancun again?

Personally, I don't see it happening. There have been permanent, fundamental shifts in the world economy and middle class America has been permanently dethroned from our place of privilege.

At best, I see us as a sort of post-Empire Great Britain, dwindling off into the sunset in a sort of genteel poverty with memories of better days. At worst, I see us sinking into a quasi-third world nightmare with Juarez or inner city Detroit as the model.

I'm sure most of you are much more optimistic. But when I look at what is coming down the pike, sorry, I can't just be all chirpy about it. And it matters not one whit who inhabits the White House. It's about 30 years too late to pretend we're anything but screwed.

AspenValley wrote: As in, at some point we go back so-called "normal", houses start appreciating like mad, well-paying jobs fall out of the skies, ordinary people start buying flat screen TVs and RVs and taking trips to Cancun again?

Personally, I don't see it happening. There have been permanent, fundamental shifts in the world economy and middle class America has been permanently dethroned from our place of privilege.

At best, I see us as a sort of post-Empire Great Britain, dwindling off into the sunset in a sort of genteel poverty with memories of better days. At worst, I see us sinking into a quasi-third world nightmare with Juarez or inner city Detroit as the model.

I'm sure most of you are much more optimistic. But when I look at what is coming down the pike, sorry, I can't just be all chirpy about it. And it matters not one whit who inhabits the White House. It's about 30 years too late to pretend we're anything but screwed.

I hate to agree, but mostly do. Can't buck history.I would love to believe in the exceptionalism , but not quite there. My best guess is some hybrid that may take years.

I'm afraid I have to agree... I think things have fundamentally changed, and there's been a paradigm-shift that has changed things in a way that will never see them come back the way they were before...

And I also agree that it won't matter who's in the White House... This took 10-15 years to get here, and it's not going to be changed by one party over the other. I worry that we'll be permanently screwed if the conservatives get control as much as I'm sure the conservatives think the reverse... "Fasten your seatbelts...It's going to be bumpy ride."

Alas, I also am forced to agree.
The scales seem to have become so unbalanced that only a wildly disruptive sway in the opposite direction could (eventually) restore political, economic and social sanity.
Like watching the cliche'd slow-mo train wreck.

Didn't we hear the same meme when Carter was President?

Not like this...Not that I remember....

And I was a Republican then....

neptunechimney wrote: Didn't we hear the same meme when Carter was President?

No.

rofllol
When hell freezes over and pigs fly.



Our government has no idea how to fix the problem and as stated it took years to get to this point.
People tend to be complacent when the economy is sorta good and then panick when it isn't.
Been thru Carter and all that so we are always prepaired.

Realistically, historically, the ONLY reason we pulled our asses out of the Depression was a war. Wel, this time we're in a war already - so that's not going to pull us out.

Ths state of being has been building since the late 60, early 70s - to expect magic is unrealistic.

I think we will eventually struggle through and get a 2-3% growth recovery. It would probably come quicker if we had optimistic forward thinking leaders with a "can-do" positive attitude. Instead we have partisian bickering, class-warfare, and blame game. I recommend listening to Warren Buffett for an example of the way a true leader should speak. None of the leaders we have today remind me of Buffett, or Reagan or JFK. More like Carters and Nixons. Or the Three Stooges. And with the meat grinders the media puts candidates thru 24/7 it is doubtful we will get good candidates.