Are you afraid about the economy?

Kingofhearts - Heavens Tear

Today the U.S. stock market is down, even after the $700 billion bailout deal on Friday. It is starting to look like a Depression could be coming. In the news this morning they are saying that many more banks are sure to fail in the next year.
Is the economy and financial troubles affecting you and your family?
I'm sitting here contemplating normal grocery shopping this week. I'm thinking about starting to stock up on non-perishables, rice, beans, canned vegetables, in the event the economy collapses.
This is the first time I have been really worried about our financial system.
What's your take on it?

Zoe - Heavens Tear

My take on it is that people got so greedy with prices, no one can afford anything and the problem we have now is the direct result. I've watched it happen in a game, now in real life as well. With the way things are in this game it will happen here too.

Stop the greed and you won't have another depression, ever.

gattsuru

I remember worse. 1987 wasn't all that long ago. There'll be a lot of instability (hence the stock market prices; stocks are based on what people believe the value of a given share of a company to be adjusted by several factors, and one of those factors is common knowledge of how markets react, which tends to produce instability during any major event), and I can see a lot of lenders going under, but usury is the sort of field that encourages new folk to enter the market.

We could end up with a second Roosevelt -- and if you think that's a good thing, I strongly suggest looking at the unemployment numbers around the time of his court packing attempt -- but short of that I'd expect a fairly typical credit crunch that ends up with small businesses getting purchased by large ones and a small bump in unemployment.

Of course, that all said, I've already got a few hundred pounds of venison, a reasonable supply of firearms ammo, and non-perishables in the first place, so I may not be a good gauge of how people react to instability.

Anezka - Lost City

Honestly? I'm not afraid about the economy at all. There were a lot of people that made good money during the Great Depression. Besides, being paranoid about something that might happen only cripples you. Dropping the d word only only makes people panic, and the more people that panic, the faster a depression will come.

Kingofhearts - Heavens Tear

Anezka - Lost City wrote: »

Honestly? I'm not afraid about the economy at all. There were a lot of people that made good money during the Great Depression. Besides, being paranoid about something that might happen only cripples you. Dropping the d word only only makes people panic, and the more people that panic, the faster a depression will come.

I'm not old enough to remember The Great Depression, although from what I've read about it, it wasn't fun, and there weren't tons of people making good money.
Watching the trends and paying attention to what's happening and being prepared is something that wise people do.
I've been around for almost half a century, and this is the first time in my entire life that I've been worried about a Depression. (Oh boy I'm dropping the D word like mad here.) Talking about it isn't going to create it, and burying your head in the sand isn't going to prevent it, either.
When banks start dropping like flies, it's time to pay attention.

Also, the S&L crisis of the late 80's was at a total cost of around $160 billion. The $700 billion bailout now is only scratching the surface according to some experts. That scares me.

Feraldreamzz - Sanctuary

I think we will go into a recession, if we're not in one already. I think things will get worse before they get better, but I don't believe it'll get so bad, we go into another Depression.

This has happened before and will happen again. In the 70's Dow Jones dropped 42%, 80's dropped 22%, and in 2001 dropped 22%. From what I've been hearing, right now it's about at 2004 levels, and down about 30% from the record highs in 2007. Don't know the outcome for current times yet, but I don't see it dropping over 70% like it did in the 30's.

But I'm not an expert on the economy, didn't like econ classes lol. I just think we have the ability to make the needed changes and not let us get too far into a spiraling downfall.

gattsuru

Talking about it isn't going to create it

I'd argue against that particular point. Making the presumption that it's already the Great Depression mark II tends to encourage instability in the markets and decrease investor confidence, neither of which are good economic things.

When we start looking at the track records of folks who are talking about it, that gets even worse. Harry Reid and Charles Schumer have previously talked about a iffy industries and resulted in effective "bank runs" on them, even though it turned out that in at least one case the subject was previously solvent. The recent mandate on increasing the duration of unemployment insurance was based on largely faulty numbers, but thanks to how unemployment works (essentially a 'bathtub' arc with most people either getting rehired with the first week of unemployment or as their unemployment pay ends), the mandate almost certainly helped bump this quarter's unemployment rate.

There's a lot of potential for damage. Maybe the government could make the right decisions and fix the problem, but given the potential for things to be made worse, I'd prefer to be cautious.

Anezka - Lost City

Kingofhearts - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I'm not old enough to remember The Great Depression, although from what I've read about it, it wasn't fun, and there weren't tons of people making good money.
Watching the trends and paying attention to what's happening and being prepared is something that wise people do.
I've been around for almost half a century, and this is the first time in my entire life that I've been worried about a Depression. (Oh boy I'm dropping the D word like mad here.) Talking about it isn't going to create it, and burying your head in the sand isn't going to prevent it, either.
When banks start dropping like flies, it's time to pay attention.

Also, the S&L crisis of the late 80's was at a total cost of around $160 billion. The $700 billion bailout now is only scratching the surface according to some experts. That scares me.

Although there weren't tons making good money, there still were some, nonetheless.

Talking about it won't create it, but I'm going to be extremely politically incorrect here and say that people are panicky, stupid creatures (myself included.) What will create it is stirring panic in the masses, causing them to think hastily and irrationally.b:faint

ghangis

just wondering

Dantalion - Dreamweaver

Greed is the new black. b:sweat

KageYingZi - Heavens Tear

*facepalm*
How did a 2 year old thread get necro-ed

aryannamage

Another one who needs a kick up the backside.