Lets see. Given my POV, a native Michigander who finally got hit by a layoff too and who’s fiance was laid off last December…

We didn’t have a mortgage. I wasn’t spending beyond my means nor he his, in fact, I’d cut back my spending and expenses drastically over the months to account for my hours and pay rate being cut and his layoff. I was not lazy nor dead wood, nor was he, we were both praised in our exit interviews and given references. Those of you assuming victims of layoffs are so obviously have never been let go in this way.

As my fortune has it, I have an oppertunity to go to school and improve myself so that hopefully I can get a better paying job in the future.

But to do this, I, like many, will have to get my ’soup kitchen card’ for food stamps to survive. Because if I don’t, I can’t pay my rent or insurance, both of which are needs, not wants. I have a used car and need internet to job search so that’s also a need not a want that I must pay for, as too is electricity. We really don’t have much left over after we pay for these things.

Optimisim is all well and good and in spite of everything I know I can return to work making more in a couple years. Hiking is free and so is using up art supplies I’d bought but never had time to use.

Optimisim is good, but I sort of doubt Trent has ever cried because someone bought his family dinner becuse they knew had they not, he and his family would have gone without that night because they had no liquid income to do so.

I have.

The stimulus package cannot spend us out of the recession; it will just put us deeper into debt.
You can’t keep zombie banks alive; Japan tried that in the 1990’s. We need to purge the misinvestments and let deflation bring housing prices back to sane levels instead of trying to inflate our way out of the crisis.

Bubbles are caused by central banks printing too much money – the true meaning of inflation.
The Fed engineered 1% interest rates and you wonder why we had a bubble with enormous misinvestment? The only solution for an artificial boom is deflation. Only then will prices fall to market-clearing levels.

The Fed has injected so much money that if the banks start lending again, we will be whipsawed by runaway inflation. Right now, banks are just trying to boost their reserves. For some, it is too late.

lol

Such straight talk is simply refreshing.

I love how you cut through all the crap and tell it like it is.

Life is not what happens to you, but, HOW you REACT to it.

This recession, as you say isn’t even close to the great depression.

We ll get through it , because we CHOOSE to get through it.

Stay positive. Ignore the negative and the spin.
excellent article!
Spot on, my friend.

Don’t you worry your goodselves, the US economy is strong and resilient & we have a STRONG DOLLAR policy – said ex King Henry when Bear Sterns hedge funds were failing in July of 2007 (just 18 months ago)…

AHEM! the talking stick is now in the hands of BigLiar Geithner that recently managed to piss off the US main creditor, labelling the Chinese “currency manipulators” in order to extort the votes needed for his nomination as the Empire master taxman.

Are you going to believe that things are ready to improve? Who is going to lend to a lying through its teeth America? The Chinese?
Do we really think they are THAT dumb? I would rather hope not!

We’d better think again! The Chinese might very well understand that the US is THE currency manipulator, printing fiat IOUnothings Federal Reserve Notes in a pathetic attempt to inflate its way out of debt; they would then not only stop financing the outrageous US deficits, but also likely send back their treasury bonds and demand payment.

Do you understand what the consequences would be for your financial future?
Are you prepared?
Would you bet your future on the remote chance that the American Character that Obama appealed to still exists?

Roosevelt, when visiting the grand Canyon said “leave it alone, you cannot improve it!” – Obama reported it in his speech – I say leave this economy alone, it is drowning in fiat paper, pouring more won’t help.

Leave the economy alone, let the cycle unfold, unsustainable activities will end, soon replaced by regenerated ones.

And while you are at it, leave the constitution alone, you cannot improve it.

In many rural areas of America, unemployment rates have long been in the 30% range, with workers on welfare who can’t get the bucks together to relocate where the work is (or, now, was). Far more of this country is rural than urban, and many of these workers have been counting on the rise in telecommuting to eventually find work. Now that customer service jobs are being outsourced to India and other homework-eligible jobs are going out of the country, rural area will become even more depressed. These regions have become hotbeds of methamphetamine cooking and greenshine-growing, and Mexican competition for these illegal businesses, as well as minimum-wage harvesting jobs, has put far more of America out of business than urban dwellers ever could imagine.

The recession has been here for ten years or more. Clinton started it with NAFTA, and concealed it by a minimum-wage increase and currency manipulation.
Bush accelerated it, and we are truly on the highway to another Great Depression unless corporate America puts its citizens back to work and its money into capital improvements instead of into golden parachutes and other boardroom frippery.

The last two quarters in the UK featured negative GDP growth. (-.6% in Q3 of 2008 and -1.5% in Q4 of 2008.) If you look at the headlines, they’ll say something like “UK Officially IN Recession,” not something like “Recession Officially Begins in UK.” The recession in the UK started sometime in mid 2008. Not January.

As for a dust bowl? Our agricultural practices are totally unsustainable and coupled with climate change could result in a pretty fierce dust bowl.

I do agree that we shouldn’t panic and worry (Matthew 6:25-34) about the doom and gloom. Personally I’ve been trying to simplify my life and spending not for a recession or depression, but because it’s a better lifestyle regardless of the economic climate.

Really enjoy the blog.

Can someone correct me, if I am mistaken?

Yes, those rates can be refinanced at a lower rate, but only if you now qualify based upon income and the amount of the loan. Probably 80% of alt-A loans were based upon fraudulent income figures and that kind of underwriting doesn’t exist now in this market (thankfully). And, leaving the income verification aside, if your home is valued at betwen 10-30% less than it was when you bought it, you may not qualify in this market because you might not have any equity. So the idea that the interest rate drop is a solution to this has to take that into account.

Re: the restaurants, malls, etc. I agree some may be in denial or overspending, but I’m not sure whole restaurants full of people count. It may be different where you live, I’m just reporting what I see.

Best thing to do in my mind, that so many forget, is just to know your situation. Using a tool like BudgetPuluse (http://budgetpulse.com) will help so much in understanding where you sit financially and how to react to the “huge” news stories.