America is Heading for a depression

Since 2007 we have seen the down fall of our economy one step at a time, while our own government and the financial experts were claiming that we have a strong economy, behind the scenes the reality of our situation was kept hidden.

We saw the inflation first as the gas prices in the beginning of the year raise to the highest ever, we complained about food prices too as our wages stay the same for most American workers.

Now finally the topic of deflation is been discussed as part of the second step in our economic downfall, Americans welcome the fall of gas prices as a blessing to their already strap wallets and the bargains now during the holidays has brought people to spend what they were saving due to the high prices of oil.

But meanwhile the nation is losing more that is gaining, about 20 million Americans has either lost their jobs or are partial unemployed (part time), more businesses are closing their doors and as the job loses increased so we will be heading to the third step to the economic collapse Depression.

Yes all the sign are there and we are re living the same what was supposed to be a historical time in our nation that we were supposed to over come in the present.

What our government has done to save us all, in engaged into trillion dollar bail out that has done nothing to fix anything as the intended purpose was change after the bill was passed.

Lower prices are probably at the bottom of the list of most Americans' current economic worries. But for a growing number of economists, it's their biggest fear.

A widespread drop in prices is known as deflation. And typically, it's not just the price of consumer goods that fall. Home prices, stock prices and even people's salaries often head lower as well.

The biggest problem with deflation is that when businesses need to continually cut prices to spur sales, they eventually respond by cutting production. That results in growing job losses, and could, in the worst case scenario, even cause a depression.

money.cnn.com...

[edit on 19-12-2008 by marg6043]

I believe we might already have one foot in the door.

Once Obama comes in and throws in several more trillions, we will be in the driver seat.

What really makes it all scary is we know were only 1/3 through this down trend... we'll see a short break this summer, 2009 but then the next wave of mortgage resets hit. ARM's and ALT A's are expected to top the sub prime crash... add to that many people are just walking away from upside down loans. those numbers grow daily. even new cars are just being handed back to the banks.

No I see it as were already in a deflationary spiral and if the powers that be don't act soon this is one we might just not recover from...

I truly believe that most Americans are already prepare to the coming depression, but is many also that are just full of the hopes given by our next president.

The hopes of more job creation that will save the economy, but that takes time, we are deep in a hole that the cost to the tax payer is already too big to ignore, specially in an economy that is losing everyday a littler bit of their taxable income.

The venture of the next government to be is to spend again our nation into oblivion.

The stimulus package that is been proposed is going to cost more trillions of dollars.

If the people that will be managing that money prove to be with the same mentality that the one that has squandered the bail out of the present administration, we may see nothing more than a dark future looming.

Our own government has prove that we can not trust them with money specially tax payer money.

Still most of the money has to come from abroad, from our lenders and we know right now that countries this time will have a hard time lending to our nation when our dollar keeps devaluating due to the Fed cuts on interest rates.

I prefer to be in the safe side and prepare for the worst.

I think it's already here. When our lame duck (and quick duck) president actually admits were in a depression you know it's bad...



Source:Reflecting on his legacy, Bush shows genial side and offers familiar defenses

However to be fair the federal government has set up several safeguards that have worked well to ensure that there wouldn't be a second great depression as bad as the one in the 1930s. The New Deal was a step in the right direction, however today as we see our industrial and economic industries draw to the brink of collapse we have to wonder what to do in order to steer away from this fiscal Armageddon.

This government has sought to do what exactly in order to try and save us all from a fate close to the 1930s? They sought to rob the treasury of every last nickle they could get their hands on and give it out to just about anybody smart enough to fill out a two page TARP application.

Starting with the bursting of the sub prime mortgage bubble two years ago, we have been on a steady slide into this second great depression for a while. The signs were all there. Fact of the matter is, that people here on ATS were warning about this for well over two years. Frankly this is the only kind of prediction on this site that has ever come to fruition.

But now that it's here there is scarcely little that the government can really do in order to stabilize this economy and get it moving again. Public works projects given to the federal government by the association of mayors includes projects that not only do not create any jobs but some of them are so full of pork that I would hope that this congress rejects it wholeheartedly or at least radically overhauls it.


Source:Mayors infrastructure request full of pork, critic says

What I am starting to wonder is, does anyone realise that the government is having a huge giveaway, a second mortgage on it's own liquid assets in order to stave off the inevitable? Do they think that creating a massive huge budget deficit at the taxpayer expense is going to revitalize an economy that does not have the tools it needs to self perpetuate it's own recovery?

Our society in this country has little manufacturing jobs, few real product producing jobs that haven't already been shipped overseas. The reason that we have such an astounding trade deficit with countries like China is that we don't really produce anything. Everything nowadays is being produced in china and other countries to be imported into this country by the very companies that exported those jobs to begin with.

Our call centers are all being outsourced to India with no one being able to really understand the person named "Chuck" on the other end of the phone.

Generally recessions only will last about 18 months, this one will prove to be a duzey and I wonder if our economy will be able to recover from it. Without the tools necessary to create good paying jobs for people that do not hold degrees its going to be very hard for this economy to recover. Without the manufacturing capacity that this nation once had it's going to be nearly impossible for us to catch up to those countries that we routinely trade with.

Honestly in my opinion I am starting to see a downward spiral of recession and bad decision making that is ultimately going to be the destruction of this society as a whole. What is worse is that the destruction of the American way of life may in fact bring down many other countries along with it.

Yes we are headed for a second great depression, if we haven't already entered it, and the future for this economy doesn't look to bright.

[edit on 12/19/2008 by whatukno]

reply to post by whatukno


Great article whatukno, the signs are all over but just like it took a long time for the financial gurus to admit that we were in a recession then inflation and deflation they will take much longer to claim depression.

But after the holidays we may see how much business will fall for bankruptcy that will be the beginning of the end.

CNBC analyst were talking about the real figures on the unemployment and he talks of how deceiving they are to the reality of the unemployed in the nation.

After the analysis it seem that about 20 million Americans are unemployed now or partial unemployed, meaning making lest of what they were making with full employment.

The real figures are more scary than the government dares to expose.

I agree, a depression is imminent. I disagree that "The New Deal" was a good idea. In fact, most economists are in agreement that it only prolonged the great depression. The moves that the Fed are making now will do exactly the same. The government is reponsible for this...

The government mandated that banks give home loans to people who could neither afford them or would be able to ever repay them. The Fed lowered interest rates into the cellar to create a credit bubble of historic proporations - again, making credit available and affordable to people who neither deserved it or would be able to manage it if/when rates climbed. The Congress repealed safeguards and over-sight of the securities and trading industry allowing them to create exocitc invenstment packages out of pure crap. The derivatives market was permitted to grow, unchecked, beyond the scope of manageability. In short, they have done the OPPOSITE of what they shoudl have been doing for the past 20 years - that is provide oversight and regulatory control and let the market do its thing.

Todays games; bailouts, quantitative easing, ZIRP, loans etc... are only going to make these problems worse. Businesses that fail due to poor management decisions deserve to fail - no matter how big they are. In fact, how did they get so big to begin with? Why no anti-trust oversight? These monopolies should have been divested to protect the American people - another failure of government!

In a free-market system, coupled with careful over-sight and regulatory safeguards, none of this would have occurred and if a business failed, it wouldn't have been such a big deal! Now we are turning to a.) the government who allowed the problems, b.) corporate management who created the problems and c.) the taxpayers who have already been squeezed into poverty to solve the problems. Can someone please help me make sense of this? If you went to a doctor who misdiagnosed you, almost killed you by providing the wrong treatment... would you return to that doctor with more money in hand and ask him to cure you???

A very smart "Bailout" would have been to put the dollars into the hands of the taxpayers - and I'm talking about some pathetic, paltry $1,000 "Stimulus" which stimulated NOTHING. Let's break it down - So far, our government has backed over $8 TRILLION dollars in tax-payer monies to banks, investment houses, insurance companies and industry - and it has accomplished exactly NOTHING!

I'm not sure what the right mix would be, but would should have been done was to provide every taxpayer with a tax rebate of, say, $10,000 per person earning less than $25,000 a year. Give $15,000 to those earning $25K to $75K. Give $25,000 to those earning $75,000 to $200,000. That would have cost about $3.3 Trillion - about a third of what we've given out thus far.

Guess what this would have done... It would have allowed people to catch back up on their mortgages, thus putting money back into the housing market and propping up the lenders. It would have allowed people to pay off debt thus propping up the banks and the creditors. It would have allowed people to save thus giving the banks much needed liquid assets. It would have allowed people to invest thus propping up banks, investment houses and the stock market. It would have allowed people to spend, thus propping up retailes and manufacturers.

See, economic theory is so basic that the idiots in Washington can't see its simplicity. When lots of people have money, lots of money is spent meeting the needs of those individuals. When fewer people have money, less is spent and circulated because there are fewer needs to be met and hoarding is likely to occur. When that happens... RECESSION! If the process isn't corrected from the bottom of the free market you get DEFLATION! To correct deflation the stupid Fed will print money and debase the currency leading to Hyper-Inflation. Hyper-inflation leads to depression. Just look at what happened to the Weimar Republic! Why can't the "officials learn from history - DOLTS

Yeah, a depression is coming and is hardly avoidable at this point. There are no bullets left in the gun save taking back the TARP money and providing a MASSIVE stimulus directly to the American people. Couple that with meaningful tax cuts and more sound fiscal policy from Washington (YEAH, RIGHT:@@ and maybe, M A Y B E we can turn this thing around/

In the meantime, since my knowledge of history tells me that our "officials" are too stupid - stock up on food and other valuables - you're going to need them!

We are already in a depression they just havent told everyone on the MSM becuase we are in the middle of a power change. The unemployment rate isnt being reported as it truely is supposed to be. The actual rate was at 12.6% in the middle of november. The dry baltic index had dropped 93% , this means nothing is getting shipped in or out of anywhere. The only ones making any kind of money are the banks and finincial firms, they are refusing to let loose of any money to allow the economy to recover.

Everything you all have said is spot on that since we always take a pill nowdays for what ails you instead of healing the sickness.
Changes need to be made in priorites all around.The need for Skilled Technical Labor is at a all time high but every college cranks out English Majors. What about the trend after the late 90's when all these people has degrees in Business Real Estate.Now we have a Real Estate crisis that started this whole thing.
There are too many people who think they can keep a job with outdated or irrelevant training.training focusing on mechanical skills like Welding,pipefitting,Electricians and other trained personell in CNC machiist or Laser operating.Thousands of jobs are avaliable along with Medical Professionals.It's lack of training and because insurance companies have got a tighter hold on jobs and those who smoke a joint or have a past felony are barred from working.This limits the job pool even more and keeps the cycle of recidivism alive.
There are always solutions, it's just we are blind to the real problems it seems in the collective Public Media Mind.

Not a depression.... it's a recession.

Bush admits America is in a recession

What's the difference between a recession vs. a depression?

There are many views on which is worse. From my own research (and I am NOT an expert) it appears that a recession is worse. Why? Recession creeps up on you and the beginning point is not clearly defined until much later in the cycle. Depression has a definite beginning and a short curve out. Recession has a slow curve in (what would be noted as the beginning of the recession) and an extremely long curve out. It looks like the recession is harder to get out of, longer process before the checkered flag is waived.

That being said, what is the one thing which immediately stimulates the economy? Any takers? You there in the back sitting behind the computer.

Answer: War.

Count on it happening if our trend continues further down the cycle. When? I don't know, but hunch is soon.

reply to post by marg6043


Thank you Op for this thread and the link, but I know for myself that my family was aware of this already and personally speaking I think we are already in a Depression. Yes there are some toothpicks propping up some bubbles yet but they are falling fast.

The Government has printed trillions of more worthless money and given it away to businesses and the people and they continue to see no betterment of the economy from these injections of worthless money, so they make more injections. This house of "Fiat Money" cards is doomed and was domed from it's inception.

Depression is here and by their want and doings, welcome to the North American Union and Please return your old Dollars for the New Amero before the end of the trade-in date, just like the Europeans did for their Euro...

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD ORDER!!! Have a great day, but remember WE ARE WATCHING YOU!!!

Interesting I opened a thread on a very important development going on right after the car automakers were given the green light by the president.

Paulson is now asking for the rest of the 700b bail out money because he is now strapped for more money before its coffers run dry.

So that means that is the green light to print more money by he treasury as we know that the federal reserve is dry already from the money is squandered to big financial and global elite.

So just three weeks ago Paulson was going to leave the remaining bail out money for the next administration so they could have something to start with.

Now the money is needed as the Obama administration is planning yet another mammoth bail out now going to one trilling.

Interesting how the fake monopoly money is going to appear out of nowhere to fix the economy.

Paulson needs the last of the 700b of Tarp money

www.abovetopsecret.com...'

This recession/depression will be a long one. Expect it to last for another six years at least. So you can forget about that triple sheet toilet paper, that fancy shmancy shopping you were led to believe will keep the economy afloat. Poverty is coming to America.
You think Obama will be able to dig the country out of this one?
Well, Obama is only doing what his advisors are telling him to, who are not any more in control of the situation than he is.
So prepare for a rough ride.

Originally posted by jam321
I believe we might already have one foot in the door.

Once Obama comes in and throws in several more trillions, we will be in the driver seat.

Is this the "change" we can believe in?

O- boy is going to destroy this country...but that has been the lefts main goal since the 60's.

It seems like we are in a depression at least to me. It will get worse. I keep having recurring dreams of unspeakable choas. I believe that dreams can foretell some future events. The recurring themes are animals such as horses,cats, dogs and anything that can not be used for food purposes roaming the streets and dying of diease, starvation and lack of care. I also see a lot of flooding due to dams breaking and sewage back ups do to cuts in city workers. In my dreams people come into houses and steal food not money. People throw money out in the streets because it has little value. Maybe this is just be fears showing up in my dreams but this is what we could be facing. I see this being the greatest catrosphe in american history. We were greedy americans who based our whole system on one thing; that green piece of paper. It became our god and consumed us. It will lead to our fall if something is not done to create more sustainablity. Greed is the only that got us here.

[edit on 12-2-2009 by dreamseeker]