Greenspan, on CNBC: U.S. in recession

Greenspan, on CNBC: U.S. in recession

news.yahoo.com

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday the U.S. economy was in recession, and said it would be appropriate to tap public funds to resolve the mortgage-related crisis that has helped pull the economy under.

(visit the link for the full news article)



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[edit on 4/9/2008 by biggie smalls]

I can't say I disagree with the man. The US economy is surely in a recession, and possibly headed towards a depression.

How many US banks have recently been propped up by foreign nations? Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bear Stearns (a complete travesty), Wells fargo is feeling the heat.

Jobs are being outsourced overseas and Americans are getting paid less than they have in the past thanks to inflation.

Greenspan went farther than the Fed has by saying outright that the economy is in a recession, although he said it is too soon to say how deep or prolonged the downturn will be.

"Consumers are beginning to shrink in, the automobile markets are beginning to contract, production is beginning to ease, and we are in the throes of recession," he said.

As the US really doesn't produce much of its own goods anymore, its rather difficult to say anything about production (I guess that's another topic altogether).

The U.S. economy will not stabilize until housing markets recover, Greenspan said. To speed that process, the Bush administration should look to the 1980s savings and loan crisis for lessons on settling the crisis by committing taxpayers' money to the project.

"I think if you're going to deal with a situation like this it's an issue for appropriated funds of the Treasury to set up something like the Resolution Trust Corporation, which as you remember was very successful in resolving the S&L crisis," Greenspan said.

The Bush Administration, as omnipotent as they are, cannot fix the economy by flooding the market with capital. There is no easy way out of this mess.

Considering we're $9 trillion in debt, I don't see the country recovering from such a mess. Why spend half a trillion dollars on the Iraq war when you can fix the country? No, bad idea. We need to stay in Iraq to protect the US from terrorist attacks, right?

The Bush administration so far has adamantly refused to commit public money to help settle a housing crisis in which millions of Americans are expected to lose their homes through foreclosure.

Ah but they're not so adamant about defending the public's money on the war on terrorism, war on drugs, war on Iraq/Afghanistan, etc etc.

Its nice to know Bush's priorities, not that he would be able to do anything anyway.




news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I've been saying this for months. We're in some deep trouble here in the US. Foreign countries/companies will only prop the economy up for so long.

After that, fire sale time, oh boy. We'll be able to buy corporations for $1 a share...(see Bear Stearns deal originally set for $2 a share, but later moved up higher not to piss of the shareholders so much).

Better start stockpiling now, the crap is hitting the fan.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
I've been saying this for months. We're in some deep trouble here in the US. Foreign countries/companies will only prop the economy up for so long.

After that, fire sale time, oh boy. We'll be able to buy corporations for $1 a share...(see Bear Stearns deal originally set for $2 a share, but later moved up higher not to piss of the shareholders so much).

Better start stockpiling now, the crap is hitting the fan.

Be careful Biggie or you'll be accused of being Chicken Little crying "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!" Most people would prefer to bury their heads in the sand, and hope that it all goes away.

So, don't stock up on food and water or make any preps whatsoever, buy a new gas-guzzling SUV, get that big screen Plasma TV you've been wanting, take that trip to Hawaii you've been dreaming about. All is well in good in America..

Well it's about time he woke up!!

I was beginning to wonder if anyone up there realized how badly we are hurting down here. I truly hope they can resolve this soon, so that us little guys can get back to living our lives without having to worry about how many bills we'll have to put on the credit cards this month.

It's truly a sad story.

TheBorg