Well, the following points may appear to be somewhat disjointed, cause my workday started at 5:30, and I'm tired...but here goes.
1. There's a lot of overblown rhetoric about the economy floating around in the news and on the blogs. Fact: The end is not here.
2. We are not in the worst financial crisis in decades. Although, comparing McCain's speech to Herbert Hoover...does get kind of interesting. He said almost word for word, what Mr. McCain did yesterday.
3. This "financial crisis" is not like the Great Depression. Gore made that statement in 1992, and Obama an almost identical statement yesterday. Unemployment during the 1930s averaged 25% nationally. In some cities in the old Steel Belt it was over 50%. Currently, it's about 6%. So gimme a break.
4. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 did NOT cause the Great Depression. I don't know what type of history they teach at Hahvahd, but if a student of mine had studied that era of history and written a paper that came to that conclusion I'd have given them an F for the course. That financial calamity was caused by a plethora of economic problems, stemming from national and international factors.
5. McCain is right, the real strength of the economy does not rest with Wall Street; it's in the hands of the American worker and private business, and they are still going strong.
6. The "Palin Approach" to solving the crisis in our lending institutions is the correct one; let those that did NOT practice any SELF-regulation in their lending practices sink. NO government bailout should be forthcoming.
7. On the front page of the papers just last week; GDP grew by 2% last quarter.
8. The Dow has already begun to rally, closing up by 142 pts. today.
1: I agree. If we don't get it taken care of though, the end could be beginning.
2: Name a financial crisis, worse, within 50 years.
3: Yes the Great Depression this isn't. We aren't in a depression yet. Those figures on unemployment were at its' height, not its' onset. At its' onset, the jobless rate climbed very slowly.... until it started going out of control.
4: No the stock market crash didn't cause the depression. It was caused BY the onset of the depression. The depression was caused by many of the same things that are working hard to unravel the system now... DEREGULATION.
5: Unemployment has been rising steadily for 5 years. I don't call that a strength. Also, most top shelf jobs (white collar and Industry) have been replaced by Service sector jobs.... which contribute nothing to the Economy, only redistribute dollars.
6: "Palin approach"? Unreal. A year ago this chick is sitting in a basement in Wasilla OK'ing traffic lights.... and now she's your saviour?
7: GDP went up due to lowering of imports, not a resurgence in manufacturing. Manufacturing slowed in the last quarter, but due to the weak dollar, many overseas importers are buying U.S. goods that are on-hand. You really need to look past the front end of things.
8: Rallying up is a good start.... and the only reason it did so is the huge influx of dollars the Fed is injecting into the propping up of the mortgage industry. The markets are still down 4% over the past two days, and the trading was incredibly volatile today, up 175 then down 200...Be interesting to see what happens to the Nikkei and the European markets tomorrow.
