Comments on: American economy exhibits unhealthy zombie look

By: AdamSmith

AdamSmith — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:15:31 +0000

America’s back is being broken by the burden of a military-industrial complex that is out of control.

America’s military budget exceeds the military budgets of all other nations on earth combined. Are we insane?

The fast rising economies, like Brazil, Russia, India and China have tiny, tiny military budgets, completely dwarfed by US military costs.

We are in a race, a marathon, and America is carrying a 40 pound cement block under each arm. It can only lose.

By: Keno

Keno — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:12:38 +0000

Just goes to show that the private sector can only take so much “baggage” from our government. Leave business alone and unbridle the “horses” and our economy will thrive once again. But our government won’t do that. It’s got too many mouths to feed on the government payroll. Nice to know my tax dollars are going to some other “needy” government employee’s family.

By: AdamSmith

AdamSmith — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:14:50 +0000

America’s back is being broken by the burden of a military-industrial complex that is out of control.

America’s military budget exceeds the military budgets of all other nations on earth combined. Are we insane?

The fast rising economies, like Brazil, Russia, India and China have tiny, tiny military budgets, completely dwarfed by US military costs.

We are in a race, a marathon, and America is carrying a 40 pound cement block under each arm. It can only lose.

By: shivers1

shivers1 — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 18:04:00 +0000

Printing money which finds its way to lucrative investments in emerging markets and commodities is only a very temporary line of defence against deflation, if at all? The resulting weaker dollar will import inflation which is like a tax and will further depress core inflation as people spend less with the less money they have.
Rotten bank balance sheeets, insufficient household savings, out of control govt debt means there is no sustainable spending power left.
Supposedly the lower dollar will make US exports more competitive but at the expense of emerging economies themselves who are the targets for the US exports as they are the only ones with spending power left. As they only account for 20% of total worldwide spending it will be a slow slow process as they themselves will face competition from US products, thereby slowing them down. Deflation is here to stay whatever gimmicks the Fed plays.

By: fred5407

fred5407 — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:17:39 +0000

Consumption is not something to be desired in a country. People have needs, but just buying extra things for the sake of company profits is not healthy as it normally raises debts. In a healthy country at least 30 to 40 percent of the houses, farms and businesses should be paid for with operating capital in the bank. This allows stability and can handle most any downturn. We got too far afield with the leveraged buying and that is what cooked the goose. We don’t even have any one of you common taters expaining the right way to work it.

By: greenacres

greenacres — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:38:15 +0000

Crunch time will come.

By: jerrygates7

jerrygates7 — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:02:12 +0000

This is a factual analysis of the US market as ripe for investment or perhaps divestment to put in it’s starkest terms.

The life is drained from what many know to be a product with an expiration date stamped on it’s forehead. The dollar, despite a run for the money that still invokes a tearful if not regretful retrospective of good times that seemed to ebb and flow on metrics of trade more esoteric than substantive and certainly spookier than not in terms of real value traded for real currency.

What happen when Helicopter Ben is fueling the presses with coloured paper as fast as his aging spine can tolerate while the White House is spending these hot dollars like hot cakes right out of the oven and into the oven, where’s the love in that way of life, we are all asking and the answer is a screwed up look in the mirror at Ann Rand through Joan of ark’s rose colored glasses, a kind of Salvador Dali dollar is emerging from the mists if the market and this fleeing of fortune to better returns is epic and foreboding if ever there was such and Ichabod Crane day of reckoning, we are indeed upon it today.

Dali’s stairs go nowhere but in circles, are we or are we not supposed to be real here in this life? Just do it from the subconscious minds eye’s new world view, means the reigns are lost we are now carreening down an embankment with no control…cassandra and Delphi are shaken and torn no respite comes now…

By: fwupow

fwupow — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 11:50:23 +0000

Just goes to prove what I’ve been saying for years. Americans blow as much of their income as possible on cheap, foreign, slave-labor made goods. Well some of it isn’t so cheap, but it’s still made by foreign slave-labor (Apple iPod,iPad,iFad!!!)

These numbers show that Americans who still have jobs will soon lose them because they are producing stuff that isn’t selling and they’re taking their pay-checks straight to Walmart to buy as much Made-In-China as they get their sweaty mitts on.

By: yr2009

yr2009 — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:26:19 +0000

Excellent analysis.

Sadly, these days the US is not exactly an emerging market.