all signs point to a recession however no one in Gubment wants to say so

lowest new home building in 27 years

more defaults on credit cards

huge write offs for chase and citibank

more foreclosures

less consumer confidence

highest oil prices ever

subprime (gubment best not bail out those greedy banks!! sure McDonald's fry worker you too can have a 400,000.00 home just sign here)

health costs sky rocket every year

 

This whole subject makes me so f'ing mad. It is not the responsability of the government to bail out people for their stupidity. Or, in other words, the last place I want my tax money to go is to fix a problem that became a problem to only those people too stupid to look into the details before signing.

 

Of course we are headed that way. I told you all a few months ago that lowering the rate by 1/4% was too little too late.
Now they are talking 1/2% after several 1/4%, still too little.

Dang, where are the smart guys, give us some real meat, a 1% drop immediately followed by some more 1/4's would help.

 

Yes!

I'd love the market to get slammed some more too!

Tell you who is gonna get hit the worse.....retirees who depend on interest income to make ends meet.......rates go down bad...
energy expenses/health care costs up. They are getting squeezed.

 

The big wig economists have a certain formula before they will call what we are dealing with a "recession." I don't care what they say, we got a recession going on.

Business is bad everywhere, utility costs, health care costs are killing people. Who wants to buy a new car when they don't have job security? Who can afford to eat out very often when it's time to call for an oil delivery? Who can afford to go on vacations when health care premiums, deductibles and co-pays, are taking up more of the "free cash" that folks used to have? And the 'trickle down" effect just keeps going on and on.... We've seen an Applebee's and an Outback restaurant close lately, not to mention a decent family owned restaurant that had been open for years, car dealerships are dropping like flies.....It's NOT pretty out there.

Low interest rates are good for some, but as someone who hopes to retire some day, leave my CD rates alone!

I'm not pleased with what's going on in the stock market AT ALL! I don't want to work until we are 80, but I think that's what's going to happen.

 

I like working at a bank now. I dont have to deal with that subprime mess anymore!

 

They are currently calling it a "slowdown"

A rose by any other name is still a rose.

 

Thankfully our company has more work than we can handle, and we're part of the Auto Industry! Business here is booming, and while the Auto manufacturers ARE seeing sales slowdowns, and with 2008 being another down year as far as new car sales go, they are all using this time to ramp up new equipment, develop new engines (Chrysler has an entire program coming and Ford is right behind them, plus the Chinese, Koreans and India are all staking new business here in the states) and new technologies for the next economic boom...

Great news for suppliers.

Outside of the Auto world, I think we've been teatering on the brink of recession for years now, at least since the war in Iraq started claiming a huge portion of the national budget

I have a good feeling that things will start to improve again once we have a change in office. I'm not going to debate politics, but looking back at the LAST Bush era, and one that also included an expensive war in the gulf, look what happened. Once George SR. was replaced and the Gulf war ended, this country was growing like mad. I really expect the same thing to happen through the 2010's...

Plus if I recall, we still have a record low unemployment rate, even with all the plant layoffs and buyouts in Detroit going on over the past few years. Really, the industry that is hurting the most is the housing market. And I partially blame those who borrowed more than they could afford when things were going well. But I also blame the banks for those idiotic "Interest only" loan programs which hosed a ton of takers... Both of them caused a gluttony of foreclosures and homes for sale thereby killing the sellers market. But housing prices were out of control for a while so they are more or less just settling back in line to a more reasonable price IMO.

BTW, did anyone follow the report that G.W. wanted to stimulate the economy with another one of those government handouts? I heard anything from 800 bucks for singles to 1600 bucks for familes! Could happen in the next couple of weeks...

 

If you are 10 + years away from retiring......why is your money in CDs (certificates of depreciation)????

 

IRA money is in stock market (and just when I was feeling like we were making headway...BOOM) The account is diversified with some in fixed income, and right now I'm sorry more of it wasn't in fixed income.

The rest of our "wealth" /rainy day fund, for us, has to be in a secure FDIC bank. I'll take 4-5% and be happy with that. I've got no stomach to do otherwise.