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Take time to learn the facts about candidates
Published 12:00 p.m., October 22, 2008
The crisis in America is non-stop, and as Americans, we all feel the need to stress, and wonder and worry about whether our economy is ever going to make it.
Well I understand completely, I am a poor college student living off of ramen noodles, praying she doesn't get her electricity shut off, because she had to use her last bit of money for gas. Believe me I'm there.
But the one thing that sort of frustrates me as an American, we have all sorts of American pride, but yet many people are running in panic. Even newspapers print out articles like "Is this the next Great Depression?" and people run around scared saying things like: "the market is crashing," and "Wall Street is going under!"
With just a bit of a history lesson I should have you know America is not even close to another Great Depression. Back in the depression era, the stock market fell about 89 percent in little more then two years. The past couple weeks, with all the big Wall street scares, it as only dropped 8 percent — that's it.
Worried about the unemployment rate? We are at a rate of about 7 percent. During the Great Depression era, it was more than 50 percent — over half of all Americans were jobless. That was a crisis.
In my opinion the biggest factor was the fall of more than 5,000 banks in America; and hundreds of thousands of Americans lost all their money.
Well with the FDIC on our side that is a safe net for all Americans who are afraid their banks are going to close.
I just think people need a few more facts before running scared of our economy. The only way to fix an economy is to spend more money, that is it.
That is the magic cure; More money spent, means more products are being sold, more products being sold, means more products being made, this means more jobs for people to make all those products.
More jobs means more people to spend more money, and the cycle continues.
So if you have American pride, good for you, stay positive. If you >don't that is fine too, just know your facts before you say our country is "getting run down into the ground," because it may not be as bad as you think.
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Cassandra Garza - Fergus Falls
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post. To post a comment you will need to register. Or, if you're already registered but have not included your true, verifiable identity with your registration, you will need to update your account to include your identity. Effective Dec. 1, 2009, all posts appear with the commenter's true identity, which must be verified by site staff. Those who registered prior to Dec. 1, 2009, should be aware that once you update your information with your true identity, all prior posts under your user name will also indicate your true identity. If you do not wish to link yourself to prior comments, you should register again with a different user name.Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on October 22, 2008 at 2:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
the problems with spending are, where are the profits and manufacturing jobs going?
we need to get rid of the free trade insanity and impose tariffs, we need to make it less profitable for American manufacturers to move production to slave labor countries.
the recent stimulus package didn't do much for our economy because most people spent it on foreign made products in places like Wal-mart and in doing so, sent all the profits directly to China.
so now we get to repay these stimulus checks with interest and pay the Chinese even more.
NO MORE FREE TRADE!
NAFTA ruined our global competitiveness.
Jamie Cooper
Posted by Callie25 (anonymous) on October 22, 2008 at 3:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
For once I have to admit that Jamie is right on the money.
Posted by mgdbottled (anonymous) on October 22, 2008 at 6:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The maximum unemployment rate during the great depression was 25%. Not 50% as the author claims. The money supply shrunk about a third as a result of the Feds failure to act to replenish the shrinking money supply. Economic output fell by 29% as a result of the failure to replenish the money supply. Trade barriers were put in place which compounded the problem. I agree with fixing free trade by replacing it with fair trade, but now is not the time. Wait till things stabilize before we go and mess with trade. Else, we'd just be repeating the problematic actions taking in the 1930s.
Posted by mgdbottled (anonymous) on October 23, 2008 at 9:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The drop in real estate values across this country has me extremely concerned about an onset of a similar depression/deep recession as this mimics what happened in the 1930s and there's not much the anyone can do about it with a shrinking economy. Here's a scary read:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27329406/
"WASHINGTON - The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday.
Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.
By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S...
The combination of sinking home values, tighter mortgage lending criteria and an economy that many economists think has already slipped into recession has left hundreds of thousands of homeowners with few options. Many can’t find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can’t refinance into an affordable loan, with the global credit crisis making loans far less available.
Still, that’s not likely to be enough to save homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Nearly 12 million of the 52 million Americans with a mortgage — that’s 23 percent of them — are in that position, according to Moody’s Economy.com.
It remains to be seen how much the government’s intervention will stem the housing crisis. Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Administration launched a program that aims to prevent foreclosures by allowing homeowners to swap their mortgages for more affordable loans, but only if their lender agrees to take a loss on the initial loan. The bill is projected to help about 400,000 households.
Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which took over Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bank over the summer, has been aggressively modifying troubled home loans since August in an effort to stave off foreclosures. Congressional Democrats are calling for that approach to be expanded as the Treasury Department buys billions in troubled mortgage debt as part of a $700 billion financial industry bailout."
Posted by Cgarza (anonymous) on October 23, 2008 at 2:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Spending money will slowly take us out of the economic drop, it will help our economy, not world hunder, the rest of "humanity" will be next on the list, I am not just buying into society, I dont have the money to buy period.
---Cooper, hows it going? Free trade may help, but then that would mean we have to pay too right? SO whats the difference they pay then we pay, it all evens out anyway, thats the way I understand it..
And I apologize for any numbers, I stand corrected, my sorce was a decent one, but if yours say otherwise, I am sorry for the mis-information.. I do have a difference of opinion about keeping us out of the Great Depression, I really don't think the government would have been able to pull us out, when the stock market crashed and everyone, and all the banks started falling too we were pretty much in for a wreck. So I disbelieve government could have helped us back then, and I doubt they can do much for us now... Just have to wait it out and see
Ps. Thanks Capatalist! Optimism is key!
Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on October 23, 2008 at 3:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cgarza, I agree with you on most of the points you made, the markets do require spending but, I disagree on the benefits of free trade.
we would also need to pay tariffs, that is true, the long term benefits of keeping our country competitive globally at the cost of paying some small tariffs is so important it is worth it.
without the trade tariffs we cannot compete in the labor market without downgrading the quality of life for the average worker, much like we have been seeing more and more in our nation.
the profits for the few on top will grow from free trade, some of us will save a little in the short term, but in the end the manufacturing plants and core components to our global competitiveness have been moved to other countries with vast slave labor or near slave wage laborers.
this needs to end!
Jamie Cooper
Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on October 23, 2008 at 8:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I can't afford a plasma screen TV now, but if I could I know I would enjoy it a lot more knowing it wasn't a sweatshop child or forced slave who built it.
Jamie Cooper
Posted by FungusAmugus (anonymous) on October 24, 2008 at 8:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Jerry is correct the working republican would aready have one, even though they could not afford it, they would buy it anyway,borrow the money without the means to pay it back, and expect someone else to pay for it for them!
Posted by mgdbottled (anonymous) on October 24, 2008 at 10:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Capitalism is a system where you have the haves and havenots. Those who own capital provide employment for those who do not and pay a subsistence wage. In other words, you only get paid what you need to survive. Free trade is a route for those who own capital to pay less than subsistence wages. You are all slave laborers unless you own capital. What the American Corporations are doing by outsourcing is using a slave labor force that's even cheaper. All things equalize. In other words, unless we regulate trade with either tariffs (which I don't particularly like) or by negotiating fair trade agreements, where a country can only import into the US an amount equivalent to what the US exports to them, you'll all be earning what the chinese worker earns, eventually. Not a penny more.
Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on October 27, 2008 at 10:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
what money are people suggesting Obama is going to be handing out if elected?
the only handouts I've ever seen were under the Republicans, such as the sales tax refund, the stimulus checks, the stock bailout.
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