Economic Crises

thats a good argument. i dont know really

(NO BODY PLEASE ARGUE, IF YOU MUST, IM ME)
there is more than likely going to be another great depression, and it makes me hate goverrnments more and more. now, i know i'm from eygypt, but it afected us too, the last depression. and i think that america did it on purpose, whic leads me to belive that its going to do it again. it makes money for the banks, there fore it gives the american government more power and less to the people. you guys don't even have to be in debt really. you've got trillions of dollars stored somewhere, and you could give that up, but the banks won't let any one. so yes, there probable is going to be another great depression, its gonna be a huge one too!

its true when u put it that way. knowing all of that, i would also like to add that our new president might be an even bigger let down(no offence to obama) his opinions are going to tear our country to tiny little shreds and we might even end up in a war with ourselves

GM's failure is unrelated to the economic crisis. They make crap products, have been for decades, and people are fed up of driving around in lemons.

As to the topic at hand, yes it will get much worse before it gets better - years of greedy and unregulated banking practices as well as globalization is what caused it, and there is no easy fix. Gonna be tough times ahead.

you've got trillions of dollars stored somewhere

If you mean the money we are owed by all the nations we've lent to, then, yes we do. But we should use that to pay back the other countries we owe, which we won't.

Here's a good documentary from 2006 that pretty much predicted the shit that's happening now, but nobody was listening back then:

www.betalistal.com/movie/in-debt-we-trust

No way. The Great Depression was MAGNITUDES worse than what we're seeing now. A recession, sure, and perhaps a DEEP one at that, but I don't think we'll ever see something as devastating as The Great Depression (barring nuclear war, a massive terrorist attack, or a natural disaster on the scale of "The Day After Tomorrow").

The Great Depression was mainly triggered by huge disparity in wealth (0.1% of population controlled 42% of its wealth) and huge speculations on an artificially high stock market. An unbalanced economy has to correct itself.

Today, you still have the same underlying factors, where the rich keep getting richer while poor and even middle-class are getting buried by debt. And Dubya thought it smart to pass a law few years back to make it even harder for people to declare personal bankruptcy, further hurting the poor. Then billions of tax breaks to the richest of the rich. It was unbalanced before he took power, but his administration tipped the balance even more.

What we're seeing is just the start. Foreclosures, real estate values drop, unemployment rises. Now you have stock market dropping like a rock, which doesnt only affect the rich, it effects anyone with retirement plans tied into the stock market (which is pretty much everyone with a retirement plan), and the billions the governments are throwing at banks to stabilize the system are being BORROWED from the chinese, who themselves are feeling a big drop in growth and have started to bail out their own economy as well.

The signs look really bad.

Think of it this way... millions of americans experienced a huge real estate boom over past decade. Their $150,000 homes were now worth $300,000+. So many of them got huge line of credits to tap into this virtual wealth. They bought $50,000 SUVs, they enrolled their kids in private schools, they got 3, 4 cars, all latest tech toys, all bought with 'virtual money' that only existed in the value of their home. they took $50,000 off their line of credit and played the stock market, one that just kept going up and up. Life was good.

Now the stock market dropped hard and fast, and their home prices are adjusted back down to realistic value. Well guess what, they still have their SUVs, and all their purchases, and huge losses on their stock portfolio. Banks notice that their debt load and line of credit no longer is being covered in their home equty (value of their house) so they try to get those lines of credit close up and force them to start paying it back. And even if they sold their home, it wouldnt cover all their debts - they'd still owe lots of money and no more house to live in.

Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of people, and you can see why banks are scared shitless and are locking up their loans, and you can see a very strong potential for a global depression much more painful than the one in the 30s.

And reason why media is not making it seem so bad, saying that the $700 billion will fix everything over time, is because if everyone opened their eyes to the 'potential' of what may happen, there would be mass panic, no one would buy anything but essentials, they'd all pull out of stock market, they'd try to sell off their expensive toys and cars. Everyone would do so to protect themselves and their families, but if everyone did it all at once, it would be enough to cause a avalanche effect - store sales drop, china inventory would be overloaded with stuff no one wants anymore (already starting to happen), China would get pissed and demand some of that $700 billion to be paid back immediately, even bigger layoffs in manufacturing, and even bigger losses on stock market and home values as a result.

I'm afraid if there is a major depression, it will give the powers that be excuse to turn the country into a police state. American public have been brain-washed like sheep for far too long.

Even the Great Depression took several years to form. It didnt happen overnight. I'm still mixed on whether or not it will turn into one, but at very least it will be one of worst recessions in decades.

hmmmmm

Ahhh Desert, that means it ties back to... *drumroll* Education!
The average American isn't really the brightest, if we have the means to get good somewhat easy educations and supposedly have a higher IQ, the average american should be passable as somewhat smart, and think about it, if you look up the average american, that means that is the 'average' all of them added up and divided by the number of IQ's, that means there are a lot more lower... and considering the scale goes from 10-200+ that shouldn't be happening, the recession has to do with greedy banks, landowners, the addiction on Oil, pointless wars, a shaky stock marketfinally sent spiralling down, and an ill preparing education system
I mean, it gives this sugarcoated sugarcoated sugarcoated AGAIN mushy crap because they are afraid to show us the 'horrors' I hope they realize if they don't show us we won't know what to do and just stand there looking like an idiot going "... What the fuck just happened??? How come I suddenly owe a lot of money..." we aren't preparing ourselves to succeed well, or even barely pass life, and if we aren't changing that, we are just sending in more groups of people who will do the same thing as the ones before them, screw something up, big time...

At this point, Revolution may actually occur at some point, though I doubt it will be anytime soon, if it develops into a Great Depression or worse, then probably

Yeah, just finish school and go to college...whose going to be their to support your family. you know we can't just depend on the adults.-besides were the next generation to make a change- ...other than barack obama.

u know, hes not the only one we can trust. there are plenty of kids who had the potential to change things to make life better

Kids cant "fix" the financil situation but we can make things better.:) Look at whts happened so far. Theres lots of things goin on in the world that we kids have caused. (Now if they were good or bad well thats different)

Sometimes I question the extent of adults. Some of them think of something in a month that it takes a kid to think up right then. We can see shortcuts and different ways because we're more creative.

Exactly. We can see things more clearly then any of those retarded leaders. (no offense to them) But we cant ever make anything in america perfect. Nothings ever "perfect". Were always going to be in debt to other countries cause were to stupid to make things here IN America instead of mochin off of other countreis materials.

Well put, Cali Draco Eradice,(hey, btw, you left your graphic tee at my house ill wash and return)

(Oh thanx ive been lookin for it:) gosh im smart) Thank u Serenity Aoi Mustang. I think i spelt that right:/

(Si senorita~) Anyway, you're right. Maybe one day kids will take over and bend the adults brains into fun little shapes (assuming we take over the education system)

The one thing thats going to really effect our economy is the fact that Obama is trying to make it legal for gay marrige in all states. Not that i have a problem with gayy marrige its other people that will take things WAYY outta hand.

It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

But technicaly is two guys/girls getting married really hurting anyone? Is it going to bring the end of the world? No i think NOT!

But still, who wants to see two guys/girls making out in the park ? Besides other gay guys/gals.

true. But u can always avert ur eyes and noy be nosey like some people *cough cough* serenity

I am NOT nosy,......at least 99.9% at the time, anyway,......I know a few people like that, but that doesn't mean I approve. And some people, like you said ealier, would completely flip out.

Im friends with gays/bis too and i really dont care its their life not everyone elses. An adult who is in love no matter what sex should be able to marry who they plese. Now would i throw the wedding in my front yard no but i wouldnt care if they got marryed. Love is love no matter what sex or race.

Now that, I agree with.

Thank you. And anyone who has a problem with that is an asshole! Its not ur buisness who marries who unless its ur child.

Oh, moving onto the education thing, thanks Vent(Hey, you're Cody right? just making sure it wasn't just similarities in you two) anyways, another problem is America is rather egotistical,

World History goes something like this:

'In America, we did all this, oh and at the time there were these guys doing this, but America was so in the zone, so lets forget about everyone else'

Last I checked, World means Everywhere on this planet, not America... the only thing that I learned in World History that wasn't ONLY about America were the World Wars and the Revolutions, that's all
Also, we give very VERY biased education, the books 'try' not to have opinions or 'try' to show both, but they really don't do either...

Gay Marriage has nothing to do with this thread (Although I'm fine with it, in fact I know like... 3-7(Not sure if some are just joking or not) bi/les/gay people, and actually, a lot of girls REALLY like gay/bi guys, and a lot of guys REALLY like Bi/Lez girls)

Lol Ventruss, apparently the winners are dipshits about the rest of the world too unless they actually pay attention and ignore everything taught by History in America lol...

You can't teach world history if 98% of the book is ONLY about America and the other 2% involved America,
There are zillions of things that happened all over the world during those times and we barely learned anything non-american, in World History

And the reason I'm going into History is because it is a short and sweet example of the education system here, half the other classes are far worse, if they are worse then a class not even doing it's purpose, that's not good

well then, that was an interesting read. my personal opinion on the matter is that the economy is totally freakin' screwed. yes, we may be heading for another depression. but if there would be a plus side (which is hard to imagine in a) it would be that the Dust bowls wouldn't be too likely to happen again.