Unemployment Rate of 8.1%
locallyunscene
Feeder of Trolls Join Date: 2002-12-25 Member: 11528Members, Constellation
Feeder of Trolls Join Date: 2002-12-25 Member: 11528Members, Constellation
in Discussions
<div class="IPBDescription">:-( >:-o :'-( >_<</div>Do you think it's going to go down more?
Have you seen lowered employment in your area?
Are you stockpiling canned goods yet?
What's your favourite theory on turning this around?
Do you think it's going to go down more?
Yes, we've only just matched the 80's crisis levels and I think this is worse and more global than that.
Have you seen lowered employment in your area?
Substantially. I work in NYC and I see less than half the people around than I used to. Also I was unemployed for a month(I'm working now, knock on wood).
Are you stockpiling canned goods yet?
Nah, I don't think it's going to get anywhere near Great Depression bad. Just the closest to it since then.
What's your favourite theory on turning this around?
Investment in long term growth, infrastucture, technology, education. I don't think there are any immediate things that can be done.
Have you seen lowered employment in your area?
Are you stockpiling canned goods yet?
What's your favourite theory on turning this around?
Do you think it's going to go down more?
Yes, we've only just matched the 80's crisis levels and I think this is worse and more global than that.
Have you seen lowered employment in your area?
Substantially. I work in NYC and I see less than half the people around than I used to. Also I was unemployed for a month(I'm working now, knock on wood).
Are you stockpiling canned goods yet?
Nah, I don't think it's going to get anywhere near Great Depression bad. Just the closest to it since then.
What's your favourite theory on turning this around?
Investment in long term growth, infrastucture, technology, education. I don't think there are any immediate things that can be done.
Comments
my favorite theory starts with blowing up the Federal Reserve. then reinstating a currency system that would not be worth less than face value the second it was created and subjected to artificial debt based on some bankers mood.
Since Geithner was NY FED pres, and he's now Treasury Secretary, I'm not holding my breath for a real currency, zimzim. But yeah, that's what we should do.
Consumer borrowing just increased again for the first time in 3 months! Woooo.... don't save, people, just speeeend, before your money is worth nothing!
It's funny, but now's actually a good time to be in debt(in there is such a thing). Interest rates are low, and banks are willing o settle for less if they think they will get nothing.
Year %
2000 9.8
2001 9.1
2002 9.1
2003 9.0
2004 8.8
2005 8.4
And according to quite a few sources, all this time, we've been doing pretty damn well. All I'm saying is that you can't judge a nations condition based on one factor.
And yeah, we've taken a hit from the financial meltdown just like everyone else. But I'm not particularly worried, this is exactly normal for the market. I'd be more worried if this kind of thing <i>didn't</i> happen every once in a while.
There is no logical or appealing reason it should work this way.
During the boom, lending creates inflation that amplifies the asset price inflation. Buying a house is rational even if you know it's a bubble if you think you can pawn it off on some even greater fool. If you can lower lending standards, you can inflate the bubble further before it finally pops. During the bust, defaults drive a deflation that causes more defaults. The monetary diarhea that is quantitative easing and 0% interest rates has barely kept up with the imploding bank money supply. It has inflated a bubble in stocks and prevented a correction in housing prices which would have been a tremendous benefit to the middle class. Yes, house prices would have dropped a lot more, and it would have been painful for people up to their eyeballs in debt; but that's not a bad thing, a lot of people who did not get involved in the orgy of debt and instead saved their money, would have been able to buy houses cheaply without incuring crippling 30 year mortgages.
It is important to understand that this problem persists even under a gold standard. Take e.g. the scottish free banking period. Gold accounted for about 2% of the money supply. The rest was little paper tickets issued by banks as receipts for gold and redeemable in gold.
The report on monetary reform by Frosti Sigurjonsson (member of the parliament of Iceland) is a particularly well written introduction to the problem: http://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/media/Skyrslur/monetary-reform.pdf
Unemployment rate is even less meaningful than GDP and government inflation indices. You especially cannot compare it to other countries. It is tempting to use a map if you have one, even if you know the map is wrong in ways you cannot easily account for; but that can be worse than nothing.
E.g. In the US the long term unemployed who are no longer entitled to unemployment pay are not counted as unemployed even if they are still looking for work. Engineers who used to do cool and productive stuff and now work part time at McDonalds are not counted as unemployed. Students are not considered as unemployed, even if they're taking something useless like womens studies with no possible productive application and even if they are only there because their unemployment pay was about to expire.
The way all these indices are measured varies over time with whatever political goals their implementers are trying to achieve. If the US employment rate was reported the way it was in the 1980's it would be about 20%.
There's no such thing as a currency system which does not change value. If your country produces nothing, yet wants to buy lots of things from overseas, why should they accept your money if they can't buy anything with it. While this is the most extreme example, it points out why such a system is not possible.
Also you assume the debt is artificial, if your country wants to purchase lots of materials overseas; say $500 million, yet they only have $300 million in budget. They're going to borrow $200 million to get the goods now and intend to pay it back at a later date.
I hope so
Have you seen lowered employment in your area?
Not really, I think there are a lot of jobs available.
Are you stockpiling canned goods yet?
Always! Ha, not at all.
What's your favourite theory on turning this around?
Gosh...I couldn't say how