How Bad Is It???

[RIJIMMY]

Originally Posted by wheresmy50

The US economy is 2/3 consumer spending, so every gloom and doom news story makes things a tiny fraction worse by causing people to spend less money. Less money spent hurts businesses, who need to lay people off, who spend less, and the cycle continues.

Just like how every media COMPANY this summer was parading faux experts predicting $7 gas by Christmas, they're now all throwing around the word "depression" when we're not yet even officially in a recession. Bad news sells. We were hearing how bad the economy was when the dow was at 14,000 for Christ's sake.

I'm not saying we're not in a slowdown, and I'm not even saying things aren't worse than they were earlier in the year.

My point is this - the worse you think the economy is, the worse it will get. If people start keeping money in their mattresses, we will be in a depression, and then at least CNN will be reporting the truth.

The US economy IS diverse and fundamentally sound. This is an over-correction and will pass.

That is the most incorrect assesment I have seen on any topic in all my years on S-B. I work for one of the largest financial companies in the world and have seen presentations by the smartest investment people in the world, and they disagree with you.
Lets look at your points. The consumer is the heart of this economy - true. But the consumer is going to foot the bill for the billions in government bailout, the consumer is goign to foot the bill for the local municipalities that are having budget shortfalls, the consumer is impacted by rising unemployment.
So, your advice to the consumer is to keep spending? So who bails out the consumer?