I’m OK w/ the economy as it is right now so overall it’s not gloom and doom for me. Low stock prices just mean I get to buy more. Prices at the grocery store however are a bit high. Prices at Shop N Save are similar to those I find at Schnucks at least on the name brand items.

I never thought of my house as an ATM so there’s no problems there. Fuel prices, yea they are high but not much can be done. Never understood why Americans crab about $3 gas while europeans have paid much more for a long time and hardly say a word. We are not entitled to cheap gas people. Cut back or quit complaining about it. It’s supply and demand.

I make it a point to live below my means, so my personal situation is pretty good. However, I am pretty gloomy about the future. What would it take to make me more optimistic about the future?

-Raises that at least kept pace with inflation.
-News reports about job creation, rather than job cuts and layoffs.
-Manufacturers “in sourcing” rather than “out sourcing”.
-Seeing companies managed for the long term health of the company, rather than the short term profit of a select few.
-Seeing companies offer good wages to encourage people to go into a difficult field (like science or engineering), rather than obtaining H1B visas to bring in foreigners. The imported labor not only takes a job from an American, they also lower the wages of the remaining workers and discourage new students from even bothering to obtain a technical degree.

Listen, I know “job security” is a thing of the past. But it would be nice if there were more jobs out there. It’s one thing if a company lays you off and you can pick up a comparable job elsewhere. It’s something else Entirely when you get laid off and there is Nothing comparable.

Until the job market improves, even those of us who are doing well are only a layoff/downsizing/rightsizing/outsourcing/offshoring away from disaster.

I’m not too concerned about my personal economic situation because I’m retired and have a substantial part of my savings in secure bonds. I’m also not concerned about the solvency of my Social Security account because of the political influence of other retirees like myself to insure that it keeps being funded (even if that eventually requires supplementing Social Security taxes with general revenues).

From the standpoint of the overall economy, it would be to the benefit of both workers and firms to recognize that it is to their benefit to lower their wage demands and prices in response to the reduced demand for their services that results from a “credit crunch.” The Federal Reserve injecting credit (money) into the financial system is a big help in sustaining aggregate demand, but it is just as important that aggregate supply (the quantity of goods and services offered by workers and firms at a particular price level) not be allowed to essentially shrink as workers and firms try to “beat inflation.”

As AJ indicated in post #1, some inflation in the price of energy is inevitible. Furthermore, it will increase the prices of many other goods that require energy to produce and distribute. So we had better adjust to it by using less energy and energy-intensive goods, rather than by demanding higher pay to compensate for the higher prices.

We live comfortably but it doesn’t mean that we live above our means. We are still allocating the same amount per week for groceries that we did last year and it is not cutting it. I would like to see the cows produce cheaper milk and the chickens lay regular eggs and not gold nuggets. I would love it if I didn’t have to go on oxygen everytime my sons decided to go for that second bowl of cereal. Maybe they could toss us an orange or two that isn’t costing a buck apiece , you get what I mean. Being able to feed a family of four on less than 200 dollars a week would be a real boost in my optimism that things are improving.

I’m gloomy about the economy, but I’ve been pessimistic about our nation’s future for quite some time, even when our national economy was looking quite good. A ridiculous national debt, outrageous government spending, and a republic continuing to veer socialistic does nothing to encourage me. Current events only underscore my concerns.

As long as we can personally keep our financial ducks in a row and keep ourselves above water, the state of the economy matters little to me. We spend according to needs and funds, not by sticking our finger in the winds of national opinion or fact concerning the economy. Getting debts in order is our priority. As with Gina, in our family we still spend close to, if not occassionally under our weekly food budget, as we have since we got married nearly three years ago. And I got a part time job recently(stay at home dad) to make sure that our budget doesn’t come down to scraping two pennies together as we prepare for potential family growth, not to mention immediate increased gas prices affecting our budget. We’ve never lived above our means. We don’t own an ipod, game system, big tv or brand new vehicles. We didn’t buy a McMansion craptastic cookie-cutter. We frequent Shop-N-Save, Target and the dollar store. We peruse Craigslist and Freecycle and have done this even when we had plenty of discretionary funds. And yet, if you visit our home, I’d wager most’d think we’re living above our means, at least a little.

Frugality and common sense will see most anyone thru even the worst national economic slump. And a little economic hardship every now and then is good I think for teaching a little humility and wisdom to the general public to concerned with self-interested pride and desire.

#4 - Where the heck do you shop for groceries? My family of four eats well for maybe $100 a week, and most weeks it’s a lot less. That may change of course when they all become teenagers, but still.

If people payed less attention to the crap newspapers and the networks spew out about the economy, global warming, and other fake horrors the media sensationalize to sell ad space, they’d realize there is actually very little to be gloomy about.

American Accountability!
Yes . . . Americans holding Americans accountable is the only thing that seems like it will translate economically in the Global Economy. stop bailing out Wall Street at the expense of the Greenback.

time to storm the castle . . . or the country club.

I bought an 18 ct carton of eggs (to dye for easter and then turn into deviled eggs) 4.50$ one

gallon of milk 3.88$ I have a family of 5 two of them are teenagers 100$ dosen’t cover jack-sqaut oh and get ready to pay upwards of 5.$ a pop for a loaf of bread how absurd!

#6
sounds like your wife is hiding the real grocery bill from you, I’ll pose you the same question where the heck do you shop for 100$ a week?

As always, when the costs of products and needs rise, income always lags behind. Thus there’s bugetary and economic problems in the interim until income can meet the demands of cost. Equilibrium. Barring some extrodinary negative events to affect the US economically we should see a typical rebound within a year or so I’d think.

But with so many things tied together it’s like looking at a house of cards or a domino display on the verge of just the wrong nudge.

The housing market is still wobbly and was caused by greed, stupidity and sometimes downright lies. 10 years ago it was the tech/dot.com market. Something else will be the new bubble in a few years. I’ve heard rumors it’s bonds. Compound this with a government so deep in debt it’s unfathomable, and lo and behold, China owns a lion share of our debt. Our dollar is worth less, but it isn’t worthless. Yet. The world’s continuing and growing distrust in it cannot help the dollar to regain strength and worth. Then there’s oil, as prices rise yet production isn’t increased and we continue to restrict the development of facilities here that could ease such burdens. And to top it all off we have Russia and China waking up. I see China taking further actions after the Olympics. We have a Presidential election occuring this fall and Islamic terrorists who while greatly wounded are still a great threat. Between Iran, Al-qaida and the potential cells here in the US, I can only hope that we don’t have a Spanish election on our hands, or just as bad, a Beslanic day across America. Between the terrorists and oil, I don’t doubt someone will try to affect voter turn out and trends. Not to mention if we get Clinton or Obama in office, no telling how bad it could get not only abroad, but here if they were to go thru with an immediate, announced withdrawl.

Doom and gloom? Concern? You bet. Our economy is merely the tip of the iceberg, one that is interwoven with so many aspects. We don’t have the Titanic bearing down on us. We’re out in open water, in the shipping lanes as it were, and we’re no longer the big, big dog on the street that we were 15 years ago.