"Greenspan, who stepped down as Fed chairman last year, said cheap Chinese imports were one of the elements stoking world growth, along with Eastern European workers and the knock-on effects on lower inflation and interest rates.
“In the last five years, the world as a whole is a growing faster than at any time in the world’s history,” he said. “It can’t last and it won’t last because it’s a one-shot adjustment.”
The Shanghai Composite Index is up 56% so far in 2007 – despite falling nearly 9% on Feb. 27 and setting off a quick pullback in stock markets around the world. It’s trading at 70% above its 200-day moving average. The Nasdaq Composite’s peak in March 2000 was 55% above its 200-day moving average."
Why did I entitle this thread like did? Is there a connection here?
Head, He also said before he vacated his position and before today’s high gas ,food etc. prices.To have the same spending power that we had in the 60’s and 70’s the average persons salary should be around $80,000 a year … the majority of peeps i know are trying to get by on about half of that every year.And supposedly we have a great economy.
[quote]ron33 wrote:
Head, He also said before he vacated his position and before today’s high gas ,food etc. prices.To have the same spending power that we had in the 60’s and 70’s the average persons salary should be around $80,000 a year … the majority of peeps i know are trying to get by on about half of that every year.And supposedly we have a great economy.[/quote]
Do you have a copy of that quote?
People today have far more than we did in the 60’s and 70’s.
Bigger houses, better cars, improved medical procedures, incredible communication etc. This all costs money.
It takes very little money to live as we did in the 70’s.
No,I don’t have a copy ,Just saw Mr. Greenspan a few yrs. back on one of the morning news shows and that’s what he said.It was something that caught my attention because i was surprised he made that statement.
In the area where i live people are actually worse off than they were then.the good paying jobs are gone,the foreclosure rate his higher than its ever been.the area is starting to turn into a little Detroit.crime rate and thefts are way up.the only people that are ahead of the game are the ones that are already retired ,or have had their money thru inheritence.a lot of the small business are going out of business or having a tough time getting paid for their services,I have friends in everything from auto machanics to heavy equipment to Drs. and machine shops doing work for the gov’t.the guy thats wife is a doc is doing fine and the guy that builds military parts for gov’t ,but everyone else is struggling.
The Chinese hold huge amounts of our treasury bills. Sometime (soon, I’d bet), their stock market’s going to crash. Its a classic bubble. The ripple effects of that crash will be beyond our comprehension.
For ex, the T-bills: what happens when their market is crashing? Will they try cashing in all that debt at once?
A ‘1929’ meltdown is very possible, as Mr. Greenspan intimates. If so, these truly are the Good Old Days.
[quote]ron33 wrote:
In the area where i live people are actually worse off than they were then.the good paying jobs are gone,the foreclosure rate his higher than its ever been.the area is starting to turn into a little Detroit.crime rate and thefts are way up.the only people that are ahead of the game are the ones that are already retired ,or have had their money thru inheritence.a lot of the small business are going out of business or having a tough time getting paid for their services,I have friends in everything from auto machanics to heavy equipment to Drs. and machine shops doing work for the gov’t.the guy thats wife is a doc is doing fine and the guy that builds military parts for gov’t ,but everyone else is struggling.[/quote]
Times certainly are changing. Some formerly well off areas are going downhill and some formerly dirt poor areas are doing quite well.
I think the poor today are generally better off than they were years ago but since there is so much more obvious wealth being displayed it makes them feel worse.
I really can’t see a crash comparable to 1929 happening this time, a big one perhaps but you just have to look at how overvalued companies were back then (even poorly performing ones) and see the mania that had gripped the population as a whole to see that 1929 really was something incredible.
I don’t think there will be another crash on that scale for quite some time.