Two ways the economy can go. A peaceful drift into the next great depression (bad enough)...or things could become more dramatic. The credit crisis will continue to worsen once the effects of the home mortgage debacle, then vehicle loans, then credit cards and finally the cost of the wars come home to roost. (If you don't believe that we're headed for depression, I would suggest FinancialArmageddon.com, Dollarcollapse.com or the Royal Bank of Scotland).
Let's take a look at some of the events that are a given at this point:
- People continue to lose homes in numbers that make the current foreclosure rate look tame by comparison.
- Construction people and those who support them flood the job market, unemployment becomes much higher, wages become lower.
- People lose their cars first and then their available credit, many are bankrupt.
- The dollar continues to fall against the only international currency that matters, oil. The necessities of life (primarily food and fuel) become unaffordable for many.
(More Below)
- Food stamps don't make up the difference for those who survive on them.
- More people will garden. (One of the only benefits I can see)
- Used small cars become more valuable, of course, and gas hogs become almost worthless.8. People stay home a lot or shop in their own neighborhoods.
- It's a given that if Obama gets in, the repubs and MSM are going to hammer on him constantly, block whatever they can, look for scandal under every pebble, create scandal from nothing whenever possible. 10. The notion that Halliburton/Blackwater is going to let Cheney (or Bush) face any kind of proceedings for criminal behavior is just plain wrong. Tricky Dick will be waving and laughing at the rubes that come for him as he takes off into the sky in his Blackhawk chopper (or some such scenario).
- All levels of government and NGO's in the US become less and less able to assist with disaster relief even as disasters increase due to global warming. Personally, I'm in a Precautionary Evacuation zone because the government can't adequately battle fires that shouldn't even be happening at this time of year in Northern California. Then we're supposed to have a 'banner' hurricane year and everyone has been watching the floods through IA, MS, MO and other central states.
The Unknowns
- I have to ask that IF they let Obama get into the white house and he doesn't sell us out like Nancy and Harry and other 'centrist' democrats, do I think that wisdom could prevail? Do I think that from a Machiavellian perspective that the 'controllers' of the world stage and US stage recognize that they need to work to improve the economy for their own good? My gut says that the controllers are either as incompetent as the Enron people or they only care about the very short term.
- At what point do people just revolt? When the guy is standing in front of the hospital door in South LA with a bleeding child and they won’t let him in? When they change the locks on the door of the house that you sank 50K into and now you owe more than its worth? When young toughs can’t get work? What does that lead to? Some sort of martial law, generally, fewer rights, less privacy, the further dismantling of constitutional rights.
- Terrorists could drop something on us or into our water.
- We could bomb Iran causing gas to go up to $16/gallon because 2/5 of the oil in the world goes through Iran’s Straight of Hormuz. Ever look at that on Google earth?
I'd be interested in the thoughts of others who grok the economic unraveling.