Sorry, folks.
The wind has picked up again -- here come the storms:
1) Rising oil prices
2) Stagnant employment
3) Dwindling growth
4) Government inaction (and wrongful action)
It's all related.
Rising oil prices slows economic growth. Stagnant employment means stagnant demand. Government inaction means no stimulus. Wrongful action means that the income of the nation gets diverted to people who already have so much that they are not likely to spend more.
Just about every way you look at it ...
Dark clouds are gathering on the horizon.
The real problem -- way back in 2007 when the crisis first started -- has always been demand:
Demand receded because of the crash in the housing market.
Government needed to step in and support demand by spending money into the economy -- we got some stimulus spending (thank God) but it was too small compared to the size of the crisis. We didn't get direct hiring. We didn't get an comprehensive infrastructure investment plan.
Instead, government went around handing money out to rich people.
And that didn't work.
So now, round two.
It looks increasingly likely that we're heading into another dip.
We gotta have Congress, the Executive and the Fed step in and help us out.
But they seem less willing than ever to do it.
All we hear from Washington is cutting spending -- an anti-stimulus -- and increasing hardship on working people so that the rich don't lose their ill-gotten gains.