Not to mention mandatory shutdowns/furloughs, wage cuts, and overall reduced consumer confidence levels. The two drivers of GDP growth are housing and durables. So guess what -> with lenders requiring 10-20% on new home purchases not too many people are going to take that plunge only to see their home value plummet.
Yes McCain couldn't keep a single idea or theme to his economic message. It seemed to change twice weekly. That kind of uncertainty and inability to make a decision is not what would have helped this economic situation.
I think the reasons people paid attention were: 1. Banks like Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia, and Washington Mutual were disappearing every week. 2. One of the largest insuring companies in the world, AIG, completely collapsed. 3. The Treasury requested $700,000,000,000 from Congress in order to prevent the collapse of the Western financial system. 4. The entire global credit market came to a virtually standstill due to fear of more failures similiar to #1 and #2 and uncertainty with #3. I think the economic crisis affected the election, but not the other way around. People were paying attention because all hell was breaking loose in the economy. All of the above were going to happen whether there was an election or not.
exactly you say the fundamentals are sound and your president later has to ask for $700BB in TARP money kind of makes you look like you don't know what you're doing. on a side note, why do people act like the entire financial system wasn't on the verge of collaspe in September
Sure it did - the auto market started its downturn when gas went to $4 during the summer, and then that accelerated late last year when credit was not available for many high-quality borrowers (Sept/Oct). That led to the need for an auto bailout, which then panicked people even more. None of those have to do with the elections.
You mean people like myself who watched our portfolios decline week after week? Ya, that's a great time to go out and buy a new Lexus.
No high quality borrower was turned down for a loan on a car. Unless your definition of high quality is a person with a job and not much else.
dude, i'm not trying to be a jerk but this is a typical caseyh thread tangent. luxury auto buying wasn't going to save the economy from spiraling
well not trying to be a jerk, but you misread my statement. I said luxury and auto purchases. Not luxury autos. Also consumer spending is responsble for tons of lost jobs. It is being haulted by fear mostly.
theres not that many people who can afford to buy luxury goods and autos. they can continue buying, but if the middle class stops buying, or stops existing, the rich can't save the economy.
it is not being halted out of fear. its being halted because the banking system almost collasped in September because of tangent events that there are numerous threads on. so the the middle class consumer with decent to subpar credit couldn't go out and purchase a $2K television anymore. there are a bunch of assumptions that your thread is based on that I would challenge from the jump. A) people with good credit aren't purchasing goods. Someone's still buying stuff. there are plenty of retail stores still operating. B) people with a lot of money aren't purchasing stuff. I totally disagree. It doesn't take a 20% drop in retail spending to hault our economy. It takes very marginal decreases from people with marginal credit to stop spending to cause a lot of these retailers to go out of business. Retailers outside of the Wal Mart and a few other giants are living on thin margins to begin with.
Ofcourse it has not stopped but stores and automakers are getting killed. Buffet said his jewelry business is getting killed while Geico is doing great because everyone is so scared and doing so much to save cash. This is the reason Wal-Mart is doing OK. Consumer spending is mostly psychological.
Yes. Fear of losing their jobs. Fear of not being able to pay the mortgage. Fear of not being able to send their kids to college. Fear of having to live on dog food when they get old.
casey I'm not going to continue this right now other than to say there are plenty of other indicators besides retail spending to show the economy has collasped. manufacturing orders have declined commodity prices have collasped housing has collasped etc.
correct. And I am asking if this fear was somewhat brought on by the constant talk of another great depression during the election.
