Our Economy (discussion thread)

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

Hey everyone, I think it's time to have some good discussion.

It seems as though our economy is getting worse by the day. Disposable income is slowly but surely depleting and I find that my family is eating out less, makes only necessary grocery trips are rarely goes shopping anymore. The question is, how is this affecting you? How do you feel about our economy and the issues facing it, and what do you think should be done?

No flaming.

[Samuel346]

Gas prices are the only real cause too.


When Oil goes up, the cost to make 90% of the things we use(because they use Oil in their production) goes up.


It's also causing inflation which causes more heartache.


My proposal: Nuke Canada. :eek::cool:

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

Gas prices are the only real cause too.


When Oil goes up, the cost to make 90% of the things we use(because they use Oil in their production) goes up.


It's also causing inflation which causes more heartache.


My proposal: Nuke Canada. :eek::cool:

Which city? :p

[AnarchyintheUK]

With your economy as it is and with Britain and Europes as it is. Its currently cheaper to go to the US for 2 weeks holiday than it is to go to France for 2 weeks.

[benson111]

The bad economy is due to a combination of the bad housing market and high oil prices.

And the fact that everyone wants to spend spend, and now are unable to due to exactly what you said. There is no easy one explination for the economy as such it is. Mainly people are speculating that oil is going to go up, and because of that prices continue to rise, for no apperant reason.
If it wasnt for the speculators then oil prices would be around 2.75$ Congress is furthering this issue by not regulating the speculators in the market, and by not opening the reserves, to lessen some of the burden on the lower class americans mostly affected by this. Further more with america stuck in Iraq, and Afganastan, waisting american tax money on a fruitless occupation, the current administration is further putting our economy into debt with china and other foriegn countries who are some day going to demand that we pay them back right now. /rant off

Sorry about the wall, but we would not be in this current economic crisis if it wasnt for the current administrations failings to see the big picture in our own country and learn that foriegn affairs begin with the affairs in your own country FIRST.

My 2 cents sorry again for the wall.

[killer_roach]

Regulating speculators is a bad idea, because they, like it or not, provide liquidity to the market, which is a large part of the problem with the housing market (lack of ready liquidity in bad mortgages). That's why there's all the money going into oil, because there isn't sufficient liquidity in traditional hedges for money (real estate, government bonds). After all, what's the point of buying an investment if you're not sure you can sell it?

That aside, all it takes is some movement in market fundamentals to collapse the price of oil back down around $80 a barrel (which would lead to about $3 a gallon gasoline)... the problem is that some of the problems stem from the weak dollar, which is weak because of illiquidity in the housing market. However, if we ease up on that too much, we face a wage-price inflation spiral and an even weaker dollar.

I see the US economy remaining in its current "growth recession" for about another year, at which point most of the credit mess will have sorted itself out, the Fed can finally raise interest rates, and that should burst the bubble on oil prices. (Sorry, Anarchy, it'll mean that US trip probably gets noticeably more expensive again, though)

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

And the fact that everyone wants to spend spend, and now are unable to due to exactly what you said. There is no easy one explination for the economy as such it is. Mainly people are speculating that oil is going to go up, and because of that prices continue to rise, for no apperant reason.
If it wasnt for the speculators then oil prices would be around 2.75$ Congress is furthering this issue by not regulating the speculators in the market, and by not opening the reserves, to lessen some of the burden on the lower class americans mostly affected by this. Further more with america stuck in Iraq, and Afganastan, waisting american tax money on a fruitless occupation, the current administration is further putting our economy into debt with china and other foriegn countries who are some day going to demand that we pay them back right now. /rant off

Sorry about the wall, but we would not be in this current economic crisis if it wasnt for the current administrations failings to see the big picture in our own country and learn that foriegn affairs begin with the affairs in your own country FIRST.

My 2 cents sorry again for the wall.
Opening the oil reserves now is a bad idea. They will only last us a few years, and when it's gone and lower-class Americans are used to the laxed prices, the economy will be hit even harder, and we won't have any reserves when the **** really hits the fan.

[killer_roach]

Opening the SPR won't last a few years... it'll last a couple of weeks. There just isn't enough to deal with American petroleum demand.

Sad, but true.

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

Opening the SPR won't last a few years... it'll last a couple of weeks. There just isn't enough to deal with American petroleum demand.

Sad, but true.
Yep. Much more money and thought must be put into alternate fuels and fuel-efficient cars. But once a new, free renewable resource is tapped into the government will find ways to make money off of it.

and PS where is lithiumkc when you need him?

[AeroZeppelinSevenfold]

i would really like for a new source of energy is found to replace oil.

it probably already has been found, but our government won't let it be used until all the oil is gone.

there is also places here in america where we could get oil, but we want to use up all the arabs oil first.

and even though we have an oil crisis, it isn't bad enough to have it 4 some bucks a gallon. i thik our government is trying to get more money out of us.

just my 2 cents.

[killer_roach]

There are alternative sources of energy... just most of them aren't cost-effective without government subsidies and specific geographic locations (wind, solar). Far from "not letting it be used", the government has spent tens of billions of dollars on it... to no avail. That aside, there have been some very promising breakthroughs in solar technology in the past year or two... that might be a way to go for much of the country in terms of energy needs. For automobiles, hydrogen just isn't going to cut it at this point, and corn-derived ethanol is far worse. I think you'll be seeing (if various states allow increased production) a shift to some natural gas-powered cars (which is far cleaner than gasoline) as well as cellulosic ethanol (we're not there yet, maybe in 5-10 years). There may also be more electric plug-in cars, especially if we can move toward cleaner energy sources that way (the aforementioned solar, natural gas, nuclear, and even some clean coal technologies).

Doesn't matter what oil prices do, as the government is getting the same amount per gallon in taxes anyway... in Michigan, that's about 50 cents a gallon between state and federal taxes. Was that way when gas was $1 a gallon, will be that way when gas hits $5 a gallon (diesel has touched that here on occasion).

[Julio_Strikes_Back]

A thread with over 100 posts has already been established covering this topic.

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56224

We're not allowed to bump threads.