It is hard not to be a sore loser in today’s economy. We pay more money for less gas. The prices on groceries have risen, while the value of the dollar has fallen. The unemployment rate is still high, and many of us owe more on our homes than they are worth.
So, how do you think we can turn this economy around? Perhaps we would all like to believe in Bernanke’s theory of Wealth Effect. (“Higher stock prices will boost consumer wealth and help increase confidence, which can also spur spending. Increased spending will lead to higher incomes and profits that, in a virtuous circle, will further support economic expansion.”) However, that doesn’t seem to be happening. So, when do we stop trying to help the economy by buying, buying, buying, and start keeping ourselves safe by saving?
Loading ...As usual, we would love your feedback and insight. Let us know where your money is going in the comments section.
Best,
The MarketClub Team
X None of the above.
None of the "choices" would come close to what I am doing. Or the people I know. One is planting a bigger garden/hydroponics. One bought a piece of land in Panama and built a house there. He currently spends 3 months at a time here and there. His Spanish is getting better.
I wonder if Jim Rogers is "using public transportation" more in Singapore or wherever he is.
Since the US government is pumping money into the stock market and inflating the dollar, buy some oil or mining stocks and ride the wave or at least try to preserve some value. Use the trade triangles to help follow the trend.
I know people teaching English in China (no certification required), welding new pipeline in North Dakota, working for an oil co in Ukraine, removing old pipe at refineries and power plants (last job in UK). Sad the government has destroyed so many opportunities in the USA that ambitious people head for the hills or just leave the country to improve their lot.
I know, I know...why am I still here?
actually, I think this quote came from a most unlikely source, Joe Califano, a member of Jimmy Carter's cabinet, stated this in public first.
This survey and many others are bad because most if not all of these surveys do not have any choices that I would pick. Therefore I think your surveys are biased. You should have a forth option, None of the above.
As far as what I will do, I will buy gold, bullets, and vote Libertarian.
Hi Ken the Canadian. 😉 Richard Nixon, did not take us off of the gold standard. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, can take credit for that one. He not only sent all of our gold overseas, but illegalized the ownership thereof. He went as far as confiscation of gold from American citizens. Kennedy wanted to get us back to a metal money status, but didn't live long enough. Nixon finally, after FIVE presidents had the honesty to let the Americans know that there hadn't been a gold standard for almost 40 years. The New Deal was>>> steal our gold and give us paper crap bills.
David, Have you noticed, WE HAVE NO EXPORTS!!!!, even if we did and had a low valued dollar, the world still couldn't afford to buy them, because the EPA/OSHA make it impossible for business to be profitable in the first place, much less, competitive. When you see all of these dead factories, all around the country, producing goods once again, then we may have a chance.
Jim,
That is an untrue urban legend (about Congressional pensions) distributed thoughtlessly by email. Check the text in Google to find the discreditation. Don't let it GET YOU ALL ANGRY. It is false.
On the other hand, ANY govt solution thru law is fatally flawed because it is designed by a committee. Individual judgments and actions have the possibility of being correct and effective but never those resulting from a political lowest common denominator. Even those in the agencies (regulators) are operating by consensus of their co-beaurocrats so responsibility for failure or success is absent.
That's why leftist government "simple fixes" are invariably ineffective: tariffs for unions, banning guns, higher taxes to fight poverty, stopping credit cards from funding internet gambling, collecting income tax from Americans who live overseas and make no income in the US and get no benefit from federal spending, promulgating rules on brokers dealing with American clients that do not apply to foreign brokers in violation of the WTO, etc., etc.
Don't pay any of your bills. Don't pay your mortgage, they can't find the paperwork to seize your home. Don't pay your credit cards, they'll settle with you for 33 cents on the dollar. What good is your credit rating? The banks won't loan me money on apartment complexes with a 5 year payoff in rents alone; my credit score is 800+. The banks took our money and are paying big bonuses and writing off all their toxic debt so that Bernanke can buy it with newly printed money. Oil, gas and food are way up and the Dollar is at new lows. Yeah, this plan that Bernanke abd Soros belive will work is working for the extremely wealthy. What will Obama do when we start rioting in the streets? He'll gun us down just like they do in the Middle East.
As I write this I'm on the Island of Kauai for an Easter vacation. I got my tickets on points from my credit card supplemented with cash from savings. My large 1200 square foot timeshare is free each year after the maintenance fee is paid. I bought it from a reseller. I have never spent what I earned, including when working my way through college. I paid my first and only car loan off in seven months and my first and second houses in about 6 years each. I have not paid any other interest. Our savings are currently about 8 years earnings not counting real estate. Today I helped a restaurant when I bought meals and a jeweler when I bought a pearl for my wife. With cash. I still have some left and will stop spending before it is gone. Anyone could have done this, but most people did not. It is time to look after ourselves as the cabal of smart people have really made a mess of things. Earn all you can at as many jobs as you need. Buy what you need and save. Put savings into gold and silver. Less than $50 will buy you your first once of silver bullion coin. If it drops buy more. One day when gold is the same as the Dow Jones and silver is hundreds per once it won't matter what mess they have made because you can look after yourself. It's late to act but not too late. God help us all.
Stop waisting Votes On poeple like RON PAUL ! If TRUMP really runs ,He's got my Vote ! As for living I have always lived below my Means and only help those that really need help! Screw the Middle East and screw China!
with this economy, not just ours, but the worlds, i have retired early, bought a vintage mobile home, got a sexy gf, and trade forex.... yesterday i made $432.00 in silver/usd
I have mentioned before and I hold firmly even now that all the extra money printing will not be a problem because by and large this money will not find its way anymore into the hands of people who cannot afford to pay back. Instead, money will find its way into businesses which will hopefully expand and hence hire more. And there are no more job losses seen. Hence at worst the economy will remain flat.
I am still paying $1.99 in New Jersey for half a gallon of "Not from Concentrate" Orange juice. I don't see any inflation. Yes gas of course is obvious. But then with all the shameless oil spills and global demand that sounds likely to happen.
@ Bob Powell,
You 're obviously a Glenn Beck fan...Well, Beck's a flake. I could repute every wing nut thing he says about Soros, but I'll just mention that the $2 billion in US-made (yes, US-made!) equipment sponsored by the US Gov't Exim Bank (it's their job to promote the export of US products worldwide) to Petrobras was initiated before Obama took office. It's an agreement to send $2 billion of US-made oil and gas equipment to one of the fastest growing oil companies in the world. That's what the Exim Bank is supposed to do. It's one of the few Gov't-sponsored entities that actually makes money.
Beck also said Soros was a major owner of Petrobras. Actually Soros's shares represented 0.86% of this huge company. And, Beck said Soros's buddies run Petrobras. Yet, in the end, Petrobras executives voted to dilute company shares and Soros took a bath, almost a 25% loss, on his shares. For a guy who supposedly ran Petrobras with his friends, his investment didn't turn out very well.
Bottom line...I don't care about personalities and I question everything I'm fed by infotainment media. I respect the trading abilities of anyone who achieves incredible success, which Soros has. Which is more than I can say for Beck and his cancelled show. And don't even get me started on Fox TV's assertion that Soros destroyed England by shorting the pound. Using short-players as scapegoats for bad management of a country or a company is a technique that goes back hundreds of years. It appeals to the uninformed and the gullible...perfect targets for politicians who need a bad-guy to cover their incompetence.
AS usual most survey questions are skewered towards a given answer. This survey was no different. Two of the questions were conservatively based (saving) hence received a combine vote of 63% and only one question was based on spending hence receiving 37% of the vote. Therefore given the general public's inclination to save makes policymakers decisions easier if they do the right thing, eg higher savings more capital for businesses to invest if the banks lend it out which in turn creates more jobs. The lower $US helps in this regard as well. We are all pawns on a huge capitalist global chess board and the huge amount of carry trade money or black pools flowing around the world today is the referee.
Thank you all for your comments! Paul, we try our best not to skew our polls or answer choices. Like I said earlier, we are always open to suggestions for future blog posts and would love to hear from you if there is something in specific that you would like to talk about. Please feel free to email me at [email protected].
Cheers,
Jennifer
vat tax and eliminate the 100,000 pages of IRS scrutiny.
Fire all the IRS agents
retrain the 200000 accountants and lawyers who work on taxes and make them become productive.
Downsize government and stop interfering with capitalism , entrepreneurship, small business growth.
Reduce corporate tax which is the highest of any country in the world
My money is on a snails pace. Getting to the age where wall street is just to much of a risk and unknown.
Dumb ass poll.
Sorry Ben! We have a broad spectrum of viewers and it is always hard to please everyone. Feel free to email me as well with additional feedback, or with regards to what you would like to see from our polls.
Jennifer
None of this outside of coupon clipping applies to me. I don't live in the city, have no public transportation. Working at home just doesn't work to many distractions. Find a roommate, I guess no ones married and has a family. Everyone should stop reading Ayn Rand and join the real world
How fast everyone forgets where this country was 2 years ago. The Bush administration pleading and begging for
700 Billion to try and stop a Financial melt down that would have created a world wide depression and soup lines
like the 1930's. Now that the economy has stablized with some improvement some people want to go back to business as
usual. No regulation and let the unscrupulious go back to rigging the game in the name of free interprise. I.E. the rich
get richer and the poor get poorer.
I'm a Canadian so please feel free to ignore my comments if you think I don't have any 'skin' in the game. Our countries are not only neighbors, we are also similar, but different.
However, we have saying up here that when the US sneezes, we catch a cold. Your green back is the reserve currency of most of the nations in the world today. When 'the Bernack' tries to heat up your economy by inflating your country out of a re/de-pression, we all suffer, some sooner (Iceland, Greece) than later (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Africa...etc.).
I believe your economy is headed for a similar (but different) Dirty 30's crash if the QE's stop, or a late '70's (but much much worse) period of hyper inflation (Zimbabwe ring any bells?) if they don't. The US is a great nation of some truly wonderful and innovative people. I'm sure that it will be possible to eventually overcome these fiscal problems after a period of struggle, adjustment to restraint, and a lot of hard work.
Letting governments play with the value of money (i.e. going off the gold standard in the 70's...another Tricky Dick Nixon move) is putting the fox in the hen house. I'm sure most politicians mean well, but they end up promising things as they try to buy the most votes with your money. Letting them control the money supply generally makes your hard earned money of today worth less. If it is allowed to continue, tomorrow it will be worthless.
The bottom line is your (and our) governments (Federal, State/Provincial, (Regional - a new wrinkle in BC), and Municipal) are all spending more money than you and I (in the end, the ONLY taxpayers) can afford in 'funded' and unfunded liabilities.
wasn't the free market who invented the securitization of all the junk loans they had no business making.
Stop IRA contributions, concoct an acceptable reason to cash out. Buy silver(only physical and I prefer pre 65 U.S.S.A coinage)
Wait for the meltdown.
First off, Soros should stay the hell out of U.S. politics. This megalomaniac interferes with national governments around the globe. Also a huge beneficiary of Obama's infusion of $2 billion into Petrobas' drilling operations.
To answer your question, I'm doing home improvements myself, buying loads of things from local big box stores. My wife and I have always saved, infusing our IRAs, mutuals and her 401k to the limit.
Like the other posters said, get the federal government out of the public sector. Do away with the bloated IRS and go to a flat tax. Kill the corporate loopholes that allow them to make billions and yet pay nothing to the U.S. economy in return. G.E. come to mind?
Reduce the fed government across the board by 5% to start. And that includes Congressional staffs and perks.
Terminate foreign aid and get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm a Vietnam vet and know when I spot a bogus war.
The really sad thing about all this? If (impossible it seems) the fed deficit was reduced to nothing, these money-grabbing politicians would resume spending trillions again and repeat the cycle. They never learn.
Have a good weekend!
Bob
35 states are suing the Fed. Govn. It only take 3 more (38) to convene a continental congress. WHY DOES CONGRESS GET THERE FULL PAY AFTER THEY ARE OUT OF OFFICE, EVEN AFTER SERVING ONLY ONE TERM, AND THERE KIDS GO TO COLLEGE FREE????? OUR DISABLED SOLDIERS ONLY GET HALF THERE PAY, DAAAAAAA. AND WHY DOES CONGRESS MAKE LAWS FOR THE CITIZENS THAT DON'T APPLY TO THEM, LIKE 0BAMA CARE. IF IT IS GOOD FOR US WHY NOT THEM??????
Continue to accumulate silver in 1 oz. units. think in terms of how many oz. not dollars / oz.
If I were to have voted, you should have had a none of the above box to check. Or had a couple more options to choose from. I prefer to keep as much of my money as I can as close as I can, some investing but tennative. I also do everything I can to keep Obama's hand out of my pockets!
I agree. Your question would probably get a lot of votes
Lower the the national debt which will result in the increase of the GDP. The national debt is stifling the free market.
There is a flip side to every transaction. A lower dollar will spur our exports and make American goods more competitive in the world market place. As an offshoot, it could lower consumption of consumer goods, most of which come from abroad. Therefore, our savings might increase. I don't believe that it is an either/or question.
What ever happened to the notion that our markets are supposed to be a free market capatilist system. How do we have a free market system when the markets are being manipulated by the Federal Reserve via QE2?
End the Fed, Go Ron Paul!
I believe theres a simple solution....Big government get the hell out of the way and leave the free market system alone. Every recession I can think of was caused by government intervention.
Lets take the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 which imposed a 60% tax on products imported to the USA causing US imports and exports to decrease 60% and by 1933 unemployment became 25.1%. Most sane economist believe this Act was the cause of the Great Depression.
A recent example would be CRA The Community Investment Act better known as Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac forcing banks to make morgages to people unable to pay them back which is the main cause of the mess we are in now.
It is no wonder President Reagan (Ronaldus Magnamus)said that the most terrifying words in the english language are Im from the government and Im here to help.
Best regards,
Jay Robert Savastano
George Soros believes that the Bernanke formula will work..."As long as the extra money is NOT used for additional consumption."
In other words, as long as people don't use their extra income to simply inflate their debts, the economy will eventually recover. Extra money in the economy should be used for extra production, infrastructure improvements, and improved efficiencies. The politicians HAVE to keep their hands off the extra money for their favorite vote-buying pet pork barrel project, or things will get much worse before they get better.
Never believe an economist...trust the people who have to actually live and die -- and commit their capital -- to their beliefs. Listen to the traders/investors.
Don't like you survey questions.
I recommend paying down your mortgage, selling your house whenever possible and rent.
Invest in gold & silver stocks being careful not to overbuy and use good judgement on timing.
Sorry to hear that, Ed. We are always open to suggestions if you have an idea for Friday's poll. Also, feel free to email me at [email protected] with any material that interests you. We appreciate your feedback!
Thanks,
Jennifer