[Pops]

Heck if I know, what do you predict?

[Pops]

I forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[Stratovarius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[MD]

Next up: hard times for Americans.

I'm as ready as I can be, under the circumstances. I might end up serving soup or standing in the soup line or as part of the soup. Who knows?

[Grifter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hogan', '
')
So what's next?

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hogan', 'F')or a long time, consumer spending was propped up by easy to get credit cards. Then with the artificial housing boom, mortgages and refinancing allowed the consumer to continue spend more and more money he didn't have. Now the easy credit is gone and the housing market has collapsed. All that imaginary wealth is gone. Vanished. Many, if not most, Americans are now bankrupt or have a negative personal savings rate. Companies are dropping like flies, and it will get much worse after this Christmas. Unemployment is about to skyrocket. With consumer spending making up 70% of the US economy, I think we all know where this is heading. Everything which we thought was, really wasn't after all.

So what's next?

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Grifter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hogan', '
')
So what's next?

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

Shopping/ buying things is our national pastime. It's what we do for amusement. People will still try to buy the usual junk until the bitter end. (ie their credit card is maxed and then cut off) I think we will see a lot more credit card defaults when folks just run them up and then stop paying. (maybe after a job loss)

Then comes anger because "hey, I work hard but can't afford that big screen TV that I have to get!"

I've been wondering the same thing: how is our economy going to recover (let alone grow again) without the consumer spending component?

The only answer that I see right away is some kind of gov't funded public works projects to provide jobs and help us transition into a green economy. Chances of this actualy happening: minimal at best

Maybe more people will join the military to get work and benefits. That would solve the troop shortage, but give us a lot of untrained personnel. Maybe we wage more wars to keep the military industrial complex fully funded and providing more jobs.

[Stratovarius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')aybe more people will join the military to get work and benefits. That would solve the troop shortage, but give us a lot of untrained personnel. Maybe we wage more wars to keep the military industrial complex fully funded and providing more jobs.

[TheDude]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[AlexdeLarge]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[smiley]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ouldn't this just speed up inflation since the military is non-self liquidating?

[Stratovarius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smiley', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ouldn't this just speed up inflation since the military is non-self liquidating?

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stratovarius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smiley', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ouldn't this just speed up inflation since the military is non-self liquidating?

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') forgot to add: what are you doing to prepare?

[kpeavey]

Next up:
massive unemployment, business closures, repossessions, continuing foreclosures.

With an economy going south, people will do what they must in order to get by. Doubling up is an easy one. More people under one roof, all helping to pay the bills.

Reduction of superfluous spending. No more movie rentals, dining out, hair coloring, fancy electronic gizmo of the year, flashy new cars.

Cars are simplified. If you can't afford it, it has to go. Good time to be a repo man, lots of job security and overtime. What vehicles are kept will need to get good mileage, be dependable, do the job intended. People will do their own repairs.

Food is simplified. No more steak. Junk food is right out. More bread and potatoes, beans and rice. Lots of backyard gardening. Finish what is on your plate, there are kids starving in Africa...and Brooklyn, and across the street.

Crime would be expected to rise along with unemployment. Desperate people resort to desperate means to get by.

Tent cities. All the people that can't get in at the shelter, have lost their house, are too far from family, all their friends are full up with extended family. You have to live somewhere. Bridges will be the new suburbs.

[Pops]

I just posted my latest assessment of what is next (and of course what I am DOING) on this thread:
Assesments and Plans

Incessant chatting about what we guess will come next is just pissing into the ether unless one cares to put their doing where their tapping is...

[BlueGhostNo2]

I'm preparing to emigrate to NZ, scoping it out now, then I'll go back to England get another software dev job and start organizing it.