Economy soars 5.7 percent, fastest in 6 years http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100129/bs_nm/us_usa_economy Interesting. Good news! I'm sure that Denny would have posted this if I failed to. Right?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wages-and-benefits-rise-weak-apf-4052349307.html?x=0&.v=1 Basically, jobs are so scarce, the employee has no leverage and must take what the employer is willing to offer. They work harder for less because of a lack of opportunity elsewhere.
We can always count on the right to NEVER say that the Economy growing at a 5.7% pace in Q4 is good news. Well unless a republican was in office when this happened. Gotta find something wrong. Maxiep, why do you hate America? Also, I think i'm going to be sending you some PMs regarding your degree. Did I hear correctly that you majored in Poli-Sci? If so, would it be okay if I picked your brain a bit about it? (Thinking of switching from Finance to Poli-Sci with a Finance minor).
BTW, once you strip out inventory reduction, 2.2% annualized growth is anemic. The GDP needs to grow at roughly 3% annually to keep our current standard of living.
I'm an economist. It has nothing to do with left or right. The numbers are all that matter, and they stink.
I disagree that they stink, and i'm in my 2nd Eco. class with my third coming up in a few months. I have a ton of respect for Economists. Hella smart. It is freakin' hard, but extremely interesting. **check out my edit on the 3rd post**
To avoid being an even bigger a-hole that I usually am in this place, we're going to have to agree to disagree.
The growth rate is a good sign and certainly doesn't stink. Of course it isn't where we want it to be. And I took EC200, taking EC201, and will soon start 202 (Intro, Micro, Macro).
I'm hoping I read that wrong. It sure sounded like you were stating that you are qualified to decide if the numbers are good because you've taken "intro" and "micro" econ courses.
The growth reported isn't from production, it's from the government propping up the economy with bailout money. That is not true growth.
<---(From a pretty ignorant economics point of view) Almost every Joe Voter will think this is pretty good news, right? And whether it is or not macroeconomically, doesn't the concomitant rise in belief that "things are getting better" kind of make it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Granted, I recognize that a lot of people out there are still without work. But for those who have jobs and are in various stages of getting by, doesn't this say "It's looking up!" and reverse the trend of saving every penny you can? Anecdotally, I didn't spend much at Christmas this year, out of fear of more credit card debt and a slowing economy. But if this makes people think about buying more houses, or spending more at Wal-Mart or Macy's, or buying real Kraft Mac-and-Cheese instead of WinCo brand...is that a good thing? Or is fools' gold even worse than what we had before?
Because so much of the growth was chiefly attributed to restocking depleted shelves, many may question the sustainability of similar economic growth going forward. From the Street.com
I don't think even the American public is stupid enough to believe the economy is improving. Until jobs start to recover significantly, there is still going to be a fear.
The real issue is those of us in the investment class have no idea what the Government is going to do next. That uncertainty keeps money on the sidelines. Our crushing public debt load, the crazy legislation on deck threatening to make it worse and the anti-business attitude of this Administration combine to make investing in this environment a fool's errand.
Obama's Jobs bill: $5,000 tax credit for every new hire up to 100 workers, no matter the size of the corporation.
Great. We pay our analysts a starting salary of $102K, and that doesn't include the bonus. That's a big fucking help.
So true. I've liquidated a lot of positions because of said uncertainty. It's at the point where the best thing to do with cash is loan sharking.
