Originally Posted by
Newman
I did mention an uptick in the economy towards the end of the year. You want to know why? This recession is media-driven. While it is true that unemployment numbers have gone up, it is no where near record highs.
Banks right now have more cash on hand than ever before in their history. Why? Because they are afraid to lend. (Similar to 9/11 - Airports had mediocre security, then 9/11, now the security borders on stupidity. Same concept.)
The average savings account in the United States has DOUBLE of what was 2 years ago. Why? Because the media is scaring the crap out of most people.
So there is more money in banks than ever before and most people have more money in savings than ever before... Have you been to a mall recently? They are PACKED. My good friend is a car salesman. He says that they are a ton of people looking for cars, but the credit markets are so tight that few can get loans. Does this sound like a true depression situation? It does not to me.
I agree that the government has blown it once again, but what else is new? The ONLY thing that needed to be done to stimulate the economy once again was to tell the banks that they needed to loan the money out given in TARP 1. They could have given them an extra 250 billion (only 25% of this last bailout) to loan out. But, they didnt. Instead, they throw money at the problems instead of the solutions. That is government for ya.