In recent years, specifically since the beginning of the Iraq war, the U.S. economy has been slowing. The estimated GDP growth in 2007 was 2.2% - down from a 4.4% in 2005. The U.S. economy is currently in a recession, which is pretty bad stuff. My school's been forced to cut off at least one instruction period off every student's schedule because of NYC budget cuts. Where, in 2001, gas prices were about $30 per barrel, now they reached $133. In addition, the global food supply is running short, and several countries are dangerously low on food. In the US, prices on food are rising, and that in turn is slowing down the economy further. People are turned out of their homes, people don't buy imported products, affecting economies outside the US. I even read an article about how there was a horse crisis and people were abandoning their horses because they couldn't afford to keep them any longer, and now the horses are worth 1/3 of what they were before. Really weird stuff.

Oh, and don't forget to take into account the US debt, embedded in my signature. $9.3 trillion and counting.

What're your thoughts about the US and global economy? Will it settle when (if) the Iraq war ends soon? Will it keep getting worse? Will this lead to a fall of the US? <---Sample questions. Don't feel forced to answer.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 2 2008, 2:29 am by Centreri.

The economy is a disgrace. California(my state), gives the most to the Federal Government and gets the least back relative to the amount we give. Gas prices are 4.20$ or higher across Southern California.

Look where 8 years of a Republican administration gets us: a ruined economy, two countries destroyed by our efforts, a major sea port destroyed, the highest disapproval ratings in the history of the nation, including our closest allies, and more.

The economy is and will be the most important issue for this upcoming US Election, and only Obama can fix it.

Actually, I doubt that Obama can fix it completely. Gas prices aren't lowering to pre-Iraqi war anytime soon no matter what happens, and food prices aren't going to lower either. What I think he CAN do is make the best of the situation and instead of accelerating America's deterioration as Bush did, slow it down. McCain, in my opinion, would continue Bush's job - what I like to imagine as sending your BC after that fleeing Carrier while more and more scouts join the fray to kick your ass. Obama's trying to escape - McCain wants to push in further.

However, America is slowly losing its spot as a single superpower, largely because of how the rest of the world is becoming independent. During the Great Depression, a stocks crash in the US led to a major world-wide crisis. Right now, the world is large unaffected by US-specific problems, since other countries have become more.. importive.

Multi-polar world ftw.

If USA's economy becomes too bad, we should all move to china

Second greatest country right now IMHO.

If you don't mind earthquakes, flooding, communism, and strict limits on the number of children you can have.

What goes up must come down. I think the economy will find its footing eventually. But hey - even if it doesn't and the U.S. falls, it might still be cool to witness the collapse of an empire and the ensuing chaos - even if it would be a great personal inconvenience for me.

And speaking of Mayans - If it really is the end of the world, why is that so bad? WE are the ones that get to watch!

Interesting persective.

Yeah.. no. I'm either moving to Canada or to Russia. It's a bit chillier, sure, but they're much more stable, and Russia's economy is growing almost as quickly as China's is. 8.1% GDP growth in 2007 and rapidly increasing (7.2% in 2006, less the year before that), as compared to China's average 11.2%. Plus, Putin's forcing open the fields of Nanotechnology and other sciences, and software development is major there too. That's not to mention USA-level personal freedoms and no child-number limits (although, you could be one of the unlucky ones and be screwed by the judicial system.. oh, well) RUSSIA FTW.
Yeah, I never really minded if it was the end of the world in an abstract sense like that. I WOULD be extremely pissed if Bush brought it about, though.

I would not want to be in the U.S. when it falls. I'd move to another continent, since the fall of U.S. would pretty much screw Canada up - they're major trading partners. Being in a falling country really isn't fun. Crime rates run sky-high, inflation goes crazy, all sorts of bad stuff.

Now... back on topic. There must be more opinions then 'If it'll happen, I'll watch/move-to-China'.

You got to remember that Russia is not to fond on trust in their currency.
I'm all for Canada though! No taxation and such.

I'm afraid I don't comprehend what you are attempting to say. What I see is that Russia hates when people trust the stability of Ruble, but that can't possibly be it.

For all you people wanting to come to Canada, I'm sorry to say that we're tied in really close to the States, unfortunately. Although the Harper government is doing a very good job with the economy, we're getting caught in the regression, too.

No taxation? What are you talking about? We have 6% GST, and PST depends on the province, in BC it's 7%, and in Alberta there's none.

Oh yes, and did I mention that over the last several years the US has had a very prosperous economy, yet somehow they still managed to have an insane defecit. They're probably paying a couple trillion a year in interest alone.

Oh, and tell me when that clock hits ten trillion. I don't wanna miss out. Maybe GWB can hit it before he gets out of office.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jun 4 2008, 4:56 am by Laser Dude.

Well, cost of oil/gas is generally blamed for all the inflation and the reduction in our spending power or standards of living.

The government taxes us on gasoline. Yet they subsidize our cost of electricity. Can you just imagine what would happen to the US & Canada if we started paying the real cost of electricity?

Purely electric cars like the Tesla Roadster need to be mass produced. Ofcourse I mean plain cars.
I think the reason the Tesla Roadster is so sporty/classy car is because they're trying to justify the high price, and the half of the price is probably the battery pack. They are lithium-ion batteries, just like laptop batteries, but this car obviously holds like a few zillion laptop's batteries worth of power, and look how much a silly laptop battery costs ($200 ish)

If we could only produce cheaper batteries... Then we would only have to worry about our mix of Nuclear, Hydro/Tidal, Wind and Solar power.

While battery techonology needs to make breakthroughs or refinements, for the time being the US does have the biggest amount of coal, which can be turned into a liquid form and last us a couple decades. It's a matter of transition though... we might not have enough miners/mining equipment at the moment, or equipment to make liquid coal, and finally, for a time we would have to have both "gas" and "coal" cars on the market.

Yeah, Russia's my first choice. It's one of the most independent major countries from the U.S, while Canada will instantly get screwed up as well.

Sadly, the clock is going pretty slowly. Since I got it, the first four numbers haven't changed. I think Bush has time .

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

This could be a topic of it's own, but it kinda fits in here.

Basically, it's a very well written scientific article, and it says that there's going to be a major crash, there's nothing individuals can do about it in a democratic state, and our kids/grandkids probably won't get to use the internet or drive cars. Very interesting, and worth the read.

.. Interesting, however, I think pessimistic. We still have a decent amount of oil left. Russia's reserved are almost untapped, and there are oil reserves under Antarctica. Saudi Arabia and other middle-eastern oil-exporting countries probably have a ton left as well.

The 'blip on human history' graph shows that the oil production will completely break by about 2100 AD - however, take into account the new levels of technology currently being produced. Once the oil goes a bit higher and America gets off its ass, I think we can expect some non-oil reliant sources of energy. As an added bonus, scientists are exploring fusion reactions as an energy source, putting nuclear energy at a whole new level (current nuclear energy comes from fission).

Basically, I now see it as a game of beat-the-clock, determining if humanity declines or prospers. What a cheery prospect.

I'm an Australia an thus really enjoying the current state of the American economy, most of our prices are based off around a 60 US cents to $1AU, with the real rate being up around 95 US cents, i can order things from the US for almost half price, keep it up America!

But seriously, nothing lasts forever.

Yeah, that's how I see it.

But I think the U.S. economy is based on nothing. The U.S. has a habit of creating things for a specific purpose without any thought for the possible consequences. More wealth, faster, now. A lot of stuff changed when they implemented the federal reserve, too. Everything is based on acceleration of wealth. The U.S.'s decisions tend to be made for the purpose of increasing wealth. Hence all the outsourcing overseas. At the moment, the U.S.'s economy depends on having poorer nations it can take advantage of.

It would be better for a country's economic policy to be based on 'truths'. Some kind of morals about what it means to be a human being. For example, we all know that humans need to eat, so instead of making it our priority to gain more wealth for just ourselves (our wealth will always depend on other people being less wealthy), we should make it our priority to make sure everyone can work to eat.

Unfortunately people are selfish and you can never really trust those 'truths'/'morals' to last. The U.S. was founded with certain morals in mind which have since been completely abandoned. I don't see the U.S. changing any time soon though... I think it will take a drastic shift in SOMETHING for the U.S. as a whole decide to change. The general American public doesn't really know what's going on... they just live to consume. The few who do have any conception or political opinion differing from the status quo (even if they're wrong) have no ability to change anything, because the U.S. operates on a different level, now. Instead of asking the people what it wants, it does what it wants and influences the people to agree, usually on a subconscious level.

And if the U.S. doesn't change on its own, I feel like something will pop. The wealth is based on acceleration, and once they stop, so will the wealth, and, basically, everything. Until they can reorient themselves, get their bearings, and learn to live according to some more fundamental truths.

I simply look at it is gas goes up, farmers pay more for diesel, crops are more expensive, shipping costs more, we pay more for the gas, we pay more for food, we have little money to spare to pump into the economy or other businesses. economy suffers. Don't blame Bush or the Iraq war.

In Europe for the time being, I have clearly seen that our money sucks in comparison. But most of it seems like its Europe in general that is more expensive than the U.S. (A three € coke is pricey in American Dollars, but I wouldn't buy a three dollar coke in America.) Gas here is more than twice the price of gas in the US. (almost 10.00/gal compared with 4.00/gal)
Overall though, the people are way cooler here than in the lower forty-eight, and I think I might want to take a job (or just start living) over here. (The soccer season is a bit rough on my sleep patterns though.)

European countries, at least those I've seen (Switzerland, Denmark, Russia) are much less car-reliant then most of the US is.