I am hearing some good things starting to happen. Home sales are up. 3.2%. That is very good. And many of those a first timers. Very cool. The S&P is up 36%. The staock market has been holding its gains. So far so good? Construction is up .3 after months of declines.

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Don't take any of it too seriously.

There are some positive signs but it is way to early to say things are turning around. I hope this is a steady move in the right direction and if so I will give credit where credit is due. We will know by the end of the year if this is a move to the plus side or just a blip. I am just hoping this is not a bounce with a deeper fall to come, my 401K cant take another big hit.

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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. -H. L. Menckel
http://AmericanOutrage.us

I assume there will be some setbacks still to come. But I am optimistic by nature. I'm an American.

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Don't take any of it too seriously.

What's consumer and nat'l debt doing?? Is it going up or down? This is the number I want to see. Until we start reducing debt, all the growth in the world is nothing more than a big circle-jerk feeding the banks. We're over-extended both personally and nat'lly to the point that we can't sustain our debt. Until that number starts declining, all we're doing is digging the hole deeper. Digging might look like progress, with all that dirt flying and folks sweating, but that hole is still getting deeper. Until savings start out-pacing the money we spend servicing our debt, we're doing nothing but looking busy. It's time to reverse the trends of the last ~30 years and until we do that all the economic indicators in the world mean nothing. Have we really learned nothing from all these years of extravagant growth paid for by VISA/MC/AMEX???

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Giving a liberal facts is like throwing bacon at a vegetarian. All it does it piss off the vegetarian and waste good bacon.

Without growth you can't bring debt down. Its sort of chicken eggy.

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Don't take any of it too seriously.

Interesting...

Where was that optimism when the stock market was at an all time high?
Where was that optimism when new-home sales & construction was at an all time high?
Both of which happened under the previous president.
New home sales & construction hit its all time high in 2005.
The stock market hit its all time high in 2007.
I don't recall seeing any optimism from you at that time.

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"...baseball...It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again." --- Terence Mann (field of dreams)

Considering the storm that was on the horizon (2008/2009 global recession), was the skepticism ill placed?


Quite frankly, I think the BIG item now should be "How do we PREVENT this fiasco from happening again?"

Good ol' housing? Democrats?
The problems with Freddie and Fannie, which McCain tried to warn us about, will not go away by simply continuing the same philosophies. This NEEDS to change.

Laissez-faire Republicans?
The bible has a quote that says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
If we have a capitalist society that is about making money being the driving force, it should be obvious that (by biblical standards) a hands off philosophy is dangerous.
It should seem OBVIOUS that we need LIMITS on a system driven by "the love of money"...

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Republicans have a sweet racket because they run on "government is ineffective," and then when they **** things up, they go, "See." – Bill Maher

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."
--Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara

I live in Michigan and I'm seeing help wanted signs...

We have a long long way to go but I think things are picking up.

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"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"-FDR

http://jeffersonblog.history.org/doe...ecision-making

???? What are you drinking??? Of course you can bring debt down w/o growth, all you have to do is cut spending and put the $$$ you were spending into paying down your debt. C'mon, Mikeyy, you're smarter than this...

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Giving a liberal facts is like throwing bacon at a vegetarian. All it does it piss off the vegetarian and waste good bacon.

Lets think about that for a minute. We just shut down Chrysler and there are 30,000 more autoworkers out of work. The new claims rate last month was what, 600,000? Did I miss some new industry that popped up over night and is hiring like made and now these new workers need housing?

The point being, we have not even began to fix the underlying problems in this economy let alone addessed the massive debt issue.