"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,"

I say let it fail and let's see catastrophic for a while. I doubt it will ever happen because the leaders realize they would be the main targets but it might help straighten things out.

A BUNCH of people have ben saying pretty much the same thing as that quote.

Guess they all must be wrong and/or trying to frighten us.

Maybe it is true, but I personally think this country needs a shake up.

I'm so scared I'm thinking about buying a new truck.... I guess on top of all the rebates you can write off sales tax and interest now... sure is tempting....

Drafter don't you know it's the next great depression out there? I honestly don't think the leaders will let it fail because of greed, but if it does I'm ready for total chaos. I've got a bunch of land & I can live for a long time out here.

#4 Beat you to it. Got our new one Dec 17. Over $10K off the MSRP, and yes, we can deduct the sales tax on it.

It's NOT a pending depression it's a time of OPPORTUNITY...

(apply, rinse & repeat)

Bloody you got it right if you got cash now it's a great time.

You know in a perverse, self-serving way you may be right.

...but what do the other 90% of the people do?

hogwash

beg

Like our government has not been trying to scare us for decades?

Like I said before I'm really at ease right now with the way things are going. My wife and I are doing the right thing by using what we have worked for to make a better life for ourselves in the hopes that it all works itself out. Then on the other hand if it all goes south I'm ready to grab my guns and take care of my family. I remember when Y2K hit I went to Wal-Mar and all I bought was Buckshot. I walked up to the registers to pay and the lady in front of me had two carts of groceries, and she looked at me and said "aren't you buying food" and I said nope with this I can get all of that needless to say she turned around.

So 90 % of the American population doesn't have any money? lmao

98.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

...and 2% of the pocket protector, Alfalfa cowlick crowd giggle uncontrollably over percentages that may be off by a few points.

To each their own. Who knows the exact number?

The point, the point, boss, you're missing the point.

I'm surprised that even the lefties don't see what's wrong with the President saying such things.

It's OK for economists and talking heads to portray a doom and gloom.

It's not OK for the President to be so pessimistic.

The economy grows on hope and falls on fear.

It happens on Wall Street, and it happens in manufacturing.

I guess Obama has dropped his "hope" and has relegated his vision to simply "change".

I'm going to go with "they are trying to frighten us."

I frankly don't believe that the utter catastrophe that everyone is "warning" us about is either looming on the horizon, or is here. Markets correct themselves. Even now, the credit markets and home markets are starting to change.

Whether it be Bush, Clinton, or His Excellency Barack (Idi Amin) Hussein (boy wonder) Obama one should always have a skeptical eye on when ANY politician provides grim assessments that somehow profit them during the next election cycle.

Let these people control the markets, and we'll have what Europe routinely gets: double-digit unemployment, and recessions that can last up to a decade.

What is a catastrophe is the fact that the federal government routinely spends more than what it takes in with taxes, and they tax the hell out of the average citizen and corporations. And His Excellency Barack (Idi Amin) Hussein (boy wonder) Obama has made no bones that he intends to spend in ways that'll make Bush look like a fiscal conservative.

Two-thirds of the federal budget is spent in worthless social programs that are the equivalent of socialized Crack Cocaine. The other one-third is spent in military projects where the government has no problem spending $200.00 per contractor, to save $50.00 in charges, while paying $500.00 for a hammer you can get at Home Depot for about $20.00.

People clamored for a bailout of the financial sector - I might add, some of the same people who are clamoring for the pending "stimulus" legislation - because we were told how this nation would collapse if we didn't. Now they're b*tching about how that money is being spent on worthless sh*t, and nothing has been fixed. Here we have the SAME FRICKIN' tactics being used, and we should somehow expect a different result?

People have to stop thinking that government bureaucrats are somehow going to solve their problems.

jpotts, I was with you all the way to the last paragraph.

Its not "bureaucrats" that people expected to do the right thing with the bailout money, its the fact that their were fascists involved with the bailout.

No oversight of the funds?

That reeks of fascism when you consider that the Corporations, from where Paulson came from, were given a green light to spend the money however they thought was best.

Want a bonus, suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure

How about a party, oooooookkkkkkk

Corporate bottom line looking a little below expectation, so we won't get as big of a bonus next year, lets give it a little influx of freeeeeeeeeee mooooooooooooooney...

What ever happened to verification of use.

Oh, thats right, we live in a utopian society where everyone is HONEST and will do the right thing...

Just ask Paulson.

^ And who is in His Excellency Barack (Idi Amin) Hussein (boy wonder) Obama's cabinet? Geitner - one of the chief architects of the Paulson bailout.

Then there's Barney Frank, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi: the chief cheerleaders for the Paulson bailout. There are are again, being the SAME cheerleaders for the current stimulus package.

You can blame Paulson and Bush (although you never expressly blamed Bush, and I'm noting that) all day long, but they are just two pimples on the same stanky a**. There are LOTS more pimples that need to be popped.

Sorry, but these people LIVE for two things: power and hysteria. And I don't buy their propaganda.

I think what a lot of people overlook outright is that the federal government could demand the immediate repayment for the money they paid out of there are so many abuses of TARP money - just like they're demanding caps on executive salaries. They're not. There's a good reason for this: none of this is about fixing anything with the economy.

It's all about creating public demand for controlling private industry. And running around claiming that we're approaching a new Great Depression on 24x7 media outlets is a great way to do that.

There's also one thing that has been bugging me for some time now: why all of these financial corporations have been running to the federal government for aid? These guys have GOT to know that once they do that, they will inevitably see the same types of controls that we're seeing His Excellency Barack (Idi Amin) Hussein (boy wonder) Obama impose.

Maybe that was what they were actually counting on?

If you do a little digging into the history of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one of the reasons why these "corporations" were so attractive to private firms was because of what some deemed an "implicit guarantee" that the federal government would bail them out. In short: there was no risk involved with giving out bad loans, and selling them off to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Now that the government has stepped in last year and bailed these two entities out, that "implict" guarantee turned into an "explict" guarantee overnight.

My question is, where there other "implicit" guatantees made by the federal government in relation to these private companies that none of the idiots in the media bothered to report?