I AM VERY CONFUSED ON THE FUTURE OF THE US ECONOMY!!

We let Wall Street go unnacountable and they blew it.

They raped and pilfraged the American people.

NO MORE!

The government has to step in to try and salvage the situation. 

And most importantly, WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT.  THE GOVERNMENT IS US.

We elect members of ourselves to represent and govern.

If we feel they're not representing our best interests, then we vote them out.

WE CAN'T VOTE OUT GREEDY CORPORATE CEO'S.

I currently feel that Wall Street is in the middle of the worlds largest suckers rally that will not hold up.  The fundamentalsare not there for that type of run up in that short of time.  There are no profits to account for the share prices...  On bad news the market should go down, but it is increasing. They are shrugging off the bad news and really avoiding the peril signals it is sending.

Joe,

Good question, I made three $500 bets last year that I felt would happen; 1.  Unemployment would go up past 10%, 2.   That the interest rate would go higher than 10%, and 3.  That inflation rate would go higher than 12%.    I only based that on history from the Carter years.    So far, 1 out of the 3 has happened.  But our gov't can not spend as much as it has in the last 10 months for the other two not to happen.   That's the bad news.

The good news is that we will come out of this, but it will take a few years.  Housing market will move for those houses under $250k, the higher the price, the longer the listing term.   Banks will continue to tighten credit rules, I believe that soon 10% down will be needed when buying a house.   People will save more and use credit cards less, which is a good thing of course.

China is buying all the US bad debt and the government is backing it with Fannie Mae backed loans. We are headed for a disaster and the retails sales of Christmas will tell the tale.