For the record, and as almost everyone knows, I'm exceedingly bearish, and believe the economy is going to get much worse.
I've been and sometimes still am referred to as a 'pessimist' (although not nearly as much as just a year ago).
I don't believe that I am. I believe that I am inherently realistic, and that I am forming my expectations about the future on the credible things that I read, hear, and most importantly, see with my own eyes.
What I am seeing now, in almost every area of the country, are dramatic signs that everyone from the top 1% to the middle class have been bludgeoned so badly in terms of either loss of wealth and/or employment insecurity, that they are undergoing a permanent shift in their underlying psyche, in much the same manner I imagine some of our grandparents or great grandparents (some of your great, great grandparents if you're younger than 22 or so) experienced during the Great Depression, when they became frugal in ways that would blow most of our minds, because of the traumatic economic shock that they experienced; thing such as going without food or clothing will do that to the human mind.
I am also seeing an incredible uptick in the number of homeless people, many of whom were formerly employed in good or even great jobs, and some of whom actually had a lot of wealth on paper during the boom times, but lost it through poor management and because of the crash in asset values if they were in debt, either living in temporary circumstances at the homes of relatives, friends or others, and many people living out their cars, RVs and in shelters. I know that some of the headlines we thought may have been sensationalistic on this issue actually weren't, and that this is a real and growing problem.
So, man up.
Who honestly believed, a year or two ago, that the economy would get as bad as it is now?
I've been and sometimes still am referred to as a 'pessimist' (although not nearly as much as just a year ago).
I don't believe that I am. I believe that I am inherently realistic, and that I am forming my expectations about the future on the credible things that I read, hear, and most importantly, see with my own eyes.
What I am seeing now, in almost every area of the country, are dramatic signs that everyone from the top 1% to the middle class have been bludgeoned so badly in terms of either loss of wealth and/or employment insecurity, that they are undergoing a permanent shift in their underlying psyche, in much the same manner I imagine some of our grandparents or great grandparents (some of your great, great grandparents if you're younger than 22 or so) experienced during the Great Depression, when they became frugal in ways that would blow most of our minds, because of the traumatic economic shock that they experienced; thing such as going without food or clothing will do that to the human mind.
I am also seeing an incredible uptick in the number of homeless people, many of whom were formerly employed in good or even great jobs, and some of whom actually had a lot of wealth on paper during the boom times, but lost it through poor management and because of the crash in asset values if they were in debt, either living in temporary circumstances at the homes of relatives, friends or others, and many people living out their cars, RVs and in shelters. I know that some of the headlines we thought may have been sensationalistic on this issue actually weren't, and that this is a real and growing problem.
So, man up.
Who honestly believed, a year or two ago, that the economy would get as bad as it is now?
