How About a Depression that Lasts for 20 Years?

[thriftybob]

Quote from Scataphagos:

Not many seem to grasp this "elephant in the room" concept.

Our standard of living will be forced to adjust downward to compensate for this fact.

Yes, in nominal dollar terms if they print enough we can each pretend we didn't get a pay cut. But when we get to where other countries refuse to buy an additional $1.5 to $2 trillion of our bonds each year, or heaven forbid, try to actually reduce their holdings of dollars, the dollar will dive dramatically, and the prices of supply sensitive imports will soar, forcing us all to lower our real standards of living, regardless what they pretend the inflation rate to be.

To sum it up, we can't spend our way to becoming wealthy, or at this point, I would add that we can't spend our way to becoming solvent.

 

[fkbsuhites]

As long as there is an implicit unconditional guarantee that the American middle class taxpayer ( with all the loop holes the wealthy do not pay taxes ) will bail out any speculative endeavor GS undertakes, stocks will keep on moving higher.

GS and the other banks are effectively borrowing close to 0% and now have access to unlimited leverage because the govt. is underwriting their speculation. Guess where all the money is going?

Quote from Trexticle:

Our markets are never going to recover, ever. Take a good hard look at this chart.

Can anyone look at this chart and give me one good reason why I should put one dime into this market. This market looks like a perfect example of a high risk situation. Commodities are going higher. Real assets are going to trump paper for years to come.