So the economy has been improving for some time now.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Inflation remains low, The unemployment rate seems to be following a downward trend,housing prices have just increased, GDP has not only improved but is also expected to continue posting positive numbers. Sure some defaults may be on the way(which should be expected anyway), and a few other things may happen as well. In the end I think the best book for anyone who is concerned about our economy would be "this time is different".

I would like to know how the financial crisis has changed or altered some of your views. One of the most important things that I learned is that Globalization, and capital inflows from China may have had more of a impact on interest rates and the money supply(not the same thing as the monetary base) than actual federal reserve policy. Thus I am begging to take more of an interesting in global studies, super multinationals,market-interventionism(FDI), and so forth. In the coming years I wish to re-approach foreign policy from a different angle, and thus I will probably start out from a multi-view platform but then finally settle when i start to consider the ethical foundations of economies on a global scale.

As for future problems my biggest concern revolves around the age old question if our institutions are outdated or not. After all what is the point of our federal reserve if Capital Inflows, bond rating agencies, and various others economic agents may have a potentially larger impact on the money supply,velocity of money, and demand itself than the actual reserve? Will domestic regulation be enough to offset the connectivity of markets, or will we have have to create some kind of multilateral economic policies?

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

on a side note if we have another recession it wont be too bad,but my biggest concern for the future is potentially suffering another financial crisis or a fisher style debt deflation. Fortunately we have have avoided the later,but the former has already happened and thus we have all the moral reasons needed to ensure that another financial crisis does not happen.

[??????????]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

[Beet]

Could have fooled Greece and Portugal.

Although in those cases it's not so much a bad economy as political unwillingness to see the truth.

[Brittain33]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

The states that had economies most dependent on the real estate bubble are having the hardest time adapting to a post-leverage economy.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

I am talking about the economy as a whole. Yes particular states and even sectors of the economy are performing poorly, but this is even true when the economy is growing strong. For example after Tulip mania the Tulip market never recovered. I already mentioned that defaults may happen, but this is to be expected in the Aftermath of many financial crisis's.

[memphis]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

I am talking about the economy as a whole. Yes particular states and even sectors of the economy are performing poorly, but this is even true when the economy is growing strong. For example after Tulip mania the Tulip market never recovered. I already mentioned that defaults may happen, but this is to be expected in the Aftermath of many financial crisis's.

For most people, unemployment is the economy as a whole.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

I am talking about the economy as a whole. Yes particular states and even sectors of the economy are performing poorly, but this is even true when the economy is growing strong. For example after Tulip mania the Tulip market never recovered. I already mentioned that defaults may happen, but this is to be expected in the Aftermath of many financial crisis's.

For most people, unemployment is the economy as a whole.

Like I said before unemployment is in a downward trend, and it is important to know that the labor market usually lags behind such indicators as GDP and so forth.

[opebo]

Could have fooled me. Florida has record high unemployment.

Yes, of course.  You expected that to change overnight?  Wait a year.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The reason Florida's unemployment is still so high is because it's an epic fail joke state that had no real economy besides tourism and was entirely off a bubble. An improved economy won't help, the bubble's not coming back.

[memphis]

The reason Florida's unemployment is still so high is because it's an epic fail joke state that had no real economy besides tourism and was entirely off a bubble. An improved economy won't help, the bubble's not coming back.

Florida has quite a bit of non-tourism related economy. Where do you think all our winter produce comes from? Maimi has the largest concentration of international banks in the U.S. There's also a huge public sector based in Florida between the military bases and NASA.  While tourism is obviously central to Florida's economy, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's pretty hard to outsource tourism jobs.
A few other large companies non-tourism companies based in Florida:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennar_Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes_Enterprises

[??????????]

Thanks for the shout out Memphis. Especially considering I'm an owner of one of those.

[Derek]

Inflation remains low, The unemployment rate seems to be following a downward trend,housing prices have just increased, GDP has not only improved but is also expected to continue posting positive numbers. Sure some defaults may be on the way(which should be expected anyway), and a few other things may happen as well. In the end I think the best book for anyone who is concerned about our economy would be "this time is different".

I would like to know how the financial crisis has changed or altered some of your views. One of the most important things that I learned is that Globalization, and capital inflows from China may have had more of a impact on interest rates and the money supply(not the same thing as the monetary base) than actual federal reserve policy. Thus I am begging to take more of an interesting in global studies, super multinationals,market-interventionism(FDI), and so forth. In the coming years I wish to re-approach foreign policy from a different angle, and thus I will probably start out from a multi-view platform but then finally settle when i start to consider the ethical foundations of economies on a global scale.

As for future problems my biggest concern revolves around the age old question if our institutions are outdated or not. After all what is the point of our federal reserve if Capital Inflows, bond rating agencies, and various others economic agents may have a potentially larger impact on the money supply,velocity of money, and demand itself than the actual reserve? Will domestic regulation be enough to offset the connectivity of markets, or will we have have to create some kind of multilateral economic policies?

As far as the recession and what I've learned is that it needs to be harder to qualify for loans. Yes, harder. Lenders don't make money off of ppl who don't pay them back. Those who don't pay them back may end up with bad credit, but what did they really lose? Nothing. At the same time, because people taking out outrageous loans for houses, it's caused others to take out higher loans just to afford something as well. It causes inflation to go up and decreases the value of the dollar. My point being, don't allow just anyone to take out a loan as we did before. As for domestic regulation, I think it is impossible to disrupt the global economy. Businesses would come back with an elimination of the corporate tax though.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Inflation remains low, The unemployment rate seems to be following a downward trend,housing prices have just increased, GDP has not only improved but is also expected to continue posting positive numbers. Sure some defaults may be on the way(which should be expected anyway), and a few other things may happen as well. In the end I think the best book for anyone who is concerned about our economy would be "this time is different".

I would like to know how the financial crisis has changed or altered some of your views. One of the most important things that I learned is that Globalization, and capital inflows from China may have had more of a impact on interest rates and the money supply(not the same thing as the monetary base) than actual federal reserve policy. Thus I am begging to take more of an interesting in global studies, super multinationals,market-interventionism(FDI), and so forth. In the coming years I wish to re-approach foreign policy from a different angle, and thus I will probably start out from a multi-view platform but then finally settle when i start to consider the ethical foundations of economies on a global scale.

As for future problems my biggest concern revolves around the age old question if our institutions are outdated or not. After all what is the point of our federal reserve if Capital Inflows, bond rating agencies, and various others economic agents may have a potentially larger impact on the money supply,velocity of money, and demand itself than the actual reserve? Will domestic regulation be enough to offset the connectivity of markets, or will we have have to create some kind of multilateral economic policies?

As far as the recession and what I've learned is that it needs to be harder to qualify for loans. Yes, harder. Lenders don't make money off of ppl who don't pay them back. Those who don't pay them back may end up with bad credit, but what did they really lose? Nothing. At the same time, because people taking out outrageous loans for houses, it's caused others to take out higher loans just to afford something as well. It causes inflation to go up and decreases the value of the dollar. My point being, don't allow just anyone to take out a loan as we did before. As for domestic regulation, I think it is impossible to disrupt the global economy. Businesses would come back with an elimination of the corporate tax though.

you are against regulation but you admit that a part of the problem came from the idea that it was easy to qualify for a loan?

[Derek]

Yes if you allowed banks to decide who does and does not qualify, then it will be harder. Banks do not want to loan money to ppl who they don't feel would pay things back. They are required to meet certain limits by federal law in order to "give everyone a chance." They would regulate themselves well. Regulating lenders to be required to loan to certain people only causes more debt. But yes, I'm about 90% Smith and 10% Marx.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Yes if you allowed banks to decide who does and does not qualify, then it will be harder. Banks do not want to loan money to ppl who they don't feel would pay things back. They are required to meet certain limits by federal law in order to "give everyone a chance." They would regulate themselves well. Regulating lenders to be required to loan to certain people only causes more debt. But yes, I'm about 90% Smith and 10% Marx.

You need to provide some examples of this and cite specific legislation.

[Derek]

I'm at work right now so I can't but if I were going to lend money to someone I would want to make damn sure they could pay it back. If someone made $10,000 a year and wanted to borrow $50,000 (not that I have that LOL) I wouldn't do it as willingly as I would for someone who made a million dollars.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

I'm at work right now so I can't but if I were going to lend money to someone I would want to make damn sure they could pay it back. If someone made $10,000 a year and wanted to borrow $50,000 (not that I have that LOL) I wouldn't do it as willingly as I would for someone who made a million dollars.

when a loan is made these financial agents use mathematical models, and bond rating agencies to determine how capable the borrower is when it comes to paying back a loan. Government has nothing to do with these two things, and in fact government often gave these financial agents the benefit of the doubt that they were making good loans.

[Derek]

That's the problem, giving the benefit of the doubt is what led to Fannie and Freddie 2 years ago.

[TeePee4Prez]

Inflation remains low,

housing prices have just increased

Inflation will likely increase.  You can bet on that.  They already have in commodity prices.

As for housing prices, what do you think will happen after April 30th?  Sure, me thinks the tax credit has a lot to do with the increases in prices.  What part of PA are you from?  Not sure about the rest of the state, but Philadelphia especially could be a quiet "Round 2" so to speak for a housing meltdown after it's yanked.  Prices were beginning to decline here until the credits came about while other cities already had their downward fall.  Philadelphia is a "late bloomer" so to speak when it comes to any major increases/decreases in prices and I think the credit stopped it's inevitable slide along with many other cities that should have followed suit.

[Free Trade is managed by the invisible hand.]

Inflation remains low,

housing prices have just increased

Inflation will likely increase.  You can bet on that.  They already have in commodity prices.

As for housing prices, what do you think will happen after April 30th?  Sure, me thinks the tax credit has a lot to do with the increases in prices.  What part of PA are you from?  Not sure about the rest of the state, but Philadelphia especially could be a quiet "Round 2" so to speak for a housing meltdown after it's yanked.  Prices were beginning to decline here until the credits came about while other cities already had their downward fall.  Philadelphia is a "late bloomer" so to speak when it comes to any major increases/decreases in prices and I think the credit stopped it's inevitable slide along with many other cities that should have followed suit.

inflation isn't a problem unless it is unexpected, and further more i live in philly.
lets just put it this way it will be summer soon, and we wont have to deal with any stupid snow or cold weather which is something i hate.

[Derek]

I'm from Pittsburgh. This city wasn't hurt as much as other cities and areas were a couple of years ago. Nor would it have benefited from a booming economy. It's pretty much been the same since the steel mills left town. It can't get much worse and won't be getting much better. The job market here and the housing market are both better than when I lived in Orlando during the winter of 2008-2009. I think the average housing cost last year was still $217,000, but it could've been a little longer ago.

[TeePee4Prez]

Inflation remains low,

housing prices have just increased

Inflation will likely increase.  You can bet on that.  They already have in commodity prices.

As for housing prices, what do you think will happen after April 30th?  Sure, me thinks the tax credit has a lot to do with the increases in prices.  What part of PA are you from?  Not sure about the rest of the state, but Philadelphia especially could be a quiet "Round 2" so to speak for a housing meltdown after it's yanked.  Prices were beginning to decline here until the credits came about while other cities already had their downward fall.  Philadelphia is a "late bloomer" so to speak when it comes to any major increases/decreases in prices and I think the credit stopped it's inevitable slide along with many other cities that should have followed suit.

inflation isn't a problem unless it is unexpected, and further more i live in philly.
lets just put it this way it will be summer soon, and we wont have to deal with any stupid snow or cold weather which is something i hate.

Last year was an anomaly clearly with regards to the weather.  The past 4-5 years before we've felt like the Carolinas during the winter.  Interesting point with the snow however.  I don't think the clearing weather will help our market locally.  Some analysts think the Jersey Shore is basically gonna fallout worse than even CA or AZ over the next 2 years.  Our local market.. ehh, one person says we're fine, another says we're in trouble.  I'm inclined to believe in a slight market drop over the next year after the credit is yanked with a flat line until about 2017-2018.

[Derek]

tell about it improving to someone who is still unemployed in Michigan or California. It's ok everybody can buy a truck right.

[TeePee4Prez]

tell about it improving to someone who is still unemployed in Michigan or California. It's ok everybody can buy a truck right.

How is Pittsburgh doing so well?  sh**t, it looks like everywhere I go in the country, including here, there's more than a few Steelers fans who were from Pittsburgh or have some relative from there.  My guess is it's probably a lot like Philly.  You basically have a low unemployment rate because people who were SOL with the steel mills moved to the eastern mid-Atlantic (when we weren't so bad), Virginia, or the Carolinas plus you guys seem to have a lot of retirements.  One stat I noticed is the drop in the Labor Force nominal number in the Pittsburgh area even when it was supposedly "weathering the recession".  Funny, I guess the jobs there are nurses and doctors taking care of the retired steel mill workers and the collateral colleges that come with them.  I laugh when people say Philadelphia is "weathering the storm" too.  What a joke!  PA's unemployment rate, while below the national average doesn't tell the entire story.