Make your prediction ... Economic collapse in 2008?

[Angela Shelley]

Poll question: Make your prediction ... Economic collapse in 2008?

Will the US economy collapse in 2008?

[Angela Shelley]

1. After 10 votes, it´s 50/50, this is interesting!

[orleans]

2. i'm not voting--my answer: too hard to tell. and god, i hope not. n/t

[Angela Shelley]

3. That´s the interesting aspect,

there´s no way of knowing, but still, there´s enough evidence to induce worry.

[Echo In Light]

18. That's where I'm at too...although I voted No

[Angela Shelley]

19. Good Morning, Echo!

I posted the poll to find out the "economic mood". I didn´t expect so many "Yes".

Very interesting.

:-)

[Echo In Light]

20. I'm more worried over attacking Iran, and a false flag to justify it, which would impact everything

Economy included.

[Angela Shelley]

21. Did you see this thread?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3056854

What do you think?

[Angela Shelley]

4. After 17 votes, it´s 47/53.

[azmouse]

5. I think the Reps will do everything they can to put off the collapse

til next year so they can blame Dems when we retake the WH. They won't let the fact that all the signs are there for a collapse this year stop them from blaming the Dems next year.

[lutefisk]

44. I agree, but if things collapse in 2008 they will still blame Democrats

The Republicans and the corporate media will just blame it on something like "the public losing confidence in the economy because of the prospect of a Democrat in the WH"

Republicans are never to blame for anything bad happening...:sarcasm:

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Interesting

[Angela Shelley]

7. I agree.

and I feel better, knowing that I´m not the only one who is concerned.

[tom_paine]

8. A lot depends on the definition of "economic collapse"

However, I think we have not seen the bottom limit to how much the Bushies' unlimited access to the nation's currency printing presses and flooding the world with dollars can delay the inevitable.

I still think we do not fully grasp the sheer power of the Bushie False Reality Generator and how it, thanks to the gullibility and exhaustedness of we Imperial Subjects of Amerika, has literally eradicated the concepts of truth and lies by reducing it to who has the loudest megaphone.

I still do not think we grasp just HOW MUCH Amerikans and the world (playing the economic repirsal of Europe in the late 30s to Bushler's Hitler) want the Old Ways to go on, undisturbed and how very much we are willig to shriekingly look away from to maintain that illusion.

Some very bad shit is coming, I think, but a Great Depression-type event? Not yet.

Twenty years, tops, but not so soon. There is still so much for the Bushies and their Designated Successor, McCain to steal and destroy.

[Angela Shelley]

27. The definition of economic collapse is subjective,

and that´s why I asked the question.

It´s interesting to see that so many DUers replied with a Yes.

[Angela Shelley]

9. After 30 votes, it´s 50/50 again.

[damntexdem]

12. After 35 votes, I voted 'yes' and made it 50/50 again.

I tell you -- it's the only way to stave off economic collapse!

[sellitman]

10. This one will make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park.

Makes me wonder why anyone would want to be President now. I work in the Building Industry and in my 30 years as a salesman I have never seen it so bad. Between the glut on the market of homes and the down turn in actual material costs things are gloomy. So goes my industry so goes the country.

[damntexdem]

13. This one will not make anything look like a walk in the park --

Dubya already sold the park to Disney.

[Zynx]

25. What do you actually know about the Great Depression?

[Speck Tater]

11. Yes. But not until Sep. or Oct. NT

[joeybee12]

14. I broke the 18-18 tie with a yes...of course, it depends on your definition

of collapse, but things will be really, really, raelly horrid for a few years regardless.

[Angela Shelley]

28. It´s a subjective definition, it depends on where you stand,

and that´s why I asked the question.

It´s interesting to see that so many DUers replied with a Yes.

[Angela Shelley]

15. After 56 votes, it´s 54/46 ...

maybe due to the evening team.

[El Pinko]

16. Collapse is such a vague term...

I'd say we have a 90% chance of a recession worse than 1991, and possibly as long as Japan's.

I think it will be worldwide.

I'd say about a 50/50 percent chance of 1930s unemployment rates by 2010.





I wouldn't necessarily call a Japanese-style recession a "collapse", although it will be very bad, possibly enough for civil unrest/riots to erupt in some cities.

It's hard to gauge what measures the government would untertake to try and prevent such a collapse, but it's rather likely that said measures will only delay the inevitable and hurt most people while helping the rich.

I don't see Obama or Clinton embarking on the kind of New Deal type economic programs we need, so the best we can probably hope for is a new bubble in renewable energy to stoke the economy again for a while.

[Angela Shelley]

29. The definition of collapse depends on the individual,

and that´s why I asked the question.

It´s interesting to see that so many DUers replied with a Yes.

[Angela Shelley]

17. After 67 votes, it´s 54/46.

[Eurobabe]

22. I can't bring myself to go the store

it looks too cold outside. It was blizzarding a few minutes ago, now the sun is out and it looks freezing. :wtf:

[Angela Shelley]

23. You can´t win if you don´t play.

No leave house, eat dry muesli. :-)

[Eurobabe]

26. tis true. and i am hungry, wants hamburger

has to move lazy ass now. :P

[Angela Shelley]

31. Get it while the getting is good

:-)

[Eurobabe]

48. I did, just had my yogurt and musli.

Yummy :D

[Zynx]

24. Define "collapse". Are we calling 7% unemployment a collapse or 15% unemployment a collapse?

Do you mean 5,000 bank failures, like we had in the Great Depression or the couple dozen we normally have in a recession?

If you mean the cataclysmic results, then absolutely not. For one thing, there will be few if any major bank failures. Some small banks will go down, but their depositors will be protected. We have all of these interventions for a reason. The market on its own certainly would periodically breed disaster. That's why we have the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and other means as well.

[Angela Shelley]

30. Many voices say that the Federal Reserve is the

source of all of the problems.

Maybe that´s why many people have answered "Yes" in this poll.

[Zynx]

34. A lot of people say a lot of things.

The Federal Reserve made a mistake in not properly anticipating the problems, but it also holds the solutions. It comes from having so much power.

[Angela Shelley]

37. Please elaborate on the solutions which the Fed might

possibly have in the toolbox.

[Zynx]

39. The Fed can free up bank credit by directly purchasing their mortgage backed securities

from them and keeping the banking system flush with cash to prevent a total credit meltdown if it comes to that. That's one example of how it can directly intervene. Broadly speaking, if the Fed does not wish a bank to fail, it can prevent it from failing by allowing the bank to borrow as much as it needs in the short term while the Fed combines a smaller insolvent bank with a larger solvent one. The Fed has nearly infinite capacity to intervene if it needs to. It's current balance sheet is damaged by all of the interventions up to this point, but that does not constrain the Fed as much as it would appear.

Further, it can put tremendous pressure on the speculation created by hedge funds by barring banks from lending to clients that have certain leverage ratios relative to equity. That would dampen speculation in commodities and currencies that has been so rampant. This would reduce inflationary pressures. Measures to do this are already under way.

[Angela Shelley]

42. Thank you Zynx for your explanation.

It´s nice to know that the Fed will protect poorly managed banks from going under. :-)

It´s nice to know that the Fed is interested in buying mortgage backed securities which are causing a total credit meltdown. What´s the Fed going to do with these "worthless" securities?

:-)

[Angela Shelley]

32. After 79 votes, it´s 53/47

[Zywiec]

33. Then I guess it's conclusive

We are definitely going to have an economic collapse this year.

I'm mean these polls are always dead-on accurate, like the "Will we bomb Iran" in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008...

or another couple spot on polls: "Will Bush declare martial law" or "Will the 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 elections be canceled by Bush"

:crazy:

[Zynx]

35. Haha! Right you are.

I think we were all supposed to be in political re-education camps by now too.

[Angela Shelley]

36. It´s just a poll, showing the economic mood

at this point in time, in one internet forum, that´s all.

I find the results very interesting. Over 50% are expecting an economic collapse. These people are spread all over the nation, they are closer to reality than Ben Bernanke, GWB, or any one of us alone.

However they define "collapse" is not important.

Nobody on this planet knows what the future will bring, but self-fulfilling prophecy is to be taken seriously.

[tom_paine]

41. You certainly have a point, however...

NOTE: I chose "no" in this poll. It is going to be a bad year for Loyal Americans and humanity (therefore a good year for Loyal Bushies, Putinists and Communist Chinese, among others) , but our economy can take much more beating, theft and fraud, before we get to a full-scale depression-type collapse.

...the fact is that the trend is obvious and brutally out in the open, these days. What used to be the United States of America is being systematically looted and locked down for when the full force of the theft becomes clear and the peasants begin to feel restless.

So, occasionally, these polls are correct. These things are probably going to happen in some form or another (unless we can reverse the trends, a seeming impossibility at this point in time in this nation with We the People :rofl: ) so I think people need to be given a little more leeway.

(though I don't think the Bushies will EVER cancel our phony elections. It is the one piece of production valure that keeps paying Bushies dividends on their investment)

One so easily forgets how many of these :tinfoilhat: polls turned out to be TRUE and predictive in way the entire bloated, gassy toadying "punditcracy couldn't match in 1000 years with $1,000,000,000,000 of Bushei Funding and Advertsing Revenue.

Polls such as (and I repeat these from memory, though I am sure they are achived at DU):



Will we find WMDs in Iraq?

73% No
19% Yes, but in such tiny quantities not a threat
6% Yes, some, but less than what Powell said at the UN
2% Yes, we will find what Powell said we will find

Or how about this little gem?

Will we have an October Surprise 2004?

93% Yes
7% No

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/291004binladenappears.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=206661

Actually, we had TWO BushVideo Productions in October 2004...once again they exceeded everyone's worst expectations.

Given how often the Bushies have exceeded people's worst expectations, some of the attitudes in these polls can be looked at more forgivingly. Especially considering how often DUers in general have been correct about things like the two of MANY MANY examples that I listed above.

[flvegan]

38. Define "collapse"

[Zynx]

40. Some people call every recession a collapse. They don't know any better.

[Angela Shelley]

43. I intentionally chose the word "collapse" because

it´s a subjective term. Each individual will have a different definition.

The interesting aspect is that 50% replied "Yes".

Is this foresight, or is this a self-fulfilling prophecy?

[flvegan]

45. I don't think it's either.

I don't think that a "collapse" as most folks use it will happen.

I think people that are living on a shoestring budget should be concerned as prices rise. I also think folks should buy fewer unneeded things.

The poll results are as such because a great many people see the recession we're experiencing get worse and worse, and will graduate into some sort of collapse. While some industries may implode and a few corporations will indeed collapse, I don't see the "end of American economics" looming.

I also don't see us headed for the good ole days anytime very soon, which is unfortunate. One of the big culprits is the sub-prime issue, which, if lenders got their heads out of their asses could swing to the positive for everyone.

[gasperc]

46. hmm..economic collapse or Vast Antarctic Ice Shelf on Verge of Collapse

choices, choices

[Angela Shelley]

47. After 93 votes, it´s 51% / 49%

[Angela Shelley]

49. After 98 votes, it´s 49 to 51, everything will be OK now.

[usaftmo]

50. Actually, the economy

already collapsed. It's been in a death spiral since shrub took over as pResident.