This is not a recession. It is a depression. It will not be over until all the debts are paid. With BO spending committing to spend over $14 Trillion dollars in his first 4 months in office, things can only get a great deal worse. That $14 Trillion is more than a year’s GDP. We do not have that kind of money to spend. And we cannot service that kind of humongous debt.

We are going to see a vastly pared down standard of living. Retirement is a dream, a myth — Boomers have no savings and no retirement income. The Clinton Admin spent all the Social Security money to balance the budget.

Those who survive will be those who are debt-free (did not incur debt, or else paid it all off), innovative, frugal, creative, hard-working, shrewd, careful, astute, and who pay attention!

Government spending has to end or that’s the end of the govt and of the currency. We’ll be back to bartering what we create, grow, make. The longest depression in history is called the Dark Ages — 400 years of poverty, squalor, chaos following the collapse of the over-indebted over-extended Roman Empire.

things will go back to the way they were in 2006-07.

The US recession is never going to be over relative to the dollar or US credibility around the world. The United States as it once was seen around the world, post WWII, is finished. The currency is no longer backed by anything whatsoever — I’m not just talking gold/silver, I’m talking debt-based wishful-thinking money (who exactly are the people who are going to pay back 10 trillion dollars, I’m probably not going to be a big part of that). And as far as the military goes, our military is spread thinner than white mold on cheese. How many nut-case dictators, rich with oil money or opium/cocaine proceeds, are looking for nuclear naval mines to take out an aircraft carrier group or a suitcase nuke to panic America’s lemming voters?! The party’s over, boys and girls.

Given the tremendous amount of public debt with which the government has burdened the economy, it is unlikely that economic growth will return to the brisk rates of the 2003-2007 period. Individuals and corporations are both likely to be a little more careful about debt, but that won’t last for long. People will start treating homes more as places to live rather than ATM machines. Social security and Medicare are both actuarially unsound (nothing new). The government will renege on its promises lone way or the other.

I think the standard of living in the US will be greatly diminished. California will soon be a banana republic. The rest of the country will follow.