Are we on our way to another depression...?

Question

Hear me out.. i know you've been told that the economy is doing the "best ever" but ..
the US savings rate is in the negatives, meaning we are spending more that me are making, it hasn't been in the negatives since the Great Depression.
Forclosure rates are up 42% from the previous year.
The cost for natural gas and electricity have increase 25 - 50% in the last 7 years....

are these indicators?

I know that weekly new unemployment claims is a way of determining the ecomony, but are the people who's been on unemployment for months or whose benifits run out and are still unemployed counted in these numbers?

Answer 1

If you judge our economy by the numbers you are being
given, believe me, you are being mislead. Anyone can
make numbers say exactly what they want you to hear.
You alluded to a good example...the workforce is judged
by the number of new unemployment claims filed monthly.
The contention is that, if fewer claims are filed, the work
force is stronger. But the truth is that benefits run out
and claims are not being filed....not because of a job, but
because benefits have expired.

The economy is good for those who are making their wealth at the expense of others by using cheap labor overseas, building
overseas plants, moving jobs overseas. And it's good for the
consumer who chooses to buy products made overseas rather
than those made at home.

You may call it a depression we might be headed for. I would
call what we are headed for as a population of the "haves and have nots". Unless patriotism returns to the economy, and
selfishness is put secondplace, we are in trouble.

Answer 2

No. Not even close. To your questions:

1. Don't bother with weekly unemployment claims, which are so wildly volatile as to be useless for understanding anything. Look at the unemployment rate published by the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) as the most meaningful metric about employment. At 4.6% it is extraordinarily low. The count is based on a massive monthly nationwide phone survey; it counts people who are looking for work, regardless of whether they are still receiving benefits or how long they've been unemployed. My personsal experience right now is that yes, labor is tight and it's very hard to find unemployed people.

2. So what if less than 1% of households had a foreclosure? How does that affect the other 99%+ of us?

3. So the "savings rate" as measured and reported is negative. How is that a problem? I have yet to hear anyone even begin to explain what exactly is supposed to go wrong as a result. The negative savings rate in the 1930s didn't cause the depression, it was a result of it. Obviously a much different scenario now. In any case, total household wealth keeps increasing rapidly and capital is overabundant, so how is savings a problem?

4. Energy prices have gone in up and down cycles from time immemorial. They've never caused a depression, and they're clearly not much of a real problem now.

Answer 3

NO.............................