I believe the US will see steady moderate growth over the next year but I am very concerned about crude oil. I am reminded also about the high probability that US interest rates will continue to climb and that housing prices will burst.
I think the US can stand $70 or $80 oil. But can Europe and other economies that seem to be in neutral? The fallout will eventually hit us...
I'm sure the government economists will be able to massage the #s to show that everything is great even though the country is falling apart.
Any economy that is based on burger flippers, daytraders and blackjack dealers for $10-20/hour is DOOMED for the long run. Until we have a domestic policy to create some meaningful employment to the millions - not! tens of millions of americans we shall see stagnation and bs stats from DC. Housing is the only thing keeping the US afloat along with merchandising and finance. Housing is slowing down due to rising interest rates... oil prices are the next shoe to drop... as I stated purchasing power in the US is problematic now. Robust US economy is based on a ballance of a good consumer spending and healthy savings and investments.
the communist chineses have been supporting the us housing mkt by buying long term us treasury secs which lead to very low bond rate.
i wonder why some people are still calling chinese (mainland china that is,guess the 1 party system confuses them)unlike the US where you have an alternative to the ruling party...LOL...haha) communists... ...btw HK,Taiwan,Singapore(partly) are also chinese. cheers