Gharghur, I won't harp on your belief in Elliot Waves, the fact that EWI has posted annual returns close to -20% annually, or that most of your trade suggestions don't work out. I don't necessarily think it's great to have two parents working at once, but you have posted some innane commentary here: the prepoposterous claim that women's lib had anything to do with a budget deficit shortfall. That's the government's fault my friend, and, when all is said and done, the voters' responsibility. I think if you do some serious studying you'll find that most countries that have a dual-income stream family system enjoy a higher standard of living that single-income families. I'll even gamble that these countries probably have a debt/gdp ratio than countries with a high-degree of single-income families. Even if there were a depression, the United States would weather it better than any country in the world. What a mess, right? Darn that women's lib. I don't think konw if you don't know how to think critically, or just elect not to. You seem to favor provocation and hokus pokus (elliot waves) over sound thinking and real research.
Then is it time to poke that great sacred cow - free trade? Bring on the trade/job protectionism, punitive tariffs? Why can't America fight and win trade wars? I scoffed at the above as a prescription for economic suicide. Believed that the 3/02 selloff in the Dow was caused by steel tariffs. Now I'm ready to hear the other side. May have to whether we like it or not. We've had scared and reactionary Congresses in the past. If we get a recession and angry electorate, it could happen. Geo.
I moved to Canada when I was in my early teens, I can still remember the price of housing here in Toronto - around $70K or $80K you can get a very decent condo in downtown, and at the same price, you can get a small town house in rural area. The American dream is effectively the hyper-inflation of real estate post war til now. All assets are effectively created from this run up of real estate prices. During which the boom of the stock market and various other asset classes are just unimportant due to the combined value of the RE today. Maybe that is not hyper-inflation, as there are more people now chasing after the same real estate. Maybe it is supply demand mechanism at works, I don't really know. One thing I know is that in other parts of this world, when the middle class is stripped, social unrest will become uncontainable. The fall off of upper/middle class will also get very profound. For example, after the dot boom era, many middle class simply got stripped of their wealth. Now, they are part of the no future class and their children will suffer. There is no way for these people to work hard and get out of their current situation. Work hard is no longer a solution. I can still remember my high school teacher saying people can get back up after they fall flat onto the ground. It is just her wishful thinking. It was not true even then. The society is way less forgiving now and will be less so in the future. The only way out is to take risk outside of your job or class, but most people cannot really afford that. It is just not part of our upbringing to take risk outside of accepted choices.