So pitch your theory!

[PamsPride]

Stock market is up today. I am still thinking SUCKER'S RALLY

I agree!

 

[farmerlor]

I tend to be the eternal optimist so I'd love to believe the worst is behind us but I also have a feeling, just a little something in the gut that says we still have some work to do before we can really make things better.

 

[TanksHill]

Who suffered during the Great Depression? (I'm rather ignorant of this time period). I know much of what I "think" of the Depression is really the dust bowl drought.

Did anyone prosper during the Depression? I used to work at a duPont estate (not during the Depression). The estate where I worked accumulated a great deal of antiques during that era - I don't think they were hurting too much.

Is this capitalism's method of redistributing wealth?

Inchy

Good point>>>>I do see quite a few wealthy people snapping up properties and still making money. It seems it's always the little guy getting shafted. You know what rolls down hill!

I think I would love to do some reading on the Great Depression. Anyone have any recommendations???

 

[Mackay]

My grandparents lived in the great depression times and they lost their house. I don't really understand how or why. they never recovered from it and in old age their kids had to take them in.

I have no clue what is going to happen but I tend to lean with Lindsey Williams as ALL his predictions have come true so far and he explains why he says what he does in pretty good detail. I've been tracking him for over a year and a half.

But I am hoping that thing get well soon and that he is somehow wrong.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=lindsey+williams#

 

[gettinaclue]

Hey Tank,

Go to the library of congress. They have great stuff on line.
I read myself silly on that website.

 

[Big Daddy]

Supposedly the banks are starting to lend money again. Stocks are going up again, but you know how reliable that is. They're saying the financial sector might be back on track and a recovery in process thanks to the stimulus plan within 6 to 8 months. They are also saying that unemployment will continue to rise for up to 2 more years until confidence is restored. I sure hope all the naysayers are wrong.

Europe is sure looking bad.

 

[Carolyn]

I don't know what will happen. Personally I think it will get worse before it gets better, but I think part of the problem is that a lot of people are not used to cutting back and don't think they can go without or have no clue what it is to really cut back. My mother was born in 1924, one of her sisters turn 95 on Sat and the other living sister will be 94 in Sept. They remember it well. There were tent cities, because people lost their houses, soup kitchens, no jobs, no money. My grandparents went to the bank to get their money and it was locked up and boarded, they lost all their money, couldn't pay taxes and lost their farm. They did move about 3 or 4 miles away and made that work. They always had a cow and chickens. Used the well during the summer as a refrigerator. My gramma canned and canned and canned during the summer, keeping seeds from year to year. In the spring, they traded milk and a few eggs for a couple of pigs and raised them through the summer, butchered them after it got cold enough to freeze the meat outside, using everything--including making pickled pigs feet, head cheese and what my mom hated--blood sausage, rendering lard also. Rubarb and saurkrat had vit C. they ate dumplings with everything. They used flour sacks for making bedclothes, pillowcoverings and some underclothes. They used old rags for sanitary products--ever hear of someone " on the rag"--they used the old holey rags that weren't good for anything else for sanitary products. My gramma had an old treadle machine that she remade clothes that they could find to fit each child, or if the child outgrew the item before it was worn out. they had hand me down shoes and had wool stockings to keep warm. Each child might had have 2 everyday outfits and maybe 2 dressier dresses, but most likely 1 that when got too worn became everyday clothes. Women wore aprons to protect their few dresses they had, so if they got company, they could take off the aprons and have a clean dress. Children changed their clothes immediately when they came home from school to keep it clean, cause they ususally wore their "good" clothes for a week before washing- going to school -in a horse drawn wagon or sleigh in the winter with heated stones to keep warm. they always had a decent lunch--ususally bread, butter and a jelly or sauce of some sort, milk and once on a while they might have peanut butter. She said others weren't as lucky, they had lard sandwiches or dry bread, came in holey clothes and shoes, they were very cold. Christmas was a real treat, one year my mom got a toy iron and was so happy, she ironed and ironed and ironed. They each always had a stocking--like our regular socks with an orange or apple in the toe, and a few mixed candies and nuts to fill the stocking. Everyone had a job, my moms job was to wash the cream separator, started in 1st grade after milking was done (by her sister Vivian), yes it was a job she didn't like, but it was expected of her and she knew it. There were 8 children, my grandpas youngest sister, her mother died when she was 5 and my grandparents raised her with their children, my great grandpa and various hired men ( which I really think were there because they had no way to go and worked for board and room. Entertainment was singing, playing a few instruments, playing board game and always cards. Both my mom and one of her younger brothers would sit in the body of an old rusted model T and would "drive to Chicago" for hours, he had an old hat and she had her doll and they "saw" all the sites along the way. My dad was born in 1929 and basically had his young years in the 30's--always remembers being sooo very hungry and always sooo cold, they had nothing and ate lard sandwitches if they had bread. Men went to the railroads to find even a temporary job---the poor got poorer, starved and were cold.
(a lot did die) , the so called middle class became the poor and the rich got richer, fed off of the poor. yes I think it might get a lot worse, people have no concept of what can happen, are you ready if it does? I am, cause I learned from my maternal grandparents and my parents. I have also taught my children--I am 54 and my children are 31,29 and 23--they are ready for the worst to come, if it does. Carolyn

 

[Big Daddy]

It's funny but people have cut back a lot and that is one of the reason it keeps getting deeper. Most people are buying only essentials. Have you noticed how many restaurants are closed up? Jewelery stores are dying. Wal Mart is the only retailer that's doing okay.If people continue to stay scared and don't start spending again it will become a depression. It's interesting to see what this will turn out like.

 

[Carolyn]

Oh I am not scared of spending, we live like we always have, very simple--DS got laid off and don't know if they will be able to stay in their house. DD 1's place of employment cut their people in half--I think they are going to close completely, DD 2 was let go because things were slow and they had to cut back. I think the news said that there were 290 some thousand people that applied for unemployment this week an all time high. Adding close to 300,000 people to unemployment is serious. With some, it isn't being scared of spending, they can't afford it. If there is something we need, we spend. We also see that people buy our soap, laundry soap, whipped shea, lotion bars , cloth diapers and mama cloth. Now I am making aprons and clothes pin bags and those are flying out the door. Personally, I think people got out of hand with spending and need to get it under control-all 3 of my children have friends that are so far in debt with credit cards, they don't know when they will see the light at the end of the tunnel. If they don't have money and credit cards are maxed out, they can't spend. I always have extra people around my table for meals. Carolyn

 

[unclejoe]

It's funny but people have cut back a lot and that is one of the reason it keeps getting deeper. Most people are buying only essentials. Have you noticed how many restaurants are closed up? Jewelery stores are dying. Wal Mart is the only retailer that's doing okay.If people continue to stay scared and don't start spending again it will become a depression. It's interesting to see what this will turn out like.

This speaks volumes. Commercial real estate is teetering on the edge of a knife. As consumer spending dwindles, more and more shops are closing their doors. When shops close, the owners of the CRE properties can't pay their mortgage. I don't know about other parts of the country, but around here, ads and billboards for office and retail space available are everywhere. With unemployment still on the rise, I don't see how this situation is going to get better any time soon. If the CRE market collapses the way the housing market did/is, I don't see how a full blown depression can be avoided. JMHO