What is the cause of our weak economy?

Question

is it the price of oil? the mortgage meltdown?

Answer 1

Economy is not weak,

However, the oil situation is caused by a weakening dollar (which has helped domestic production (weak dollar)....makes imports more expensive...people buy American goods in America.  We're a pretty big world market) and increased demand for crude.

Answer 2

Both, For a long time now easy money people have been doing their thing and you get mortgage meltdown, you have seen them driving around in their BMW's never really doing an work just raping the system, banks,real estate sales, brokers,loan people. Oil we should have been off of it 30 years ago, we have no leadership in this country just money hungry two party greed machine.

Answer 3

Your president and his adminstration spending $trillions on wars and welfare for the rich has unprecedently devalued the USD.  $Trillions of dollars within six years just cannot be created out of thin air without consequences.  Such consequences are devaluation, inflation, rising oil and gas prices, credit crunch, lower corporate profits, lower stock market, etc.   Actually, the credit crunch could have been curtailed with higher interest rates.  But, the Bush admin influenced the Fed to maintain artificially low interest rates in order to hide the effect of a bad economy.  In turn, that exacerbates the devaluation problem while minimizing the value of mortgage firms and utltimately makes for an even worse economy.

It all begins with the value of the dollar.  Deficit spending is a MAJOR problem.  And, the Bush admin knows this.  But, they just preferred to rob the treasury and future treasury blind anyway because they knew they would get away with it.

Which is worse, an Executive Branch full of organized crime or a Congress that lets them get away with it?

Answer 4

george w. bush is the cause of the weak economy. luckily he is leaving soon which should fix our economic problem.

Answer 5

There is a tremendous waste of resources.  For example, we pay a much greater percentage of our GNP for health care than European countries do.   And we have ever increasing government bureaucracies with high paid employees to support.  

Oil is a limited commodity, and our wastefulness (as well as increasing demand from places like China) is driving the price up.   Those who drive the big SUV's can usually afford to pay for the gas, but they are making that gas unaffordable  for other Americans and people elsewhere.

Americans have been encouraged to borrow and live beyond their means in order to keep up demand, and that benefits some in the economy.   But ultimately those whose credit is overextended will pay the price for their lifestyle.