When will the US economy rebound?

Question

When will the US economy rebound and our economy start growing again? Is it really all doom and gloom or does our economy have a chance to still stay somewhere on top (china will surpass us soon i think..)

thanks

Answer 1

The health of the economy is a function of the faith the people have in it.  And a function of how much we are going to let multi-national corporations keep s******g over the planet.

Answer 2

Well, China's economy just took a hit - in the form of the earthquake. But they are a large country and an industrious people. But before I get too carried away, it is worth noting that their economy is - about 20% larger than that of the state of California. They certainly will be using as much resources as we do now (oil for instance) but their economy is not all that large.

Furthermore , with an economy roughly the size of California it is important to note that unlike the west cost's 35 million people, China supports 1.6 Billion. So as tough as times might seem, relatively speaking , we're doing marvelously.

That having been said. Alot of our economic woes stem from the fact that there are ALOT of folks whom genuinely bought into the whole "cornucopian" idea of economics.

This stems from the ideals of Ayn Rand, a cornucopian idea, that "technology" will save us and that we don't have to worry about real resource constraints. The problem is, she's right , and she's wrong.

She's right in that ultimately technological solutions will provide the ability to either use the resource efficiently or replace our use of that resource with something else.

She's wrong in two very important areas, this economic model and her philosophy does not take into account that civilizations do fail.

Ask anyone who remembers what the USSR collapse was like, or that of the Romans, or the Maya or the Spanish, Hapsburg Empire.

Secondly, it fails in so far as it does not address the limits of the rate of invention or technological adoption. It's not to say that we won't EVENTUALLY discover or use some new  technology, but a civilization would have to constrict and constrain itself until that set of inventions or adoption comes along.

Here again, it's not just bringing the US, but China and India and everyone else along on the efficiency bandwagon are we're just as f*cked as if we'd done nothing at all - just a few years later.

For example, let's say we view some future version of a prosperous North America, 200 years from now, we will not be using gasoline engines to any significant extent. We won't even be doing that 50 years from now - if we are successful.

That's a very hard lesson, for everyone under 70 and over about 40, whom have never had to deal with the idea that they can't have something because there just isn't enough to go around.

This is not to say that oil will disappear but it WILL become very expensive - speculation and gouging not withstanding the costs will be higher.

We are fortunately NOT in the situation painted by some doom and gloom writers, where the technology doesn't exist, or the people can't be made aware of the situation.

But we are in the situation where that part of the US political and consumer market that "bought in" to the idea that we can never run out of stuff, or always get's it's way, will have alot of pain adjusting to this idea.

We need to do a couple of things long term - over the next 20 years or so - if we want to continue to be the world's economic superpower largely transform the relationship our nation has with energy.

1. Reduce (with the goal of elimination) our use of oil.

2. Develop new technologies for handling jobs which are currently energy intensive to use energy more efficiently.

3.a. Develop new energy production methods centered around geothermal and other renewable - high-concentration energy systems.

b. Develop as much solar and wind as is practical to lessen the demand on a larger grid.

Answer 3

well actually china as sorta already surpassed us. If you read the news back to about feb or jan. You will find out that chinese corporations almost took over control of the following companies:

3M, IBM, GM, sunsoft, oracle and lehman brothers investment firm. Of course in order for them to have majority control they needed an american backer due to laws. The backers on the deals were goldman sachs and chase.

The DOJ was hounding sachs and chase. Especially after the arab ports fiasco taht they let through.

as to the US economy i highly doubt we will beable to rebound at this moment. Maybe by 2010 at the earliest i think.

But, in terms of being a global player america as gone from king to ceo. Which India and China both rising to near king status.

India is actually stronger than china in economy if you truly follow the markets.

Answer 4

economy is still growing, but at a much slower rate.

it is not all gloom and doom, ask your parents how late 70's were.

China will catch up to US in total GDP in about 10-20 years, and will _not_ catch up in GDP/person for at least 50 years.

Answer 5

never...

Answer 6

December 2, 2008!

No sooner, no later!