Alright bring it on guys… Tell me I’m wrong and it’s only going to be a little while longer before the Obama green shoots really take hold and we see the good ol’ US of A on her feet again… SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THAT!

 

   I can’t hear you, anyone there? Which sector should I keep my eye on? Banking? They did show a profit in 2009, big bonuses and all! At least to my untrained eye, it would appear that watching a sector that had to be bailed out by the government and their printing press, would be short sighted. The banks look a bit better but then again who wouldn’t if they were infused with a whole bunch of newly printed money.

 

   Maybe we should watch the real estate market for signs of growth? I heard on the news that the Seattle real estate market had begun a small recovery… Can you hear me laughing from where your sitting? Why would it improve? Values are still dropping and I see no reason that this trend will stop. If we only look at the supply and demand factor in this equation, we wouldn’t see a recovery for many years. I’ve been watching a subdivision of new homes that was started before the downturn began in earnest slowly continue building. It’s interesting to see this subdivision after dark. Lights are on in maybe one out of every ten homes. Can anyone tell me who is going to live in those homes?

 

   Ok, I’ll admit that if those new homes are priced very reasonably, someone will eventually buy them… Wait, if those homes are priced VERY REASONABLY, what will that do to your homes value? Oh yeah, it just means that your home will have to be priced even better for one of the few buyers to choose yours over a  newly constructed house… I’m getting a little of topic but I’m only trying to illustrate my point.

 

   Until we see something hopeful on the horizon I don’t see any reason to think that our economic situation will improve. Consumer confidence is built on something and this is not it. I continue to see the parking lot at the shopping mall full of cars but are the people inside actually buying anything? I couldn’t say for sure as I avoid the place like the devil himself was inside.

 

   If they are spending, what form of payment is it? More credit cards? That would only make the problem worse. My suspicion is that they’re window shopping! We should have had more of this in the years past and maybe we wouldn’t have this crushing collective personal debt load. Whenever I do find a reason to set foot inside the shopping mall, I see many vacant storefronts and fewer and fewer kiosks. If those stores were doing a decent business, they would still be in business.

 

   I just don’t know what to think anymore… Not that any of us would choose to go work in a shopping mall, if we had another choice but those retail jobs are just that – JOBS… Someone that was previously employed in those vacant stores has now joined the unemployment roles. Maybe that isn’t 100% true for all of them but most.

 

   Just like government employment, it takes tax dollars or freshly printed dollars to pay those unemployment checks. I’m not downing on government employment at all or even unemployment insurance benefits but it takes money to keep those checks flowing. That’s just the facts and right now the government is between a rock and a hard place. It’s difficult to tax workers that are already feeling the inflation or have lost their income almost completely.

 

   Every form of government takes copious amounts of financial inputs to stay afloat and without our ever expanding economy those inputs just aren’t available. Thankfully, we are seeing the local property taxes being lowered this year. Not a lot but since they are tied to the assessed value of the property the county government has no choice but drop the amount due. Sounds good on the face of the matter but this too is just making the overall situation worse. As much as I love to see a government office, most any government office squirm, we the people are the ones that will suffer.

 

   It’s already beginning to happen in some places, threatened layoffs of critical county personnel. As if firefighters and police officers would be the tax paying citizens first choice of places to make budget cuts? Even this type of move by the local government shows that they are completely unprepared for the world of tomorrow. Cutting police presence would logically come only after they had closed the schools. Does it sound strange to see someone write this? Think about it, which government worker is more important? The worker that is employed to keep you safe or the one that is hired to educate your children. Obviously, we would all prefer to have both but if you could only have one – which one would it be? Be honest!

 

   Let’s just look at all this practically… We have an increasing unemployment rate. Home prices dropping like rocks from a bridge to no where and politicians that can’t seem to find anywhere to cut their budgets that don’t include public safety… Whats next? Maybe we can ask our soldiers to supply their own weapons the way General George Washington did so many years ago? Unfortunately, that isn’t an option as this would undermine the assault weapons ban that is still simmering on a back burner.

 

   What else do we have to be watching for? I think I heard about a drought in many areas of the country, this certainly won’t end up hurting us much except at the grocery store check out stand. That’s right the USA is a net importer of food. That means simply that we are bringing in more food than we are sending out… Yes Virginia, America can’t feed itself without the help of other countries selling us their surplus. This alone is disconcerting but would be able to be overcome if we put our minds to it. Is there time and the will to change this? I guess we’ll all have the opportunity to find out…

 

   Are we having fun yet? I’ll risk repeating myself – Can anyone tell me what I’m missing here? Call me a pessimist but to quote Reverend Wright – “Americas chickens have come home to roost” or some other derogatory little quip. While I mean this in a very different way than the good Reverend, the effect is nearly the same…

 

See ya tomorrow for another chapter in the dark days of America 2010…

 

Prepper