Do you think there could be a second Great Depression?

[dhermann1]

Waterford and Viyella

This doesn't necessarily mean they will stop operation altogether. They said some American firm may take over Waterford. And I would think Viyella would be saveable in some form as well. Let's hope.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://money.aol.co.uk/three-bidders-eyeing-waterford/article/2009010600534228102278

yes, hopefully so.

 

[MissJeanavive]

Answer

Here is an answer to the question from a man who lived thru the depression: "81-year-old Bernie Schindler lived through the Great Depression and has seen his share of economic ups and downs. Sue Kwon reports."

Watch this news report.

Side Note: Bernie and Gayle (his dance partner in the end) are very amazing individuals; they live here in the Bay Area. I am blessed to know them. They have adopted me and its always a pleasure to hear the real stories from real people who lived it.

 

[Foofoogal]

who is that dancing with Bernie in the clip?

I was raised by depression era parents. It affected my dad his whole life.
thank you for the clip.

 

[MissJeanavive]

Some Inspiration

Hi the following came from a newsletter by Grant Cardone: http://www.grantcardone.com

I thought it was a nice thread on history and how people have made amazing things happen even thru the 'bad times'.

========================================

His teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything" and was fired from his first two jobs for being "non-productive." (Thomas Edison's 1000 inventions came during the Panic of 1873 and the Long Depression, which lasted 29 years).

He did not speak until he was 4-years-old and did not read until he was seven. His parents thought he was "sub-normal," and a teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in foolish dreams." (Albert Einstein survived the Long Depression, 3 Panics and Post WWI Recession).

It is said this farmer boy could not read nor write, failed and went broke five times. His company has survived 8 Recessions, 1 Oil Crisis and 1 Great Depression. (Hopefully Ford Motor will make it through this.)

He was not allowed to wait on customers when he worked in a dry goods store because, his boss said, "he didn't have enough sense." (FW Woolworth was founded during the Long Depression that lasted 23 year with a loan of $300 and in 2001 changed its name to Footlocker.)

Fired by his newspaper editor who said, "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." He went bankrupt several times before he built the largest entertainment company in the world. (Walt Disney's creations have since survived 1 Great Depression and 7 Recessions.)

After his first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, read, "can't act, can't sing, slightly bald, can dance a little." (Fred Astaire's career lasted 76 years and was launched during the Great Depression

School drop out and child runaway this individual used $105 from his first social security check at the age of 65 and sold his franchise after 9 years of attempts and during two recessions. The world knows him as "Colonel" Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken

Trained ambulance driver and later a milkshake machine salesman, this guy took over a small scale franchise and built the company into largest fast food restaurant in the world. Ray Kroc bought McDonalds during the Recession of 1953.

He sold only one painting during his life and this, to the sister of one of his friends, for 400 francs (approximately $50). Van Gogh completed 800 paintings.

Is there a message here?
1) Never Quit
2) Everyone has problems!
3) Recessions don't kill anyone!
4) Do something spectacular and unless you are Van Gogh you will be rewarded.

END
====================

 

[dhermann1]

On PBS tonight

"The Ascent of Money" with Prof Niall Ferguson. It's a must watch, maybe two or three times. He takes some mammoth issues and boils them down brilliantly so an average person can start understanding them. This is a great big situation we're in right now, with a lot of complex causes.

 

[Viola]

It is said this farmer boy could not read nor write, failed and went broke five times. His company has survived 8 Recessions, 1 Oil Crisis and 1 Great Depression. (Hopefully Ford Motor will make it through this.)

Henry Ford was a Nazi symp.

 

[HungaryTom]

Grab the money and run?

My question is whether managements of collapsing companies used to distribute large premiums (=stealing) during "The Great Depression" or is this phenomenon characteristic for this current day depression?

My only thought is that if the state provides bailout thereby saving a company from collapse than this company is no more private.

The state is namely de facto buying in ownership rights with the money (the originally private company gets partially nationalized) so there should be no problem in imposing state rulings.

I also can not understand how states (i.e. governments) did not specify for what exact purpose, along what deliverables and what installments emergency aid funds should be spent? This is the basics for each and every co-financed project.

I am asking since this phenomenon sends the worst message - destroying goodwill, the trust in democracy and simply makes the impression that rats are fleeing the sinking ship i.e. the company is hopelessly doomed if senior management is escaping like that.

 

[carebear]

Our leadership and representatives didn't stop to think through what they were doing with the stimulus bill.

They got caught up in the "OMG the sky (economy) is falling" emotionalism and, rather than slowing down and thinking, just acted. When in doubt, the American big government solution is to blithely throw money at a problem and hope it goes away.

In our sound-bite times with a mostly uninformed electorate a politician's biggest fear is to be perceived as "doing nothing" when oftimes doing nothing, or carefully doing a very limited something, is actually the best (and most Constitutionally sound) response.

But heaven forbid the press and politicians work together to educate the populace on why that should be so. :eusa_doh: No, better to go with soundbite politics and attention (and headline) grabbing action to create a story for the news cycle and keep name-recognition up to ensure re-election.

After all, we can always throw more money at the problem later and point fingers to avoid blame for our mistakes of judgment.

 

[HungaryTom]

Food for thought

http://www.sbnonline.com/National/Columnists/10338/891/Global_demographic_trends.aspx
http://www.sbnonline.com/National/Columnists/9481/891/The_housing_boom_has_peaked.aspx
http://www.sbnonline.com/National/Columnists/9692/891/Follow_the_money.aspx

 

[Foofoogal]

Thank you for the links. Very interesting.

 

[Feraud]

The news trickling down from world economic leads say we are indeed suffering setbacks not felt since the great depression.
Reading about the multiple family murder/suicides as a result of job loss and misappropriation of invested funds bolsters the claim.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Not looking good these days....

 

[LizzieMaine]

If 2008 was 1929, 2011 is 1937.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

We'd have many more homeless and hungry people if it wasn't for credit cards which helped get us in this mess in the first place (credit in general).

 

[Undertow]

My main concern, and something I mentioned in the General Decline thread, is that folks today simply don't have the necessary skills to make do. I don't think we would have people running amok, but I could certainly see crime and starvation increasing.

I mean, imagine if something as simple as municipal waste slowed or stopped. Imagine if drinking water had to be rationed, not for fear of poisoning, but because the city can't pay its bill. Imagine gasoline going to $5.00 a gallon. These *aren't catastrophic circumstances, but when an iPhone app doesn't explain how to sew a hole in a shirt, or how to siphon gas, or how to purify water for drinking - what do people do?

I'm not insinuating there's going to be some crazy global nightmare (knock on wood), but living simply may be too complicated for some of the modern day softies.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I'm not insinuating there's going to be some crazy global nightmare (knock on wood), but living simply may be too complicated for some of the modern day softies.

I agree 100%.

 

[kaiser]

If 2008 was 1929, 2011 is 1937.

My Father turned 18 in 1937 and said that time were not all that bad, but they were not all that great either. About the same today if you ask me.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I say 1937, I'm speaking of the specific economic downturn that occured that year in the US, after four years of steady recovery. There were particular reasons why this happened, and some of them are strongly echoed by things happening right now, proving once again that Santayana was right.

 

[sheeplady]

I think that in the US, the economists are so afraid of deflation that they will hyperinflate if necessary. I do not look forward to hyperinflation, mainly because in the 1980s goods inflated far faster than people's wages.

The area I live in has pretty much had 8-10% unemployment for the past 30 years since industry left. Our housing prices did take a 2% drop from 2007, and our unemployment went up about 1-1.5%. Because we have people who are "long term unemployed" the rate is actually higher. I can remember back in 2005 when a local company opened 45 jobs (all paying under $40,000 a year) and they had 2,000 people show up to interview from all over the state. That's what the "good times" were like here.

Although I feel for people who have been crushed, many of us have been living like this for a long time. This is our reality, and honestly today looks no worse than it did 5, 10, or 20 years ago. When things get good and wages go up in other parts of the US, we'll likely still be in a recession.