This recession could be a boon for Aspies

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Its weird that there is a recession, the way things appear at least.. seeing people with suvs and expensive cellphones. The 1930s depression looked a lot more depression-like from photos, as did the early 80s one, where my parents could barely afford to buy a pair of shoes or toys for us. But now people are swimming in consumer electronics and nice cars yet there is a recession.. it just looks weird. Surreal.

I guess it is hard to believe there is a recession, and people are in denial about it.. but the signs are there. I looked at the jobs section in the paper yesterday. Usually it is 15+ pages long- yesterday it was 1.5 pages, and there were more jobs to work as a prostitute than a waitress (weird what people decide to spend money on in a recession.)

I haven't been paying attention to her.
What's she been doing?

She became a senator, and just tried running for President of the US! Where have YOU been!?!?

Who knew???

Actually, in the 1930s, the Model A WAS an SUV! REGULAR phones were cell phones! TODAY, electronics are NOTHING! A CRT(JUST THE TUBE, and NOTHING ELSE) cost MORE in the 1930s, at least indexed for inflation, and probably on an absolute scale, than an ENTIRE LCD TV now! BTW we have basically just entered 1929. I think it is the FIRST time we have done it since 1929! In 1929, 1929 was a WALK IN THE PARK! People thought THAT was a depression. *****HA***** in terms of the stockmarket, IT really wasn't! It was NOT 1929! It was 1929-1933! AND, that is NOT really meaningful. You see, in 1933 they passed a LOT of laws! The clinton Admin basically ignored some, and rescinded others. 1933 to 1999 we had some protection. Ironically, it was removed about the time of the .bomb bust. THEN, as we were JUST starting to recover, UBL created that 9/11 garbage. That led greenspan to CONTINUE the garbage he started around 1999 or so. THEN he retired, and left his successor with NO ability to control the market. THEN the sub prime mortgages were just TOO much for the market to bear, and we ended up where we are! Surreal!? NOPE, it is just IDIOTIC! I have been complaining about this garbage for YEARS! Everyone speaks of how they are so smart, etc... and I am wrong. I WOULD have believed that if things didn't end up where I thought they would. The ONLY thing I hate is that I got complacent, and did the opposite of what I wanted to. Had I stuck to my guns, I would have been in the catbird seat!

This thread definitely caught my eye. It is not at all a given that the United States will enter into a recession despite everything that has happened. There was significant fiscal stimulus earlier in the year and the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plus the $700 billion proposed bailout of the financial system will pump more cash into the economy than has ever before been attempted. There will be a depression for bankers and people who want to be masters of the universe, but Main Street will probably do just fine.

Like others, I am stumped at how a recession might benefit Aspies though. It is in fact just the opposite and in a recession many of the social support gets dismantled as the focus shifts to maintaining essential services. People on the margins will get crushed and it is during recessions that the poor become homeless and lose their last anchor to society. Of course if you are well to do then the recession will cut down to size a lot of your other high flying peers to the level of an unemployed Aspie and force them to be more “communal” as you put it.

You are scaring me a bit... I dont have a job and it is not easy out there I am kind of wondering what I will do.

That is already happening where I live. I constantly hear about how great it is to live in an "energy" producing state when barrels of oil are so high but looking at how down and out so many are I can't tell.
However, the area I am in is having this huge development boom.

I don't enjoy being the doomsday advocate... but I think we're all screwed.
I didn't think I'd survive long enough to see the big meltdown but now I have a seat in the stalls.

However, the point about the revival of the sense of community may be true...it feels like necessity would ensure this... but I'm certainly not seeing any evidence yet.

Sometimes I wonder if we are all being pessimistic though. I remember the days when the world economy was booming. Life was pants then. In a way this recession will make life pants for everyone else too. Maybe everyone will be brought down to the same level again, and then be forced by circumstance to cooperate rather than compete.

I always felt that a world economy based on primarily competitive principles would become corrupt. There are people holidaying in tropical islands with the mortgage money of people who have worked hard all their lives. There needs to be a balance between competition and cooperation in an economy, otherwise a lot of people will end up losing out in a big way.

Well, the US, like most countries today, has no REAL currency. They are IOUs! The federal treasury provides the money(really IOUs) to the fed bank that then loans it to member banks at a given rate(The fed funds rate). If they charge MORE, it gets harder to get, and debt instruments go UP in value. That means that OTHERS buy the debt(cycling the currency), and the cost of bonds goes up limiting growth. The PROBLEM is that in 1999 they shot the rate sky high and then, to try to recover, lowered it a LOT! If the federal government lowered it, the money would be practically WORTHLESS! If they raised it, the market would COLLAPSE, and business would be STALLED! THAT is why they kept it LEVEL last week. All this makes the future HARD to predict in such a climate.

Zeno MIGHT be right. The problem is that the money, the $700Billion, doesn't exist! They can print more, but that devalues the promise(inflation). Once they do that, they have to hope people accept it, OR that others buy the instruments.

BTW The people talking about FNMA(AKA Fannie mae), and FHLMC(AKA Freddie mac), are WRONG! The way it is SUPPOSED to work is that they borrow money from the fed, issue it to homepurchasers, get a mortgage or lien from them, package it up, and sell them as a bond. The bond is then bought by an investor, and they return the money back to the fed. The homeowner gets the home, the fed gets their money, FNMA/FHLMC make a PROFIT, and the investor gets a promise that they will get a certain rate of interest every month and, after the mortgage is finally paid, they get their investment back. It is supposed to be a near perfect and profitable business.

The PROBLEM is that the fed funds rate is SO low that the interest is SO low that the rates aren't as attractive. If the interest rate climbs, the bond will be sold at a loss if they sell it early. That means it is harder to sell them, ESPECIALLY if the homeowners have bad credit!

SO, will this be seen as enough? Will the garbage stop? If so, we can have a nice little bull market!(Recovering much of the lost value) If not, we could have a depression. Even CRAMER(that likes to have all the answers, etc...) admits he has NO idea! He DOES claim that real estate will start really recovering in june though.

Anyway, cut your expenses, get rid of your debts, and try to make sure you can get a good skilled job. If you do that, you will be in the best position. The unskilled jobs will have the most competition and are the most expendable.

It wasn't that difficult to predict. This is beyond stupidity. Any banker who claims that he didn't see this coming is simply lying.
I tried to tell my husband years ago to give up on that stupid 401-K and pay off the mortgage, but no one listens to me. He still won't do it, still wants to believe in his precious government. It's probably too late for that anyway. And it's probably too late to buy guns. (I wouldn't know what to do with one anyway.) I also try to tell him that we need to stock up on canned food, but he won't listen to that, either. I wonder if it's possible to smuggle a draftable kid to Switzerland. Canada is not an option any more.

You are a certifiable nut. I figured you were talking about Laura, whom I've been ignoring. Bill Clinton WAS (as in "history") just a common crook -- they all are -- while Bush IS (present tense) a dangerous psychopath. You keep flipping back and forth between them as though the comparison is relevant and somehow makes sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4

Well, let's face it - the collapse will be an opportunity for bastards like myself to seize power.
Dictatorship, here I come!!

I'd vote for you.
If we still had the right to vote, that is.
Or any of the rights we once had.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-taU9d26wT4

When I rule the world; everybody will have the right to shoot known paedophiles on sight!
And vote for local leaders; answerable to me, Emperor Ishmael. I like that.
Colonise Mars, destroy China and North Koreas nuclear power. Hell, Russia, U.K. and U.S's nuclear militaries whilst we're at it.
Food for all! Down with African warlords!

If only.

2ukenkerl, what would a real currency be? Even gold is really just a symbolic IOU. All money, or anything that carries with it the promise of future benefits, falls into the category of an IOU. If the rate of interest fell, would the US dollar really become trash? Let me try to answer the question this way. Imagine that you are a Turk and you had the choice of investing in Georgia with high interest rates and an army that has been routed or America with low interest rates and a flailing financial system, what would you choose?