Friday, March 27, 2009

Economic disinformation

I ran into this article by Henry Blodget. While he maintains them as "misconceptions", I say intentional deception by the mainstream press. Nobody wants to step up to the grindingly painful solution(s) of spending LESS than their income, and that is why this economic mess will last a good while.


Here's a graph of household debt vs. US GDP, hmm remember 1929 that started the Great Depression?



So basically unless the western world buckle up and apply realistic solutions, this thing's gonna get worse. Let's look at the meat of Blodget's article,


"

The trouble with the economy is that the banks aren't lending. The reality: The economy is in trouble because American consumers and businesses took on way too much debt and are now collapsing under the weight of it...


The banks aren't lending because their balance sheets are loaded with "bad assets" that the market has temporarily mispriced. The reality: The banks aren't lending (much) because they have decided to stop making loans to people and companies who can't pay them back...


Bad assets are "bad" because the market doesn't understand how much they are really worth. The reality: The bad assets are bad because they are worth less than the banks say they are...


Once we get the "bad assets" off bank balance sheets, the banks will start lending again. The reality: The banks will remain cautious about lending, because the housing market and economy are still deteriorating...


Once the banks start lending, the economy will recover. The reality: American consumers still have debt coming out of their ears...

"

0 Reflections: