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----------------------------------------------------------{ January 22, 2009 }You are the Strength of America
Since the birth of our nation the American economy has experienced 18 periods of economic contractions, including the one we are currently in. Two of those contractions have been classified as depressions, 15 as recessions, and our current downturn has been determined as a recession. The shortest recessions (July 1957-April 1958 and July 1990-April 1991) lasted ten months, while the Great Depression of 1929 lasted ten years. The current recession has been ongoing since December of 2007. The “average” depression lasts about eight and a half years.
We are all well aware of what caused the current recession. The collapse of our housing market caused by the stupidity of our banks, who were encouraged by our government leaders to make loans to people who couldn’t afford to repay them. The ease with which mortgage money became available brought greed from bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, appraisers, speculators and even Wall Street to make fast and huge profits.
When this house of cards collapsed, the surviving banks “got religion” and credit went into a lock-down. To save our financial system our government pledged $700 billion in aid to our banks and $85 billion to AIG, our largest insurance company. Because consumer credit is tight carmakers have no customers and they will ultimately need $39 or so billion to survive.
Given all the problems above, and in spite of our greed, stupidity and our many other faults as a nation, America is still the most powerful nation in the world, both economically and militarily. The American people are the most compassionate and generous in times of natural disasters, not only in America, but all over the world. Americans are resourceful and innovative. Even today, when you consider the meteoric growth of China and India’s privatized economies, America still leads the world in entrepreneurial endeavors. The majority of the Amerimulch customers are entrepreneurs. They are the strength of the American economy. They risk their own capital every day. They work hard, get their hands dirty, create jobs, pay taxes and pay their bills.
How long this current downturn will last is anybody’s guess. But one thing I’m certain of, it won’t be the government, bankers or Wall Street paper shufflers who will lead our economy out of recession. It will end when prudent entrepreneurs and business managers see opportunity, assess the risks, then “pull the trigger” to buy that $500,000 piece of equipment or hire three more people.
Bad decisions by big government, big bankers and big brokerage houses have created the mess we find ourselves in. It may be up to small business to lead us out of that mess.
Posted at 11:31 AM | Link to this Article