The future of the U.S. economy?

[Caddy_4_Life]

Uncontrollable debt, skyrocketing inflation, abuse of credit are all fair stripes we can paint of the U.S. economy. What is the future of the US and global economies in the decades or years to come? What I have been reading is more and more investment articles advising investors to purchase up gold as a safety net because of the future. But what is this future? Is this advise flawed? Please explain why.

Secondly, as far as careers in the financial services arena. Still very viable career for years to come?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Caddy

[Jim T]

Uncontrollable debt? - Are you talking federal or individual? If it's individual, then you double counted. If it's federal, then it's easily controllable ... just as soon as the public demands it. The current federal budget (not to mention state budgets) could be cut in half pretty easily. It would entail some suffering at the start, but would pretty quickly cause tremendous economic growth. As it is, the deficit is shrinking precipitously.

Skyrocketing inflation????? - Ever hear of Jimmy Carter? Trust me, we don't have "skyrocketing" inflation.

Abuse of credit? - Ever hear of the savings and loan crisis? Do you remember when most people were paying well over 10% on their mortgage? Credit rates have been low, and people have taken advantage. ARMs are going to hurt some people though.

There are problems ahead, sure. But there are ALWAYS problems ahead - that's life. Just be thankful that you aren't in Africa. Or South America. Or Europe. Or Asia. The countries in all those continents are in much worse shape than we are.

Africa is, as always, a basket case.

South America is making some progress, but they are still bedeviled by people like Chavez. It seems like they are always making progress, but never seem to get anywhere.

Europe? I'd rather be in South America. Structural unemployment, horrible taxes, terrible business environment, and no children to pay for the current extravegant system of pensions, unemployment, etc. when their baby boomers retire.

Asia. I think that India is poised to become a real power. China...no. Inefficient. Essentially slave labor in many instances. Terrible banking system. Endemic corruption. Again, few children and because of their bias against girls (resulting in abortion, abandonment, etc. of baby girls) their upcoming population implosion is going to be worse than their fertility rate would lead you to believe. I believe that for Chinese under 15, there are only about 88 girls for every 100 boys.

As for gold, it seems like it does pretty well every 10-20 years when there is a run. Otherwise it just sits there. I'd rather own T-bills personally. Over the long term, they are not only safer but have consistently outperformed gold. How much would you have if you invested 10 grand 10 years ago in gold vs 10 grand in T-bills? And then keep in mind that we are currently at a peak in gold prices.

[Caddy_4_Life]

Thanks for your thoughts Jim. Anyone else?

Caddy

[r3vbr]

when people are talking about recession, THAT is the time to buy stocks.

look at serious blue chips with like 0 risk like LOWES(LOW) trading at like 12 P/E.. you cant lose money on that and its guaranteed +50% in 5 years time right.

i like KOREA, they seem to grow nicely. England is the best pick in europe imo.

rule of thumb is: measure the size of government as % of gdp, tax rate, and the smaller the better. look at what happened to hong kong the past two decades.

Now is not a good time to buy gold, this is a historical high.. dont ever buy anything hyped like energy stocks and gold. look at neteller (NLR) everyone says they are gonna go broke (P/E under 5), just dropped 22% thursday..
I think NLR is worth at least 1200p a share and it's trading at like 370 thats like a 70% discount sale and you talk about T-Bills?

go shopping cause there are bargains out there