Not your average bear market, says analyst

[Pale Blue Dot]

Rising food and energy costs, an ailing financial sector and a hobbled consumer are evidence that the economy has a "worse-than-average recession" and potentially the worst economic decline in more than three decades, wrote Brian Belski, U.S. sector strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in New York.

``This is not your average recession,'' he wrote. ``We would urge caution for investors attempting to call the bottom in the current environment.''

Mr. Belski noted that the economy has always relied heavily on the consumer, and found: "It is hard to believe that the current economic slowdown will be an 'average' recession as the consumer continues to weaken."

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/REG/691212128/-1/RSS02&rssfeed=RSS02

[jimshoes]

1. People are strapped, some things are going to suffer

be it entertainment, dining out, gambling, etc. Here in Ohio on the first day of summer, the parking lot at Cedar Point, one of the premier amusement parks in the country, had a half empty parking lot on a near perfect day. It's a wicked spiral we're in and when it comes down to it everyone is going to feel the pain. We're only starting to see the beginnings of it.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Three decades? Bullshit.

Try eight, as in 1929. Or maybe worse than that. Everything's asymtotic at once: energy prices, mortgage foreclosures, weather-related flooding disasters from global warming, crop failures ditto, loss of jobs, impending health care crises...

This is not going to have a god outcome in the short run, people. And in the long run we're all dead (those of us who survive the short run).

[Bigmack]

7. Yup, I reckon

we're on the edge of the PERFECT economic storm....And it's not gonna blow over any time soon.... Ms Bigmack

[Warpy]

3. They've starved the peasants for the last 30 years

and tried to substitute easy credit for wages.

Now are they going to tell us they're surprised that the consumers out there have stopped spending now that the easy credit in the form of a house used as an ATM has dried up?

Christ, they're even stupider than I always thought they were.

[skoalyman]

4. Yeah with out a flourishing manufacturing base in which to earn

a descent wage how in f are we suppose flourish and in turn keep the U.S. markets flourishing.No can do
with good manufacturing jobs gone its the end of the line its just not going to get any prettier in the future its all going down hill.:argh: :argh:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. Our economy is dominated by people who push money around from one pocket to another

The legal community, insurance companies, banks, and investment houses don't really produce anything new. They spend their time shifting capital from one place to another. But they've become a major part of this economy.

[The Stranger]

6. You lump the "legal community" in with Big Insurance and Big Banks?

That is really fucking hilarious.