Which describes your opinion regarding economic recovery

[Dreamer Tatum]

When will you admit that the United States is in recovery?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. When stringent regulations are (re)placed on the financial markets and the tmtr is raised >10%.

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. What is TMTR? nt

[HughBeaumont]

8. Top Marginal Tax Rate.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

9. Top Marginal Tax Rate.

Currently @ 35% >$372K.

[bluescribbler]

3. When I get a raise.

I've gone two years without a raise because my employer can't afford them.

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. I suspect we are beginning to see some modest signs of ostensible recovery

but given that the whole economy is now so deeply entrenched in unsustainable speculative fluff - where a combination of the service economy and speculation drives the economy - rather than genuine domestic production - we may never see true recovery within our lifetime.

So much of the economy for the past three or four decades has been based on unsustainable speculation - I just don't see a way out. And as long as it is cheaper to produce most of the necessary goods and even a great deal of the necessary services in the third world to be shipped back or communicated back to America - stable jobs which also pay enough to live at a comfortable middle class level will likely continue to be in decline - regardless who wins what elections.

Nonetheless within the context of these realities, I would still surmise that an ostensible recovery is beginning to happen.

[ThomWV]

5. I'm not sure what level it would have to return to in order to call it a recovery

When I was a young person fresh out of college with a shiney new degree in economics in my pocket I'd have bet that 5% was a safe factor to use for structural unemployment in this country and would remain so for all eternity. Mark it up to rash impetuous youth.

[Javaman]

6. It works like this...

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression when you lose YOUR job.

It's a recovery when your neighbor gets a job. It's over when YOU get a job.

[ixion]

7. LOL @ "already in recovery"

:rofl:

Yeah, there's always massive unemployment, bank and business failures in recovery. :rofl:

[notesdev]

10. I picked the jail option

fundamentally the reason why the economy is grinding to a halt is that there is no trust - too many people cheated too much (and continue to), and worse, the vast majority continue to get away with it. Without trust, doing robust business is impossible. So my opinion is that once we visibly see people going to jail for the massive frauds that have occurred, both people and businesses will be wary of the types of investments and commitments necessary to return to prosperity.

[aaronbav]

11. What notesdev said!!!! EXACTLY!!!! At the moment the CROOKS

OWN and RUN the place. The MASSIVE and ONGOING FRAUD has to be EXPOSED, PROSECUTED, and the perps JAILED, and their ILL-GOTTEN GAINS confiscated and returned to WE THE PEOPLE.

Till then, there can be NO SUSTAINED recovery. As long as we CONTINUE to PROTECT and enrich the very ones who CAUSED this disaster, there can be NO REAL and VIABLE "recovery".

REPEAL all the (so called) FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS - they were NEVER about "FREE" trade. They were only about the rich and powerful capturing EVEN MORE and WAGE ARBITRAGE - to DESTROY AMERICAN WORKERS for short term profits. We are truly in the cancerous stage of capitalism

RESTRAIN THE BANKERS!

[Sinti]

12. It's tough to read the tea leaves, isn't it?

Business is fine, and there is potential for an uptick in the coming year. They were expecting 2010 to be the turning point and it looks like they may be right, for them. GDP, though, is not an good measure for the situation on the ground. I find it a bit annoying that these businessmen complained about the stimulus causing increased taxes and debt, yet almost all of them expect that governments will be their big cash cows for the next few years - hypocrisy sux.

They are still talking about less jobs. IT is next - they've already been hit once, and they're going to be hit again. "Do more with less," if you're in IT you already know the drill. Look ahead, and be prepared to cover your head if and when this happens. In IT you can also do consulting and freelance work, so some folks should be able to survive the 'restructuring' of the IT field in general.

It's obvious that jobs are not coming back as quickly as we would like. Many of us would prefer 100 percent employment. Some say we're impatient children, but there are people out of work, out of their homes, and rapidly running out of hope for the future - we just want to save our brethren from falling through the cracks.

The food banks are at a complete crisis point. Homelessness is still rising. If any of you have a couple of extra bucks (even $2 or $5 helps), please help your local food bank - if you give straight money they can buy in bulk and get more food for less $$

When we see the number of jobs actually increasing, with salaries that pay a human being enough to care for their family, then I'll say we're in recovery. When anyone who wants a job can get one, and get paid a salary that is worthy of a human being, I'll say we've recovered.

A huge part of the recovery is in the mind of citizens. We all have to realize that we all deserve to have a good life, that includes C-levels and others with highly specialized skills, but it is not exclusive to them, if you know what I mean.

The infrastructure building repair work that's going to happen should really help boost the economy. I saw some money in the stimulus for it. Most of this work is done by local contractors, so the $$$ should get right down to the bottom where it's most needed (fingers crossed).

Okay - I've written a short story here. What are your opinions? You didn't state those. Don't be shy :)