AP survey: Outlook for 2011 economy is brightening

[steve2470]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110127/ap_on_re_us/us_ap_economy_survey

Employers will hire more workers this year, and the economy will grow faster than envisioned three months ago, according to an Associated Press survey that found growing optimism among leading economists.

But unemployment will stay chronically high — nearly 9 percent by year's end, the latest quarterly AP Economy Survey shows. A majority of economists say it will be 2016 or later before unemployment drops to a historically normal rate of around 5 percent.

Economists have become more confident 19 months after the worst recession since the Great Depression ended. Lower Social Security taxes and higher stock prices will embolden Americans to spend more and help power the economy, they say.

"People will finally recognize that an economic recovery is under way," said Lynn Reaser, a board member of the National Association for Business Economics. "This won't be a recovery seen only by economists."

[Journeyman]

1. I certainly hope they're right. . .

Business has improved tremendously for my firm the past two months, and I have hope it will continue. I'd feel better though if the recovery was more widespread. That would give me greater hope than a limited improvement in my personal situation.



Edited to correct an egregious grammatical error.

[AdHocSolver]

2. The economy won't improve until the manufacturing of everyday goods is returned to the U.S.

The government deficits won't be reduced until currently unemployed Americans have jobs and are paying income taxes again, and corporations are prevented from avoiding paying taxes by importing goods rather than producing those goods in the U.S. with American workers.

The economy will NOT improve until the trade deficit is reduced and a majority of the goods bought by Americans are made in the U.S. by other Americans.

The U.S. economy is on life support sustained by an an ever increasing debt owed to foreign powers.

Increases in GDP and stock market prices are irrelevant. Slight increases in employment figures are irrelevant. This country is in hock to foreign countries, and is not doing anything that will change that fact. The U.S. needs to get rid of trade agreements like NAFTA that give extreme advantage to importing goods rather than manufacturing those goods in the U.S.

The claim that another NAFTA type treaty with South Korea, or any other country, will help the American economy is a total fraud.

[WinkyDink]

11. Manufacturing will return when Americans are broken down enough to take Korean wages.

[Tunkamerica]

3. nm on reading further

[ixion]

4. LOL... okay, bookmarking this for later

because it's pure pie-in-the-sky day-dreaming. :rofl:

[girl gone mad]

5. The idea that there is a wealth effect created by rising stock prices..

has been heavily discredited.

Housing prices, on the other hand, do have notable impact on consumer spending. Most Americans' wealth is tied up in the value of their homes, not in equities. Home prices continue to deteriorate and this will have a much more dramatic ongoing economic impact than whatever is occurring in the stock market.

I'm guessing this is the same bunch of economists that didn't see the financial crisis coming.

[DCBob]

6. However it sounds lke a "lost decade" for unemployment...

"A majority of economists say it will be 2016 or later before unemployment drops to a historically normal rate of around 5 percent."

[WinkyDink]

8. The better to get recruits.

[sendero]

9. Or never..

.... with assholes like Obama at the helm, it will be "never".

[DCBob]

13. So you think McCain/Palin could have done better?

BTW, I think your post is inappropriate.

edit: removed explicative.

[sendero]

14. I don't think they could .

...have done WORSE. I doubt if they would have flagrantly hired the assholes who created this mess to fill their cabinet.

You can "alert" my post and probably get some bootlicking mod to delete it. Good for you.

So let me understand - it would be OK to call Bush an "asshole" because he is a Republican, but not Obama EVEN THOUGH THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS POLICIES ARE ALMOST INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM BUSH'S?

[DCBob]

15. They would have probably hired Phil Gramm.

[sendero]

16. Look..

... it wouldn't matter WHO they hired. You could not have handled this economic mess any worse than Obama has, PERIOD. With the exception of unemployment benefits, Obama has done the wrong thing at every turn. The pukes were bluffing on that anyway, Obama doens't know how to counter a bluff.

Filling your head with some notion that Republicans would have done worse, please tell me how. Everything has been done for the benefit of the banks, just like Republicans would have done. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.

The DOWNSIDE to even having OBama is that now this long term entrenched fiasco is A DEMOCRATIC LIABILITY rather than a REPUBLICAN ONE. We'd have been better off with McCain.

[DCBob]

17. Everything was done to keep the crisis from turning into a catastrophe..

The actions the administration took keep this country from going off the cliff worked. Now the rebuilding process is underway and it will take a long long time to get anywhere close to where we were.

[sendero]

18. You are truly.

...ignorant if you believe that steaming pile. Let me ask you a simple question. If only what was necessary to keep us from collapsing was done, how is that that banksters are still paying themselves billions of dollars in bonuses while main street suffers?

This administration is run by banksters for banksters and nothing else. And idea that we could not let some of these big banks fail without collapsing the economy is 100% bullshit, it has been done and it can be done.

[DCBob]

19. Ok genius.. you win. I have to go to work.

[sendero]

20. Google Swedish Bank

.... they had the same problem and they SOLVED it without bailing out the banksters.

When a business FAILS (a bank is just a business) it MUST be allowed to fail or a cycle of malfeasance takes hold. Why run an honest business if you can cheat and then get bailed out?

[WinkyDink]

7. OFGS! "unemployment will stay chronically high" = BRIGHT?! Yeah, hand me my shades.

[sendero]

10. We removed the cancer!..

.... unfortunately,the patient died.

[WinkyDink]

12. The new "Win-Win"!