So, when the housing market also turns positive, one might think the economy is humming along. Nah, the AP and the Tribune have their finger’s on the nations economic pulse telling us, “The only good news was the 5.5 percent increase in September existing home sales. Median home prices, however, dropped to $191,600, down 9 percent from a year ago.”
So lets get this straight. Low gasoline prices, low oil prices, low gold prices, strong dollar are bad news per the AP. Wasn’t it just a few months ago that the media was telling us that high gasoline prices, high gold prices, and a weak dollar were signs of a recession?
Could it be that the economy is in a cycle where demand for expensive goods like housing and goes down as the price rises? Not in an election year.
**
John Powers is the President of the Chicago Daily Observer
John Powers says:
The Ottawa Citizen tells us that "Caterpillar Sees Quarterly Loss" which is how they define a slight decrease in profit.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/n...
$868 Million in profits this quarter is a loss? We should all be such losers.
JBP
:) says:
Welllll, bho needs bad economic news to win. how dare you show a turn around starting before the one is coroneted emperor by acclamation. indeed only 3.5 billion PROFIT a year and record XBOX sales. why how terrible don't you know we are in the great depression and all will be well when the new (party) one is carpeted into the palace? it will be a kingdom on earth not needing elections any more. all hail the one.
Olivier says:
As you guys think everything is humming along, I'ld recommend you right away use all your extra cash and buy stock, plus a bunch of investement properties in cape coral.
Powers, rather than listing the 3 companies which did ok (add fortune to that), why don't you list the ones having layoffs ? Sears doing ok ?
John Powers says:
O,
Of course the stock market has gone down, you can get that information from every other media source.
The point of the story is that not all "bad news" has a negative effect on the economy, rather it (most likely) is a cycle. If gas prices went up the media would claim economic ruin. If gas prices go down the media would claim economic ruin.
Wouldn't a sensible person buy low, and sell high?
JBP
Dan Kelley says:
John:
I recently returned from Indiana where I was able to purchase gasoline for $2.29 a gallon.
What cannot be overlooked in the gasoline crisis is the kleptocracy that runs Illinois. In Illinois, taxpayers pay a sales tax and a motor fuel tax on the same gallon of gasoline. Everytime the price of a gallon crept up the sales tax did also. Locally, in Chicago and Cook County, Daley and Stroger also tacked on taxes.
Blame the OPEC cartel, blame the oil companies if you like, but do not forget to blame the thieving politicians running the Illinois political combine for the high cost of gasoline in our state.
Rick says:
OPEC... The Straw the broke the camels back!
Lets face it.... The current world economic crises really started from OPEC's greed. Yes the bad housing loans are a part of it...but the housing bubble did not burst on it's own. The rise this last July of oil to the $147 per barrel price pushed the housing market over the edge. Higher gas prices cut into the last of the spendable income that people had, which caused people to cut back on purchases, which caused the housing slump. Now OPEC wants to cut production to keep the price of oil up. Well I for one hope this breaks OPEC's back. They want to keep prices high, so they cut production. High prices means I am not going to buy in this economy, which means fewer dollars going to OPEC. Now comes the internal battle in OPEC... GREED...
Lower production means fewer dollars.... Economics 101... If I have a product that is over priced, and I am not selling... I can raise prices on fewer sales, put fewer sales at higher prices does not necessarily translate into more dollars. If I am asking too much...and Joe buyer can't afford it all ready...how is that going to translate into more dollars for them? The temptation to produce more oil, at a lower price to get Joe the buyer to buy my product is going to win out this time and break OPEC. All of the producing countries have adjusted their standard of living to the higher income that has been produced...they need the dollars coming in to maintain that standard of living. So the temptation to sell oil for what I can get for it...IE 2 million barrels a day at $40 per barrel is better than 2 million barrels a day not being sold at all. What happens to the US economy is going to happen to the world...and I think the world is finally waking up to that fact.
If we can't buy it...you can't sell it! You can't sell it...where are you going to get your income?
The greed factor is going to cause OPEC to lose control, and the temptation to break ranks is going to win this time. Especially with the US starting to open it's own oil reserves.... there won't be the market for their oil on the next economic recovery, we will have our own. And we need our own to survive as a nation. For OPEC's greed has set us up for a world wide depression that this country will not forget. And will finally push us to energy independence.