Any Thoughts on US Economic Collapse/Hyperinflation Scenarios?
What are everyone's thoughts on the situation going on in the US?
If Hyperinflation plays out how severe do you feel the impact will be on Canadians and what do you feel the time frame will be for severe effects in both countries?
If Hyperinflation plays out how severe do you feel the impact will be on Canadians and what do you feel the time frame will be for severe effects in both countries?
Comments
i don't believe any of this is random, but regardless the effects can be guessed. hyperinflation will take all the people just making by right now, maxed on credit just to get out of the current situation, and sink them instantly. i can't find the graph but sometime in the 80's interest rates went from like 5 to 13% or high in 6 months, it over doubled or something.
Some would know about this more than me and i'd like to hear about that time. but nonetheless i fully expect this to happen and we are due. I haven't heard anything on this subject though since all i can see is cards.
I feel that the effects will be obvious if this does occur -- people cannot afford to pay 2-3x their current mortgage, period.
I am more interested on everyone's opinion as to the severity and projected time frame of such an occurrence.
I have read many sources of information regarding the US Economy and the consensus seems to be the potential for almost total devaluation of the US dollar within 1-5 years. Any thoughts on this?
Inflation is not the issue at thus moment, but what happens when everyone has to renew their mortgages at MUCH higher rates.
What happens when the US Dollar continues to plummet at their own hands?
Problem being is that there is so much credit given out.
A lot of bad mortgages, Car Loans etc. The war has cost a bazillion dollars also.
A lot of companies have moved out of the US like here and have gone to places like Mexico were the labor is cheaper.
In the long run it will affect us to a certain degree. We have lost a lot of jobs here also. The Governments, Federal and provincial have to raise personal taxes and cut services to try and keep afloat.
Not easy times to be in North America. look at all of the other countries in Europe that are on the verge of economic collapse.
The one thing that played out well here is that our Major Banks have ridden out the storm so to speak.
Anyone could open a bank in the states and lend out tons of money which has happened only for them to close and sink the economy.
There is an old saying . You have to spend money to make money.
War is good for the economy. Creates jobs but you can only sustain it for so long . 4 or 5 years .
Iraq and Afghanistan have been almost 10.
k i wanted to say 18 but couldn't remember and didn't want to embellish, i actually think the 13 was the percent it went up. and comp, i can't believe you said what you said, the issue was that people were talking like you in 80-81 and they spiked 13% in 6 months time. that would hit the world 10 times hard than 2 years ago, and i do think its inevitable yet many will say the government would never let it happen.
the excuse will be of course its the only way to save the economy from complete black out. and it is since the government cannot continue to print money to back printed money, it probably true.
edit: i wish i could find the clip from colbert or stewart with greenspan saying they don't print invented money, then a clip from years earlier saying that's exactly what they do.
Inflation was the cause of the high interest rates as the US gov tried to curb it, not the other way around.
I agree if people had to renew at rates that were prevalent then there would be large numbers of foreclosures. Rememeber that the high interest rates in 81/82 did not last long. They fell almost as fast as they rose.
This I totally agree with. You can't spend yourself out of this situation. However once inflation kicks in, and it will as the economy recovers, interest rates will rise quite quickly, inflation will be curbed and we will go on a productive cycle again. This has happened over and over again and is nothing new. Quit panicking people it's not a doomsday scenario... There are much more serious problems in the world now.
that its no big deal, but you are right the way you see it. if you are prepared, but i don't think people are prepared for how fast money moves now, if it took 6 months back then i think it will take 6 weeks now, kinda thing.
its not a big deal as long as we know that it just makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
a) our financial stability helping us maintain stability. Investment $$$ will look elsewhere outside of the US, and we are, figuratively and literally, right next door. Especially as Europe is in worse shape, potentially, than the US of A.
b) our resource sector will be a steady stream. Everybody talks about China, but Canada and Russia are the still the dominant resource storehouses on the planet, at least in terms of single nation ownership. And who has the most stable political outlook? Well, stable without having to enslave/execute their own citizens . . .
Canada never resorted to printing more money aka increasing the money supply but the US has gone that route which is devaluing the USD. Problem is that Canada's economy will never really grow until the US does and if the USD stays low then the US will snap back far faster than Canada. A lot will depend on whether the Feds and Provs balance their budgets quickly because right now, at every level of the gov't, right down to the municipal level, the US is in danger of default. If the US goes down and we are still running deficits, god help us.
The solution for a lot of munis seems to be to say "Fuck you" to their pensioners . . .
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Anyone hear of New World Order. It has begun.
There will be no middle class. You will either be rich or poor.
The unfortunate thing here is nobody truly thought the whole thing through before embarking on the spending spree.
Barrie had 4 American Companies all good paying Jobs and the 4 largest employers in Town .
General Tire. 1100 employees.
Hill Refridgeration. 325 employees
Kolmar 400+ employees
Imperial Eastman 300+ employees
After Canada signed the NAFTA agreement within 5 yrs beginning in 1991 up to 1996 all 4 companies closed and moved their Canadian operations to Mexico.
Cheaper labor and taxes.
A family member works in London for an American company. At 1 point there were 400 people working there. Now there is under 100.
One of the big 3 tried to negotiate a new contract for Their product
to purchase at less than the cost of producing it.
Auto company went to Mexico and got product from a competitor who is manufacturing there.
product was deemed 6 months later to be inferior (BASICALLY NFG)
and came back to London to try and open negotiations again.
London company told them to GO TO HELL but in a nice way.
Costs of operating competitively in North America way too much.
Labor, materials, transportation etc. Cheaper but no quality to run out of Mexico or India.
btw, why do you ask? planning on buying a US property? worried about your US investments? want to buy US$?
I'm pretty much sitting on cash right now until the US situation gets better. Unemployment in the US is still the driving factor for me. Also, there doesn't appear to be any big change in the housing market in the US. Not sure why some of the Cdn banks are taking such a big risk buying US banks right now...will it come back to haunt them?? The US market has recovered somewhat in the last year but I still don't like the economic situation so I don't see any reason for this false hope in the market. I am happy buying individual stocks for a short term and taking out a tiny profit.
Hopefully our economy is better positioned. Housing market seems to be humming along, home owners are not as leveraged as in the US market and we do have a strong resource based economy (oil/gas/gold,etc). The strong US$ is hurting our manufacturing sector but smart investors can still turn a decent profit trading the swings in the US/CDN$. Problem w the US housing market seems to be there were too many no downpayment style mortgages where banks lent individuals huge amounts of funds with no hope of being able to pay them back. In Canada, these types of mortgages are non-existent.
http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm
I wouldn't read too much into these articles based on these doomsday style sites. Some cities are worse off than others. The poor get poorer and the rich stay rich. Its the way of the world.
Ive said it before. Unions are their own demise. Dont blame NAFTA, blame unions for not adjusting to changing labour markets.
^^^^ This.
My Dad is an AMC retiree. He was on "light duties" in his last years at the plant, due to a bad back. The job he was doing is now done by a robot, as are many similar positions. It is the way of things . . . you have to adapt, or perish. Very few Unions see the logic of this truism, and so they get left behind, as do their members.
fyp
If he's a good manager he manages situations.....
They are greedy. I saw it for 10 yrs.
Car Companies paying massive pensions and benefits, Now you know why cars are so expensive.
Now the hate mail will begin again.
I am okay with people making a decent living.
Wife is a licensed nurse. had to go to school for like 4 yrs extra and it was not easy. She makes less than the guy on the line at GM turning the same 2 nuts for 8 hrs a day who has not even finished high school.
It's a twisted world we live in .
Meh.
Unions used to serve a purpose. Before labour law was what it is today they protected workers from bad management.
Today, they serve absolutely no purpose but to drive up labour costs to the point where we outsource, or shut r down.
Fact. As a manager, it is more difficult for me to terminate a non union employee than a unionized one.
Labour law (very strong ones) have replaced unions sole necessities.
unions have the same inherent flaws as government....
but if i were to choose a manager or a boss i would be looking for one who was constantly recognizing on a daily basis that this or that is out of date.
i work for a real intersting company (in minning) that id be able to explain more as it grows over the next year or to. but they hired a lot of ex union people from east and created quite an anti union atmosphere. everyone makes less than they used to and everyone is happy about it. we even have company chapstick and all get business cards.....
theres more but i don't understand it.
RN's working in trauma centers Yes they make this money. Not in Geriatrics were my wife is. $25-$32 per hour.
ICU and OR Staff can be included in the 80-100K
The one thing I will comment on is the union thing. I agree for the most part they are becoming less and less necessary. However, there are still so many employers, especially in retail, that will not follow labour laws.
That said, the union at my work is as useless as the day is long. For some ridiculous reason, a grocery chain decided to use CAW as their union. This is the biggest fucking joke. While they apparently do a decent job for the full timers, getting into full time is nearly impossible and if you're a part timer, the only way you can get a raise is by working X number of hours. No matter your experience level, you start at minimum wage. And, that raise you keep hoping for by working those hours: .10/hour. Looking out for employees my fucking ass.
Worker owned co-ops are the way of the future folks.