Goldman Sacks is Chicken Little?

October 7, 2010 Leave a comment

This is realism–to face the future of the economy and the continuing sluggish economy that will keep the Coral Gables’ economy down, property values constant or down and further challenges for the city government.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. economy is likely to be “fairly bad” or “very bad” over the next six to nine months.

“We see two main scenarios,” analysts led by Jan Hatzius, the New York-based chief U.S. economist at the company, wrote in an e-mail to clients. “A fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1 1/2 percent to 2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession.”

via Goldman Sachs Says U.S. Economy May Be ‘Fairly Bad’ (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Economy

Economic Outlook: Joseph Stiglitz

October 4, 2010 Leave a comment

I just viewed an interview with the economist Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize in Economics in the PBS Nightly Business Report.

He said the following:

  • Unless there is another stimulus package the economy will take three to five years (optimistically) to recover;
  • Unemployment will continue high, in the range of 8.5% to 9.5% during this period;
  • There are risks that the European countries undertake restrictive economic policies that will hurt the US economy;
  • More needs to be done to help with foreclosure problem;
  • More needs to be done to get credit to small and medium enterprises.

It is essential that Coral Gables leaders be realistic about the economic future and its impact on taxes and budgets.

This would be done through a recommended  LONG-RANGE FINANCIAL PLAN.

Filed under Economy, Housing, National

Republican Plan “Pledge to America”

September 24, 2010 Leave a comment

This simple explanation of the usual political blah-blah-blah.

Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.”

via Op-Ed Columnist – Downhill With the G.O.P. – NYTimes.com.

Filed under Economy, National

More on the Same Depressing Subject

September 20, 2010 Leave a comment

It is hard to imagine that except for very extraordinary conditions the economic recovery will be hard and long.   Coral Gables will not feel a recovery any more than any other area of the country. Beware City of Coral Gables for further declines in property values.

…the extraordinary length of the recession that…began when the collapse of the subprime mortgage market triggered the most severe financial crisis since 1929.

An official end date for the recession also makes it official that the recovery since 2009 has been unusually weak and jobless. That gives evidence to those who argued that recovery from a recession caused by a financial crisis would be slow and painful as households struggle to pay down their debts.

via FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – Downturn longest since Great Depression.

Filed under Coral Gables, Economy, National

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