A thought about our depressed economy by Tony Green

I was talking to my sister about the fact even though I was fortunate enough to regain employment the country’s economic health is still in a very depressed state. I told her I thought the climate would have improved by now. Since the economy is historically cyclic, I reasoned, provided enough time transpires inevitably the upturn would arrive. She replied with something which stopped me dead in my tracks. She attended a sermon a few weeks back and her pastor mentioned the possibility the current state of economy reflected how things were going to be going forward. In other words, the economy of the last 10 years existed on a bubble based on a hype cycle which has now corrected itself.

This seemed extreme at first; however, when I thought about the recent updated appraisal for my home I received in the mail last week the idea did not seem so farfetched. Without getting into specifics I will say the value of my house is now a fraction of its value when I purchased it only 6 years ago.

This fact now puts me “under water” in regards to mortgage with many other Americans. Fortunately, I do not plan to sell at a loss even if any prospective buyer could get financing with today credit crunch. For now at least I am employed. What are all of the people who are out of work, in spite of the fact of the recent reinstatement of long term unemployment benefits, going to do if no relief can be expected to arrive any time soon?