Poll - economic recovery

[dmallind]

Yeah I know DU polls are never valid but I hope to get at least a snapshot on what the general feelings are about the pace of an economic recovery.

For these purposes I'd define a recovered state as one in which we have U3 unemployment < 6% and GDP growth > 2%

EDIT TO ADD My bad - "we" here refers to the US economy. It's not that I ignore the rest of the world (heck I'm an immigrant myself) but I do frequently forget to account for the global reach DU has.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Note: Your definition of recovery would have been a crisis through most of my lifetime

I think your definition is reasonable, in context. Just noting that 6% unemployment and 2% GDP are both worse than what we target as a healthy economy.

And recoveries usually include periods of dramatic change in GDP... 6 or 7% quarterly numbers.

But I agree with you that recovery ain't what it used to be.

I picked 5-10 years. I wouldn't be shocked by 3-4.

[dmallind]

3. Well not really

The less than and greater than signs include any possibility. Just tried to come up with a reasonable measure that would have most people feeling confident in the economic wellbeing of the country. Seemed to me like we saw the big drops in confidence when we exceeded those levels that's all - no expectation or endorsement implied.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. I think you made sensible choices

No critique. More noting how our expectations have changed.

(When "pre-industrial society" is tied for top vote-getter it suggests that your conservative definition is a good one for purposes of this poll!)

[Subdivisions]

2. The production of natural resources will not support any significant recovery. The

human presense on this planet has depleted non-renewable resources to the point that growth of any significance in the future is not possible. Civilization is contracting and will continue to contract. A new way of life that doesn't put economic growth first will have to be adapted.

[Political Heretic]

5. If this was the last and only crisis we ever faced, then 3-5 years. However, what will likey happen

is that while we are still reeling and trying to recover from the last wall-street created, unfettered/low regulated capitalist crisis costing us billions and billions of dollars, the same players will likely do it again - driving us further and further down even when we're trying to pick ourselves back up.

"recoveries" in this climate typically aren't really "recoveries" as much as they are "resets" to lower standards of living and wages of the working class - the establishment of a new "norm." Mission accomplished, in most cases, as far as the investors are concerned.

America has become quite the bananna republic, and I don't think that can sustain itself indefinitely.