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[Unit 5302]

82GT, I am not insinuating the high paying jobs are leaving the US. They aren't. They're staying here, and they're paying more than ever. It's lower middle class to middle class jobs that are leaving. That being said, there are a lot of financial, technical and service jobs that are considered at-risk to move in the future.

It's true, you do know little about how the economy and government work. Mr 5 0 has legitimate points as he almost always does, and quite frankly, he's just plain right about some things. You're ill-equipped to argue micro or macro economics. I'm not insulting you, I'm just saying that it's probably not at the top of your list to learn about it so you haven't, and you just don't know too much about the inner workings of it all.

Mr 5 0, we both know the president has little control over the US economy. The majority if the economy is controlled through the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Federal Reserve Bank has controlled the inflation, and interest rates allowing people to borrow so much. Alan Greenspan pretty much controls the economy. Granted, the president can influence congress regarding federal government expenditures and tax revenues, he is hardly a main component of the economy. Workers today are earning less per hour, but they are working many more hours. The average middle class couple with children now works over 3,900hrs a year. That's 37.5hrs per week, each. Considering there are still about 46% of couples that only have one person income, the adjusted average worked hours would be 50hrs per week. People are working more to try and balance their budgets.

The durable goods you keep citing are being driven by the upper middle class and weathly who have the most expendable income, and of course, by ballooning debt ratios for consumers. People are spending themselves into giant holes they from which they cannot crawl out. The average household credit card debt alone has now increased to over $12,000. Add in interest only ARM mortgages and 60-72mo automotive loans and it paints a pretty ugly picture in regard to the average middle class family disposable income. Foreclosures are already nearing 1.25%, and bankruptcy filings have increased by a factor of 2 in the last 10 years. Bottom line is that the middle class don't have any disposable income to be making the purchases you're pointing to unless they're borrowing to against their future to aquire these goods.

While you can certainly point to the traditional market indicators such as home sales and durable goods purchases, I will point to the PE Ratio and how that traditional indicator has become far less useful in determining the market value of a security.