Although you may not be guilty as charged "we the people" unfortunately were over-extended, chasing material goods, often on credit, without sufficient emergency funds to weather an economic upset. We've witnessed years of spending beyond our means-many using home equity loans as their own personal ATM. This allowed citizens to spend beyond what is financially responsible. Individuals own a personal responsibility for overextending!
Now, our oligarchy also owns some responsibility in this travesty. The U.S. monetary policy contributed with excessive money creation, leading to negative household savings (spending) causing a big U.S. trade deficit, dollar volatility and public deficits.
Add to this irresponsible (possibly illegal) business practices; beginning with bank lending practices, mortgage lenders, predatory lending, easy lending, sub-prime lending, no document loans, home appraisers, global financial institutions (mortgage backed securities, CDO's, CDS's and other financial innovation), rating agencies and government deregulation all leading to an increased debt burden or over-leveraging of American households.
The bubble burst and collectively we stopped buying things and without demand organizations were producing more than was being consumed and companies started the massive layoff train. As more and more people stopped spending, more and more people were laid off and the cycle began.
This has nothing to do with government regulation, or over regulation. Business today is holding cash due to the simple fact that at the worst moment in our recent crisis there was "NO ACCESS" to cash from anybody but the United States Treasury.
Corporations will not add jobs until demand for their products increases. Big business and small business alike will hoard cash until they can be certain they can survive another period where cash is unavailable.
The uncertainty of tax structure is not relevant. The increase or decrease of government regulation is not relevant. A Democrat or Republican in office is not relevant.
Except for the tendency to lie to the average citizen. Might be time to send Republicans home from congress as the job creators are not the wealthiest among us, the job creators are not even the top ten percent of wage earners among us, job creators are not business owners, or small business owners.
The job creators in America are the middle class. Job creators are those that create the demand that needs to be met by a new hire, a new production line or a new business entity. Job creators are the collective citizenry spending their hard earned money to buy products and services that businesses owners produce. And when demand for products and services out weighs the supply of products and services (more buyers than people employed can make) business owners hire more people.
It has little to do with Job killing regulations or the uncertainty of a potential tax increase; these Republican ideas are fantasy, with as much reality as is in the film "The Wizard of Oz".
Today many people and companies are working their way out of debt into some sort of equilibrium or solvency. The demand once enjoyed by the bubble has disappeared as the bubble had burst. Pay close attention to the worlds response to this downturn. Does history repeat itself? Have we began cultivating our next bubble, it's demand related-period.
