Facing Reality

We are living through the worst stock market decline of the last hundred years, with the exception of the Great Depression. The market is deeply oversold and due for a recovery. I fully expect it will be counter-current, not lead to a new high, and be followed by an even deeper plunge.

Corporate profits are in the sewer, and record dividend cuts will only drive stock prices down.

Michigan, along with Nevada, California Arizona, and Florida leads the nation in households in a negative equity situation. We don't seem to be anywhere near the end of this, either.

Job losses are bad and getting worse. Update: worse than 1981-82, possibly worse than the sharp, but relatively brief recession of 1957-8

Involuntary part-time employment is at a new high.

Bankruptcy is a growth industry.

Falling oil prices provide some relief. But - prices are falling because the economy is tanking, world wide. This is small comfort when international trade is drying up.

This is Great Depression II. Whether it exceeds the depth of misery brought about by Great Depression I remains to be demonstrated. Either way, this is an event of once-in-a-century, or so magnitude.