Presuming the data is in English or Spanish, could you shoot me a copy?
Personally I’ve felt it for a long time. I was living in Europe on and off for the past 5 years. I’ve had money in the US and in Europe. So I was always acutely aware, whether my money was coming from the US or not. I had a few jobs I did online and got paid in US dollars.
Anyway, I’ve got no plan. I’m in school now, and I’m borrowing money. I won’t be terribly concerned if the dollar stays low, because I will probably go back to Europe and I could then pay off my loans for cheap! That’s the hope, anyway!
I was thinking more about how much more of the UK reserves Brown can blow to stave it off for a little while longer - of course the more he does that, the worse it will be when it hits. How long it will be until it really hurts depends on how much he’s prepared to spend (and how much he has left to spend).
Well, it’d be a positive for me.
I’m flat broke (having been cleaned out by my ex), and if there’s a recession, I might get lucky and get a redundancy payout. That’s about $70 000 for leaving a job I’d toyed with leaving anyway.
Australia is riding a minerals boom at the moment, so a lot depends on places like China.
Any general suggestions for a 401k?
Isn’t the US enough of a global market force that if we experience a serious recession it will have some serious effects to the rest of the world?
Sorry, the document is Norwegian and the company I work for paid another company for the data and analysis, so I am not comfortable about spreading it. 
Yes, very much so. While there are differences from country to country, I think a lot of economists around the world are looking at what is happening in the US at the moment. If there is a major recession in the US, the other stock markets would likely follow.
Due to the current high value of the NOK (we got oil, so Norway’s main income is tied to the price of oil), our interest rates have gone up lately. I got rid of half my mortgage and put some money in oil companies since they are relatively stable. I am still under 30, so I don’t worry much about my retirement yet 
Heh, I love the many face of Friedman.
It seems like a rather simplistic view of things, and there are to many unknown that could alter the authors vision of what will happen.
You have ready money, euros and a broker? You’re screwed! I have pocket change and a used car – I’m sittin’ pretty. 
Unless you all have some serious credentials in the financial field, this is all chicken-little speculation. People seem to enjoy predicting doom and gloom; if it then occurs ten years later, they then can say ‘see, I predicted that would happen’. While the economy has been somewhat shakey of late, I’m not quite ready to pull the plug.
Maybe so. I stand by my prediction.
(I just checked, I am paid in US Dollars, not Saudi Riyals. The Riyal may be delinked from the dollar soon, so I may be somewhat screwed. Next contract, I will insist on gold doubloons. Or high grade rainbow-quality blow, depending.)
Michigan is already in the toilet. It is just bad new everywhere here and we’ve been on the forefront of the poopstorm for awhile now.
With gas prices going up, milk prices going up and other daily necessities, it is impossible to put anything aside.
That said, my financial path is to invest my meager income in Franklin Mint Collectibles and Beanie Babies.
Threads like this depress me.
They shouldn’t. Conventional wisdom in times like this is to pay down debt, diversify holdings, keep a cash reserve, and limit discretionary spending (new cars, remodeling, etc.). Come to think of it, that’s good advice most of the time.
Well, I just checked in with my mortgage company and my rate is as low as they can possibly get it right now–my monthly payment including tax/insurance impound is less than 30% of my net pay and I’m on a 30 year fixed. I have 55K in equity just at the county assessed value, more like 75-90K in real market value equity and the Portland real estate market rose 4% last year while the national average declined by the same amount.
I don’t have a recession proof job, but the great part about real estate appraisal is that properties have to be appraised when they change hands and that’s the same if it’s a purchase in a rising market or a distress/foreclosure sale in a dumping one, as well as refinancing to take advantage of lowered rates.
I have almost no debt (small home equity line of credit balance,) I have older cars I keep in good shape–one gets pretty good mileage and the other is alternative fueled and the price per gallon is generally significantly lower than gasoline.
I guess I’ll manage! I can farm my yard more intensively and now that the county has ruled that pygmy goats are pets I can keep some of those along with rabbits for slaughter. It’s amazing how much of a difference stuff like that can make…
As long as I don’t get sick I’ll probably be okay…
“You don’t need a weather man / To know which way the wind blows.”
One thing I’ve noted for a while: for several years our government has been borrowing massively from China (in final effect) in order to facilitate American citizens’ purchases of more crap from China (since massive deficit spending financed by foreign borrowers won’t raise interest rates at home). And American manufacturing increasingly moves to China to take advantage of cheap labor there and (for now) an artificially favorable exchange rate. More Americans end up in burger-flipping jobs, have no savings, and depend increasingly on their credit cards to buy Chinese manufactured crap.
I think my grandmother would have figured that this could only end in tears.
Yep. It doesn’t have some much to do with times like these. Times change. Diversify.
Enjoy your life, but don’t forget about enjoying retirement. Fifty bucks a month now may seem like a lot, but you will be glad you did it.