This Friday’s speaker was a “no Show”, so our fellow Rotarians took on the assignment of an “off the cuff” analysis of the State of the Economy. Moderated by Bob Hoffman, other club financial gurus, Bob Novel, Ralph Orr, Bill Gleason, and Gerard Tamporang gave extemporaneous analyses of the current state of affairs in our country.
Bob Hoffman led off by saying that the last week has shown the stock market has been really volatile with up and down moves and no real economic news, other than extending the debt in the United States. For those in the market, or coming in to invest, the recommendation is to pick your spots. He doesn’t think the Recession will get any worse.x
Bob Novell echoed Bob Hoffman’s comments regarding the stock market, there is a lot of activity taking place, which requires a lot of patience. He opined that there a lot of problems in Washington D. C. creating investment problems. It’s not so much the enormity of the debt, but spending by federal and state governments, which are outpacing the revenues. It is unsustainable in his opinion. Too much of revenues are committed to servicing the cost of government, which he characterized as a dysfunctional system. Jobs are needed, because we have low growth and high unemployment.
Ralph Orr talked about “Risk Tolerance”. There bank problems both nationally and internationally. Home prices have been suppressed and won’t recover for at least seven years. Low interest rates aren’t helping the economy to recover.
Bill Gleason characterized our situation as one of instability. Entitlements and high wages are creating problems for the recovery, so the aura of instability is impacting growth. He believes turmoil in the stock market is caused by a traders who are moving stocks quickly. Entitlements have to be resolved before there can be sustained growth.
Gerard Tamparong stated that it is not just the U.S. economy by the world wide economy which are now factors for consideration by business and industry. The major stumbling block to growth is uncertainty in the economy, nobody knows what to expect, which is causing delays in hiring.