I follow commerce, industry, technology developments, economic trends, and social changes. I tend to compare our times against 1929-to-1941, and 2008.
Banking-wise, lot of bank hold loans for office space....that can't be rented or sold for past value (meaning you bought a mall structure for $20-million in 2005 and it's value to sell today is $2-million). A lot of this in California? There's reporting to indicate a fair sum is there....but it's in Portland, Seattle, NYC, Philly, Denver and non-southern regions.
Kids (ages 18 to 30)....happy to be unemployed and living in the parent's house? Yeah, that's an odd trend.
Folks approaching 65 and shaking with rage over the pension deal? Probably a all-time high number.
Kids wrapping up college....with a worthless degree and owing $100k on college loan debt?
Cars/trucks unaffordable to buy? Home-buying trend downward? Condo's being worthless to sell?
If I started to list all of the issues/problem.....it'd go past 100, and nothing fits 2008 or the depression-era.
Hobo-2026-era You can list out how things were in the 1930s, and oddly....we fit to the image in various ways.
Were we already in 2008 heading down this path? I'm inclined to say that the past 20 years were in someway a 'path' leading to the current mess.
2028 and after the Trump era? That's one of forty-odd questions that I would start to ask, and wonder about stability and economical trends. If you were offering Democratic candidates like Newsom or AOC....I'd shake my head and suggest that they were Huey Long-like candidates (1936) and not helpful for what has to be done.
Personal bankruptcy flow? 2026 is a problem to discuss. Business type bankruptcy flow....600k at this point, and likely to hit 1-million by 1 January 2027.
Adding AI to future job losses? Just another spiral waiting to occur.
There is some end-point....but it won't be in 2026 or 2027.
