Before the bell: Stocks futures lower ahead of BSC, GS earnings, Bernanke testimony

The economic outlook for the US is bleak for several reasons which, if not altered soon, will lead us into recession. Outsourcing jobs is bad for the US work force but it is also an indicator of more serious problems. Since everything can be made cheaper offshore, we have become a consumer society instead of a producing society. Our economy is driven by the commerce of the public spending money. Last year, for every $19 that Americans earned, they spent $20! Now, with the housing market in the dumper, mortgages failing at record rates, companies downsizing, and jobs going offshore, consumer spending is slowing markedly. When the public mentality becomes largely one of no conficence and fear of loss, they will cut spending even further. When spending stops, the US economy will lose even more steam and flounder. We used to make things . . . And sell them to the world. A Senator, when asked recently what we make the most of now, in the US, replied, "Mistakes". We need serious changes in policy and we need them now! Without massive stimulation of the US economy, almost immediately, our lives will change and the terrorists will have achieved their primary objective, which has always been to destroy our economy and, consequently, our way of life. Think about it!

"We need serious changes in policy and we need them now!"

No, we need people to take personal responsiblity for their finances and spending habits. Nobody has a gun to anyone's head, forcing them to spend money they don't have. More policy isn't what we need.

The problem is that our economy thrives on spending. The truth is consumers have wised up to the spend/debt economy. We're just not going to buy the excess anymore. I've stopped already. The only spending I might do if I have the extra cash is to buy some gold at the coin shop and to buy some euros at my local bank to hedge against the devaluing dollar. I guess I was a slow learner, I always loved to buy the latest gadget or fad. But I'm learning an important lesson, I'm now spending on my future not someone else's get rich product.

With a "spending-based" economy, when the consumers stop spending, the economy fails. Merely curtailing spending isn't going to save us. Obviously, spending is slowing drastically, except in the halls of government, which will have the efect of killing the economy and fostering runaway inflation. In order for our economy to survive, real substance must be introduced, not just information exchange. We need a complete re-thinking and policy changes at corporate, as well as governmental and individual levels, in order to avoid recession and, further decline into a full-blown depression. The gross national product must actually contain viable, profitable product, in order to save and sustain a real economy. Think of the US economy as a business, in competition with all the other national economies of the world, in the global marketplace. We must capitalize on our productive resources and actually make money in legitimate commerce, with product that is real, useful, desired in the marketplace, and profitable. Otherwise, we will replicate the dotcom bust in the balance of our economy.

So, to those who say they just intend to stop spending and sock away some Euros, I say, "That won't do it. We must all work to contribute to the development of a substantive economy, replacing virtual growth and information, with real growth, stemming from substantive replacements for the elements of the economy that we are about to lose completely. This is the only way to avoid a total economic collapse."