cdmiller2032's Blog

During the 1992 presidental campaign, President Bill Clinton said, "It's the economy stupid". Well the economy is in trouble and you have had to have been living under a rock not to have seen it. I'm not an economist, but common sense will tell you when prices go up dramatically and the value of currency goes down there's a problem. Now we've seen this before 79 years ago during 1929 right before the great depression. Not all of the same key factors, but the key indicators are there.
I am a licensed real estate agent and a certified real estate broker who majored in political science in college. The general rule in economics is that a recession is: a period of reduced economic activity (Websters Online Dictionary) or an economic recession : Two consecutive quarters of declining GDP.
The government is now saying that the economy has a strong possibility of recession. However, the real estate industry has been in a recession since late 2006, early 2007. Just ask any real estate agent who is not selling like they have been or look at the news and the record number of foreclosures. The real estste industry is one of the only industries that can cause multiple economic sectors to start receeding when it receeds for a long period because it is not infinate. When the real estate industry begins to slow, there is a serious problem.

Now that's an economy in trouble, now here's something terrible on the horizon.

I've done some research on the causes of the great depression and the findings of that research is not just interesting but something to fear. This same research can be found: http://www.gusmorino.com/pag3/greatdepression/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_Great_Depression.
I am not saying that there will be another depression, but some leading economist are saying that there is a 20% chance of a depression (Glenn Beck 4/10/2008). Also, some well known investors such as Robert Kiyosaki have even projected a depression. The key to stimulating a weak economy is not to give people a check, but to CREATE JOBS! When money becomes an issue, any person that shouldn't be leading a country can easily win an election (i.e. Hitler and Mussolini).
President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to stimulate the economy in the 1930s with the creation of such programs as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), but it was too slow to rebuild our economy. The only way to quickly rebuild an economy during a depression (as proven by history) is a war.
Now, with that said, I believe that if our economy enters into a depression it will effect the world economy. I also believe that with every factor in play and when you look at the facts of both past and current economic history, that a globalized economy has been attempted before. Now, that we've attempted this again, I hope that we learn from this mistake and not try it again. History can be a great teacher if you pay attention and a bad omen if you ignore it.

Property Taxes: As a real estate professional, I'm on the front line in the battle over property taxes. While this tax does fund various services we take for granted from law enforcement to your local school districts, I believe that this tax which has since the first re-assessment has caused a lot of middle class home-owners and even commercial and residental rental property owners extreme distress should be completely overhauled. I really don't believe that sending our citizens a lump sum bill every six months for the previous year is a productive way of conducting business. Those who can afford to move to a different state are doing so and this is also keeping new businesses from relocating to our state and current residing businesses from growing. To recover the money to pay for the services, we can readjust where money from other state revenue sources goes to compensate. A recent survey showed that people would rather pay a higher sales tax than their property taxes.