Future state of Trucking overall

I recall the big bust in the early 80's and again in the early 70's (I was too young to comprehend, but hindsight memories of the people and their talk reminded me of difficult times. Houses mortgaged at 19% cars bought on 15 to 20% interest and there is that Arab Embargo that hurt us. And so on. There was a brief time you could not find a hershey bar because they got smaller for the same price a nickel in those days. They finally got back to normal size at about .30 if I remember right. The Gold Window or standard was axed between 1969 to roughly 1974 for certain.

I actually recall a day where dispatch told me aint hauling paper today, there was a problem in the markets and no one wanted to buy truckloads of paper for a while. We worked around that thankfully. But it was a bite during the early 90's

We do not wallow in the mud of things being bad or run up on things being good. It will be what will be. However if you are in good times you put something aside against the bad day or bad time. If there is a future at all.

The reason I am not being precise is because I was taken to the hospital with a bad flareup of arthritis which required a special injection of pain medicine and another to fight inflammation. I will be seeing a doctor this week who with imaging decide if it is either cancer of the bone itself or a candidate for a joint replacement. I already understand which way I am going either way. It does not bother me any. There is a pretty good chance that the USA will have some difficulty going into 2019 and 2021 etc. Will that be enough to break us as a Nation? I don't know. I might not be around to find out. So... my thinking is this:

What will be will be. No use getting all stressed about it.

 

100% correct.

Pumping and dumping, and fear mongering is their job. It’s simple market manipulation that has a ripple effect around the world.

 

Exactly. I know people who bought new homes in that economy. And paid for them.

Today, people are completely freaking out at the idea of 5% home loans lolol

They never consider that prices always reflect the interest rate. Low interest, charge more. High interest, charge less.

It’s all self correcting eventually. But we live in a time of instant gratification.

 

When else has the USA had the debt level it has today? With rates at basicly 0% for so long and now they're inching them up to avoid too much inflation. That will slow the economy and the business cycle can't continue improving forever. So when times get slower now what. Put rate back to 0%? Who will buy treasuries for 0%? Or do you just print a few trillion more dollars? Which will devalue the currency. Which would make having 0 debt and a bunch of cash in the bank meaningless because your cash will buy half of what it used to buy in a short amount of time.
There is no way to really tell which way it will play out. But the way I see it.... we are in uncharted territory.

The issue with declining home sale prices is most people's biggest asset is their home. If they paid 300k for it and got it paid down to 200k owing on it and the market now says your house would only sell for 200k you just lost 100k.

If the currency does collapse what do you think people will be trading? Bitcoin? Lol

 

It's how they make the big money they do, until they end up broke, looking at jail time and go jump off a roof.

 

It’s impossible to lose money on a home, on the backend. Unless you live in Chicago.

A house is an investment tool.

A home as an investment in your future ability to have a place to live without fail. Unless you live in Chicago

 

Second half of 2019 through 2020 will be bad. By Feb 2021 it’ll be upswing again. Just my opinion.

 

I agree it costs money to live no matter how you cut it. You can pay rent or pay a mortgage.

What you're saying, basicly, is that a house value will always increase. That is not necessarily always the case. Remember what happened in 2008? Why can't that happen again? If you work all your life to pay off your mortgage and when either you sell it or your kids sell it the value has gone down / not outpaced inflation...then it was a poor "investment." But it did provide somewhere to live. 2 separate arguments.

 

What? You don't think you can lose money on a house, explain to me what 08 was exactly, they don't usually foreclose on a house that's increasing in value, even if you miss a payment or two.