when will the "Goodtimes" return

johnnyjb

Without too much detail what do people see happening in the coming years regarding the economy and jobs.

Will we ever have as much money to spend?
Will we get our jobs back and will we do the same stupid greedy things next time around

Time Magazine

Depends on what you consider "good times". I think we live in good times. I'm a pretty normal person but my life is comfortable than 99% of anyone's ever born.

In five or ten years (assuming there isn't some massive event, like a volcano erupting or North Korea deciding to nuke someone for the hell of it) we will be richer than we've ever been before. Yes, employment will return. Yes, we'll do stupidly greedy acts and cause a recession again.

Hasschu

There was an interview with a young Irish lawyer on Canadian National Radio yesterday. He came to Toronto in November and has found a number of short term jobs in his field since then. The interesting part was he is staying in a youth hostel with approx 200 beds and 1/3 of the clientele are young Irish people recently arrived and looking for work. He is the son of an Irish couple who worked in Canada from mid seventies to mid nineties and then went back to feed the tiger. The children have dual citizenship. He also mentioned that many are here on visas and are applying to other countries in advance of ther visa expiry dates. The economies outside Ireland will recover first and will suck the most talented and educated young people out of the country. Ireland has had an asset bubble collapse which will go on for some time until values reach those of the late nineties in real terms (infl. adjusted). Jobs will come creeping back gingerly within a year, the gov`t is on the sidelines for a decade at least, becoming more constrained by debt as each month goes by. We are not likely to see 4% unemployment in the next twenty years, 8 to 9% will be the new normal. Immigration is the safety valve that has worked since 1845 and it will work again and again long into the future. Make sure that the youngsters study a foreign language so that they will not need to get visas to emigrate.

Flamed Diving

Time Magazine wrote: »

Depends on what you consider "good times". I think we live in good times. I'm a pretty normal person but my life is comfortable than 99% of anyone's ever born.

In five or ten years (assuming there isn't some massive event, like a volcano erupting or North Korea deciding to nuke someone for the hell of it) we will be richer than we've ever been before. Yes, employment will return. Yes, we'll do stupidly greedy acts and cause a recession again.

This is exactly right. People get very short-sighted, despite knowing full well that the largest known famine in human history (relative terms) happened in this country, just a century and a half ago. Now people complain about not being able to buy the new Audi A3 because their €198 per week welfare allowance can't afford it for them currently. That said, this is surely a sign of how far we have come. Anyway, like you said, in time, unemployment will fall, wealth will rise and the cycle will happen again. Hopefully we will figure out why someday.