Is traffic back to pre-recession levels?

[MichiganDriver]

Is traffic just about back to normal or is it just my imagination? I've noticed it increasing the last 6 months or so and ever since the weather started warming up it feels pretty heavy to me. Today I drove from DC into NJ and across I80. Pretty heavy traffic all the way, especially truck traffic on I95.

I'm thinking it might be safe for you guys to go out and spend some money. Take the wife out, buy a new grill, update your kitchen. Spread some cheese around and keep this recovery going.

[GMAN]

I would not go out and spend too much. I see signs of things slowing a bit. People are beginning to plan trips and watch where they spend their money. I am not saying that you should not spend money, but I would not be too frivolous. I would save as much back as possible. I think we will see another major slow down. There is no good reason for fuel to be so high. Supplies are plentiful. There are some concerns about the dollar and that is causing the dollar to be worth less which drives prices up for the products we import. There is a lot of truck traffic. We expect to see things improve this time of year. Spring is a time for construction to start up again. That should help trucking. As a foot note, I have a number of people calling with good rates for us to haul their freight. That is encouraging. My caution is due to the high fuel costs. While it helps trucking for a while, when it gets too high people stop spending and the economy stalls. I would not encourage anyone to go into any heavy debt at this time.

[Mr. Ford95]

The traffic your seeing is people heading for the beaches now that the weather is warming up. Truck traffic is still way down compared to what it was in say 2005 between Richmond and DC. I know around here that you see few construction vehicles running around still. We are no where close to pre-recession traffic, pre-recession it took me 40+ minutes to go the 21 miles home, now it takes me 25-30 minutes.

[ronjon619]

spring break......around so cal the I-5 is jammed with college kids coming and going.

[MichiganDriver]

Thx for the feedback. That's a big difference MrFord! I guess we've got a ways to go in this recovery. They say home sales are picking up but it's mainly investors snatching up good deals at good interest rates.

I would not go out and spend too much. I see signs of things slowing a bit.

Shhhh. <sticks a finger in each ear> It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! It's not 1937! Please for once let us learn from history and not repeat it.

[Mr. Ford95]

I really wish things were back to the pre-recession times. Your right on the home sales, investors are snatching them up at bargain's. They will probably sit on them and/or turn them into rental's. There is a growing market for rental homes in this economy. What you need to watch for is NEW home sales if your going to watch home sales. When that starts rolling along then you know we are doing good again. The bad news, we could become like the UK has become. Young people are turning to rental's instead of outright buying or building. They simply can't afford it with the interest rates and all the hoops the banks over there are making them jump through. To them home ownership has become a status/class symbol. We could easily end up that way also with the growing market on rental's and the banks tightening up their lending. If that happens then new home sales will never return.

[MichiganDriver]

I really wish things were back to the pre-recession times. Your right on the home sales, investors are snatching them up at bargain's. They will probably sit on them and/or turn them into rental's. There is a growing market for rental homes in this economy. What you need to watch for is NEW home sales if your going to watch home sales. When that starts rolling along then you know we are doing good again. The bad news, we could become like the UK has become. Young people are turning to rental's instead of outright buying or building. They simply can't afford it with the interest rates and all the hoops the banks over there are making them jump through. To them home ownership has become a status/class symbol. We could easily end up that way also with the growing market on rental's and the banks tightening up their lending. If that happens then new home sales will never return.

Yeah it's too bad everything has to be a knee jerk reaction. The economy tanks and housing is to blame so they make it hard to buy houses. We all know the rules have to be tightened up but it's too bad we couldn't move in that direction slowly and not strain the economy so much. Maybe require 5% down now and increase it by 1% per year until it reaches 20% in 2026.

There's a new poll out showing pessimism at it's biggest level in 2 years. I guess people are wondering when the recovery is going to start creating jobs.

The thing that's bugging me at the moment is what happened in 1937. They started worrying about the deficits they were running up, cut back, and bammo we were right back in the depression. I hate deficits, no matter if a Republican or a Democrat is in the White House, but we need to get this economy running on all cylinders before we start cutting back on spending. We've got dueling deficit cutting programs, and noone is talking about rebuilding our infrastructure... Oh yeah, we govern by knee jerk, we'll worry about infrastructure the next time a bridge collapses.

[GMAN]

I think that we must be concerned about our deficit. The government cannot spend us out of a recession. We need private enterprise to do that. The more government spends the deeper the deficit which requires more tax revenue. That is counter productive.

[MichiganDriver]

I think that we must be concerned about our deficit. The government cannot spend us out of a recession. We need private enterprise to do that. The more government spends the deeper the deficit which requires more tax revenue. That is counter productive.

We need to continue doing what Ronald Reagan did in the early 1980s to combat that recession. Oh yeah, I said that to you once before and you responded with something about how it's different now because Obama is a socialist. lol Perhaps I'm mistaken, but isn't it one of the more basic tenets of Economics that the government should try to fill the void left when consumers slow down their spending?

The mistake of 1937 is that they thought the depression was over and it wasn't.

[GMAN]

We need to continue doing what Ronald Reagan did in the early 1980s to combat that recession. Oh yeah, I said that to you once before and you responded with something about how it's different now because Obama is a socialist. lol Perhaps I'm mistaken, but isn't it one of the more basic tenets of Economics that the government should try to fill the void left when consumers slow down their spending?

The government is not the answer to solving our economic problems. Government can impact economic growth by changing or implementing policies which would encourage consumer confidence and spending. Government should not be the providers of new jobs. More government jobs means that taxes must go up to support the growing government. That reduces the expendable income which also reduces the funds that consumers have to buy products and services which spur our economy. When the government puts money into the economy through artificial job creation, it is a short term fix which all of us will pay for in the coming years. Obama has demonstrated through his statements and policies that he believes that government is the answer. It also proves that he is a Socialist. When government takes over private industry that government becomes a socialist nation. It doesn't work. Government can introduce policies which can help with economic recovery, such as lower taxes or incentives to provide more jobs. Bush did that when he introduced legislation which allowed companies to deduct up to 100% of capital expenditures up to $250,000. That encouraged many businesses to buy equipment to reduce their tax liability. It helped manufacturers of equipment such as trucks and trailers. I know a couple of people who purchased additional equipment to take advantage of the advanced depreciation.


The mistake of 1937 is that they thought the depression was over and it wasn't.

Like what is going on today? Government attempted to spend us out of that depression and it didn't work then any more than it has today. It took a world war to turn the economy around.