U.S. Economy.

Score: 2.8

Headlines like the one for this: "Dow jumps more than 250 points after prior day's big drop" make me even more scared every day that the United States is headed into a huge recession, possibly even a Depression (yes with a capital D). Nobody knows what the economy is doing, quite obviously. The fact that the DOW hasn't fallen much more significantly than it has is evidence of only one thing in my mind: the true effects of the housing bubble, the war in Iraq, job losses, oil and other commodity prices, and any number of other smaller forces, have not yet been felt properly in the market. With Bush's massive tax cuts, America is in the best consumer position in its postwar history (in terms of imagined disposable income) yet the Fed and Whitehouse seem to think "economic stimulus" (ie. quicker tax refunds, lower taxes, etc.) will somehow create income in middle class households. It won't. Wages have simply not matched inflation, good-paying jobs have disappeared due to globalization, and the credit crunch may soon mean a prime rate nearing 0. All this to avoid a recession that was brought on by stupidity all around. The people who didn't predict the housing bubble and the GDP contraction that is on its way, are the same people that are causing huge fluctuations in the day-to-day stock markets. In other words, the people who have no idea what's going on, but are trying to predict it anyways. I have little faith.