The Doc has been away for a while and unfortunately things have not gotten better for the global economy since early this summer.

In case you may be listening to those that see a bottom to the mess presiding in the US economy think again…because the Doc is back.  Without going into much detail on any of the factors to be concerned about, we’ll just let you know that things will probably get much worse before they get better.

Significant problems to consider involve a real estate market that probably hasn’t near bottomed given increased inventory on the market, rapid increase in foreclosures and a continuing trend in this area, tight and very restrictive lending conditions (which should have been in place six years ago), rising unemployment, significant and continued increase in inflation, increased tensions on the global political front, massive national debt, a slowing global economy, the US auto industry in dire straits….that’s it for now.

The bottom line is that uncertainty remains at incredibly high levels given the continued unknown exposure of many large organizations and even industries to the current financial crisis in the credit markets, the fall out of which is difficult to measure.   Was the bail out of Bear Sterns the last?? Obviously not given the updates on the bail out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  By the way, the short term of this could be interpreted as a positive as it may plug a problematic hole but the long term scenario of this bail out is simply bad…very bad.

So the Doc is getting warmed up again and will continue to balance out all the nonsense that you may have been fed recently with a dose of reality.  Hey….haven’t heard the term Goldi-Locks economy anymore !!