And now for something completely different ...

That's the scary part. ^^^
QE only works because the US holds all the cards. The dollar will continue to be the global currency because we consume like crazy. We have the most and we spend the most, and so far, we lead the world in GDP.
I don't see it changing, but the thought is scary as hell, and does a great job tricking people into buying gold.

 

To the OP's point; I keep hearing about the "recovery" as though there's this massive resurgence in our economy. Where is that true outside of Wall Street?

I see companies continuing to sit on cash, factories continuing to close, people continuing to be laid off, etc.
I don't need the news to tell my how strong the recovery is. I drive through the business district where my company is located and see about half the buildings vacant, with "for lease" signs covering the former occupants' logos. I talk to small business owners daily who are terrified. My business is growing thanks to the talented people who work here and a lot of sheer will, but I'm getting no help from the "recovery".

It seems like the only people doing better than they were a few years ago are working on projects funded by stimulus. How long can that last?

Forget what numbers Wall Street makes up, look around. We have a lot of work to do.

 

Exactly. We currently have no new orders for capital equipment. None. Just had a layoff a couple months ago, and really am expecting another before the end of the year. ...and bookings for parts & rebuilds are currently sitting at just under half what they should be for November's budget. I think we'll be lucky to get to 2/3 budget for the rest of the year.

 

Things went eerily quiet after the first announcement of possible taper in May.

I speak with a lot of diff companies that we do business and everyone says the same. Things are slow and they can't figure out why. Companies that used to pay us promptly are now paying 60 and 90 days. Projects in planning are postponed indefinitively. Customers looking for new machines are instead talking of preventitive maintenance programs to expand life of old machines. These are exact same patterns and things I saw after 2008.
This is the food industry we are talking about. Probably one of the most stable industries.

Summertime. Usually a very busy time for us was dead. Like, did we piss someone off that's blocking our phone lines type dead.

Anyways if talks of possible taper a year from announcement does that, it shows exactly how badly that QE is necessary to keep the zombie economy going.

It makes no sense what the stocks are doing currently despite all the negative things that have happened unless there is foul play being done behind doors. Gov shutdown and it does nothing to the stock market? Puhlease.

 

Bingo:up:

 

It's different everywhere, We are slowing capital expenditures beyond the currently active projects but those active ones are nearly 50 million dollar projects.

I don't know how Skanska is doing worldwide but we'll be keeping them, Harper Limbach and Borrell busy through all of 2015