We are in a Recession??? really??
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) we have been in a recession for a year now.
Gee, no shit? What was the first clue? From the NYT link:
The evidence of a downturn has been widespread for months: slower production, stagnant wages and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs. But the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research, charged with making the call for the history books, waited until now to weigh in.
In a statement released Monday, the members of the group’s Business Cycle Dating Committee - made up of seven prominent economists, most from the academic sector - said that the economy entered a recession in December 2007.
“A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators,” the members said in a statement. “A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough.”
The committee noted that the contraction in the labor market began in the first month of 2008 and said that the declines in most major indicators, like personal income, manufacturing activity, retail sales, and industrial production, “met the standard for a recession.”
I think many American’s could of told them we were in a recession a year ago. Especially folks on fixed incomes, or those that were laid off in the construction sector or a host of other American’s that were and still are struggling to make ends meet.
Thanks for the new’s gents and stating the obvious.
Sphere: Related ContentReflections On the Recession
October 21, 2008 by Gee Carol · 3 Comments
Yes, the United States is in a recession. During the current economic crisis, stock traders have been running scared as they see reports that signify a slowing economy, according to this great photo essay in Time Magazine. The super-rich are having to learn new ways to survive these days#. And the national debt clock ran out of room# to post the growing numbers “in the red,” according to the Washington Post. There is just no getting around the reality. We all experience it in one way or another in our own lives.
The Bush administration, however, has been reluctant to use the “R” word, for obvious reasons. Other recessions, particularly this one in 1958#, can give us poignant and evocative clues in black and white about what real recession looks like:
Photos: The Recession of 1958
Fifty years ago, after 13 years of post-war growth, the U.S. economy hit its first economic downturn since the Depression. In April, 1958, Life Magazine dispatched a team of writers and photographers to cover the story. Here is what they learned.
Fiscal problems in the United States, and around the world, are intertwined. Recession, national debt, and deficit spending are all part of the money mosaic. Lets look at the next part. “US stares at a $1 trillion deficit#. How bad is that?” (From Yahoo! News - 10/16/08). Deficit spending has become our way of life. But everyone must operate by “guestimate” about whether the deficit will be more or less. Another unknown is the cost of the financial rescue bill, and how it will be handled in the budget’s budget accounting. Congress already has plans to increase spending. And the imposing size of the deficit will inevitable influence the new president’s priorities as he takes office. Meanwhile everyone is buying up treasury notes as fast as they can be printed. To quote from the article:
US government’s extraordinary effort to rescue the banking system may have pulled America’s economy back from the brink, but it comes at a cost - helping to push an already bloated deficit up to an estimated $1 trillion for this fiscal year.
That would be a record in today’s dollars - and would represent the highest level of federal red ink as a share of the overall economy of any US budget since the 1940s. For each household, this year’s deficit would pile on an extra $8,620 of federal debt.
As a result, future presidents may have to rein in spending and raise taxes to pay down that debt. If they don’t, foreign lenders at some point could scale back their purchases of US debt, sending interest rates soaring.
. . . If the deficit does reach $1 trillion this year, it would represent 7.5 percent of the gross domestic product, the highest percentage since World War II when it skyrocketed to 30 percent of GDP.
Fiscal Wake-Up — The above article, rightly, focused on long-time “voice in the wilderness,” former Comptroller, David Walker:
. . . head of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and former US comptroller general . . . part of an effort called the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour, which is traveling around the nation meeting with editorial boards and holding town-hall gatherings to explain the budget situation. . . .
Walker’s focus is not just the national debt, which will grow to more than $10 trillion this year. Instead, he is looking at the national debt plus all the unfunded promises such as Social Security and Medicare, which have no future tax revenues to cover them. “At the end of the last fiscal year, that came to $53 trillion or about $550,000 per household,” he says. “We may well have passed the point where the federal government’s total financial hole exceeds the net worth of all Americans.”
Walker estimates the US has about five years to show fiscal responsibility: “We will have to send a strong signal we can get our house in order.”
“There is a silver lining,#” says another “voice in the wilderness,” the fine author Fareed Zakaria, talks about “a more disciplined America.” In Newsweek’s great cover story from the week before last, he says: “The crisis has forced the United States to confront bad habits developed over the past few decades. If we can kick those habits, today’s pain will translate into gains.”
More images reflecting recession – This same magazine issue has another fabulous photo essay called, “Hard Times#.” Starting with “tulip mania” in 1637, exactly 300 years before I was born, 18 images narrate the history of a variety of economic downturns.
Today a silver lining? – Today’s news (Yahoo!’s), however, may be the start of seeing the silver lining. Ben Bernanke hinted at a rate cut and Wall Street surged. Also the leading indicators reportedly rose in September. So, for today at least, things may be looking up just a bit. It will take many more days and months, perhaps years, to know that we are no longer in a recession.
Hat Tip Key: Links from regular contributor, Jon (#).
(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)
My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.
Technorati tags: news economy wall street recession
Sphere: Related ContentPhil Gramm: A Nation of Whiners.
July 10, 2008 by Dusty · Leave a Comment
That Phil Gramm is a bag of batshit is obvious. To that end, when he states we are a nation of whiners and its only a “mental recession”, what the fuck would he know about stressing out over the cost of gas or the rising food prices m’dear reader? Not.A.Damn.Thing. Phil brought us the Enron Loophole folks..His direct quote:
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline.”
Phil the fuckwit Gramm is part of the problem and to actually be so stupid as to wax poetic about how the majority of American’s aren’t ‘really’ suffering, that it’s all in their ‘head’ shouldn’t suprise anyone. The man represents the top one or two percent of Americans. Gramm is the author of many of the bills which have deregulated the banking, finance and energy industries.
Weathervane McCain got himself a genuine ‘elitest’ in Philly Gramm. I hope he chokes on what that batshit crazy bastard said. Of course Johnny disavowed Gramm’s comments thusly:
“I don’t agree with Sen. Gramm,” he said. “I believe the person in Michigan that just lost his job isn’t suffering from a mental recession. I believe the mother … who is trying to get enough money to educate her children, isn’t whining. America is in great difficulty.
“Phil Gramm does not speak for me,” McCain said. “I speak for me. I strongly disagree.”
The hell he doesn’t Johnny. He is your economic advisor dude. Gramm also stands by his remarks per WaPo. In Gramm’s world no one is suffering and stressing the fuck out..unless of course its about Wall St and the Dow taking a shit..that would be suffering wouldn’t it?
If that was all I had to worry about..I would be doing it in Monaco, whilst laying on the beach.
Fuck Phil Gramm..hard..and with the wrong end of a pitchfork.
Sphere: Related ContentRevolutionary Consciousness
April 1, 2008 by Jet · 2 Comments
We like to demonize revolutionary consciousness as some sort of Marxist nation building concept. The idea of conscious choice to revolution, framed by communist concepts, must be bad, since everybody learned at the knee that commies were unsavory.
Of course, the epitome of revolutionary consciousness was Jesus Christ. Now, there’s a guy who stirred a nation (actually nation after nation) to action. He woke up minds, got people asking questions, shook up the status quo. He did this not by force, but by personality. Very, very scary concept to those who despise inspection and crave hierarchy.
Probably why there was such a concerted effort to build a religious hierarchal structure of biblical proportions. These damned revolutionaries, messing up a good thing.
Same wool, different eyes.
This country is coming up on something huge, and I don’t think we’re talking about it in any meaningful fashion. I’m talking about food, being hungry, and desperation. We’re far enough removed from the Great Depression that we can somehow romanticize men leaving families they can’t support to ride on trains and watch their dignity roll away from them like so much track. There is some level of lewd satisfaction in women trading sex for food, for other women to be held up as worthy for feeding hobo’s from their farm kitchens. We create pictures to sum up an era we didn’t experience.
We have no personal benchmark for the pinch of an underfed belly.
Sphere: Related Contentno joy in mudville
March 18, 2008 by Betmo · 2 Comments
i am not even really sure what to write about these days. oh- don’t get me wrong- when i say that, i inevitably end up writing 3,000 words anyway 
my mind is in a bit of turmoil and i don’t know that it’s quite spring fever because it isn’t a happy sort of feeling. i am disappointed that the democratic party has chosen to continue playing politics as usual within the corporatocracy because i honestly thought we had a shot at beginning to change things. but no. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised when the democratic party is made up of ‘crossovers’ from camp clinton and the blue dogs like lieberman. so- i am truly going to change my affiliation to independent. i have no desire to be affiliated with the democratic party any longer. in fact, i fully intend to send in my membership renewal (sans cash of course) with a nice letter explaining to howard dean, et al, where exactly they can shove that renewal and why. and so it goes. i feel very andy rooneyish today. i am also bitterly disappointed that we, the people, haven’t fought harder to save our constitution. we, the people, collectively decided to roll over and play dead while the pnacers took over our country. they effectively control everything and no one will make any kinds of moves to stop them. in the news recently:
fbi wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoos…
the government reads your mail- oh, and your emails and browser searches, and blog sites, and listens to your phone calls….
police taser use on rise- death toll mounts
americans can be detained indefinitely and tortured- cause bush says so
Sphere: Related ContentThe Buck sucks..
March 14, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
Lots o’ economic news this week..Bear Stearns, an investment/banking firm that made some stupid decisions is getting a bailout. The Buck has dropped to it’s lowest value against other currency in the history of our nation. The Carlyle Groups investment division, Carlyle Capital is sucking pond scum as well. What ever happened to that investment cry of Diversify Young Man!!!
Why in the blue hell should it our job to bail out idiots that made bad investments? These funds and equity groups dig their own graves by playing fast and loose with the hope to make lots of money quickly.
Yet, our Idiot-in-Chief still thinks his retarded ’stimulus package’ will get Americans to spend and spend and invest and invest.
Sphere: Related ContentOil is up, the Dollar is down..
March 4, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
Now I get it..the price of oil is tied to the value of our Dollar. So with the Buck hitting an all time low, everyone is investing in Oil? From the IHT writeup:
The immediate catalyst for the spike in energy prices is the drop in the value of the dollar. Currency traders are selling dollars and buying euros to take advantage of the difference in interest rates between the United States and Europe.
The dollar weakened, continuing its steep decline of last week, and the euro rose to a record $1.5274 in early New York trading. The dollar also fell to its lowest level in three years versus the yen.
“The question for oil is where is the dollar going,” said Roger Diwan, a managing director at PFC Energy, a consulting firm in Washington. “That’s going to the main market mover in the short term.”
The question really is..when does it all come screeching down around our heads?
Sphere: Related ContentThe Bad News Bears meet Chicken Little..
March 1, 2008 by Dusty · 5 Comments
The sky is falling..the sky is falling! Wall Street took a 300 point dump yesterday because that bastion of all things “sexy” Victoria’s Secret announced it took a huge hit during the holidays. Ok..I kid..but they come up short..very short by Wall Street standards. Eight percent IS a huge hit when you consider it was during the biggest buying season of the year.
Oh-fucking-well, the reality is that everything is dropping like the proverbial rock..even those considered safe. From the NYT article linked above:
Prices of municipal bonds, bank loans and high-yield debt all fell as well.
The markets for ultrasafe debt backed by the federal government and other nations were alone in posting gains. Some commodities, including gold, were also up.*snip*
Wall Street’s attention was soon riveted by a report from analysts at UBS that estimated losses to the financial system from securities backed by mortgages and other debts would total $600 billion. Until recently, many analysts had been forecasting losses in the neighborhood of $400 billion - a figure that the dwindling band of optimists in the financial markets once dismissed as vastly overblown.
Who in the hell can afford to buy high-priced sexy undies and bras when the price of gas is slated to hit four bucks a gallon soon? So now..the gents on Wall Street are beginning to pay attention, even if The Shrub yesterday had the nads to say we aren’t in a recession and its just a little burp..
More like a huge fart with a case of ..well you know..the Tijuana two-step.
Crossposted at Leftwing Nutjob
Sphere: Related ContentSilicon valley sees middle class disappearing..
February 19, 2008 by Dusty · Leave a Comment
The rate is alarming..and its should scare the bejesus out of everyone. From the NYT writeup:
The report found that from 2002 to 2006, middle-wage jobs fell to 46 percent of the work force, from 52 percent.
At the same time, while the percentage of higher-end jobs rose slightly — to 27 percent from 26 — lower-wage jobs expanded to 27 percent, from 22 percent of the work force. In all, more than 50,000 middle-income jobs have disappeared over the four years measured by the study.
The vanishing jobs — defined as those paying $30,000 to $80,000 — represent workers who had been in the lower part of the white-collar pyramid, including secretaries, clerks and customer support representatives. The picture was blurred, however, by growth in some blue-collar, middle-income professions like electricians and plumbers, and several white-collar areas like computer support technicians.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if the middle disappears, you can not support the top. If my dumb ass can figure that out..why in the blue hell can’t the financial wizards see it?
Sphere: Related ContentHow the MSM spins the truth about the economy..
February 8, 2008 by Dusty · 2 Comments
TomPaine.com, which is now known as OurFuture.org, is a great site that should be in everyone’s favorites..or blogroll. I get their daily newsletter that has articles and OpEds by some of the most intelligent and informed folks there are, that happen to be left of the center or just fond of the truth. Today’s piece will give you a taste of how bad the economy is..and how the MSM will not even come close to telling you the truth. Ready? Here we go:
Sphere: Related ContentRead this AP story on productivity growth and labor costs, then read the note below (written Wednesday) about the same Bureau of Labor Statistics report on employment, wages, output and productivity. This is a very clear example of how the media spin the news every day to hide economic troubles and mislead those who believe they are following economic conditions. All the major media spun this story in almost exactly in the same way as the AP.
The key finding in that report is that the total number of hours worked (and paid) in non-farm businesses during the fourth quarter of 2007 fell at an annual rate of 1.5 percent. Indeed, the total number of hours worked in the fourth quarter was less than in the fourth quarter of 2006. The report shows total non-farm jobs also falling at a 0.5 percent annualized rate in Q4 and rising by only 0.4 percent year over year.
Nothing Pays Like Failure
January 26, 2008 by Jolly Roger · 7 Comments
I guess none of us should be surprised, really.
At the top of the Federal Government are two miserable failures. Chimpy ran 3 businesses into the ground, traded Sammy Sosa when he ran the Texas Rangers, and as President has yet to do anything that could be pointed to as a positive accomplishment. Chimpletons may tell their fairy tales, and Chimpletons may believe their fairy tales, but all of the lies the wingtards tell the world-and themselves-won’t change one truth.
Chimpy’s VP, the trigger-happy alcoholic “Shooter” Cheney, is the guy who saddled Halliburton with a lifetime of asbestos liabilities. He’s been trying to undo that mistake since he got installed in Washington, but it doesn’t appear that he’ll ever see legislation passed that would fix what he screwed up.
In America we’ve always been told that the way to prosperity is to always do the right thing. Work hard, study hard, be honest, and good things will happen to you. Right?
Oh HELL no, that’s not right. Honesty, diligence, and intelligence apparently don’t get you squat in today’s America. However, you can be the most completely dishonest moron the business world ever produced, and you’ll be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams. The time-honored “do the right thing” fable of American prosperity has been turned completely on its head. Clearly in these times, if you want to get anywhere in the world you must do the WRONG thing. Don’t worry about how many people you may hurt, or what you might destroy-just make that quick buck. And if you’re in an executive position in an American corporation, don’t worry about getting fired later for your screwups. The chances are excellent that the retards on your Board of Directors are probably as pathologically greedy and criminally-inclined as you are. They’ll watch your back, leaving you free to bend over your shareholders, customers, and country.
Sphere: Related ContentTraditional bullshit on ice…
January 26, 2008 by Angry Black Bitch · Leave a Comment
Angry Black Bitch tells us what is going down..and it’s not pretty, but its friggin real~Dusty
A bitch has been annoyed as hell over the use of language lately. When I hear certain words I just want to projectile vomit straight into the speaker’s mouth.
For example, change.
Saying change doesn’t equal making change and, even if it did, that wouldn’t guarantee that the change you intend to do will be positive. Every time I hear a politician say change I sit there waiting for someone in the audience to shout “Hey asshole, are you allergic to specifics or is your complete lack of them due to a moral objection to keeping it real?”
Shit, Scooter B. brought about change and this bitch will require years of therapy to recover from that shit.
Sphere: Related ContentBush outlines his plan to kick start the economy
January 19, 2008 by Dusty · 5 Comments
As I sat and listened to the Idiot-in-Chief Friday morning, I wondered if he actually believed what he said or just hopes to hell that we believe it.
He wants the tax cuts for the top one percent to be made permanent, but the ones he is outlining for the rest of America should only be a one-time deal.
Of course the following part really jacked my jaw: Folks at the bottom of the economic rung shouldn’t get squat..because that is considered welfare.
Fuck you Frat boy.
Here it is, what the Jackass-in-Chief wants and what lies and half-truths he spewed. Some lowlights:
The economic team reports that our economy has a solid foundation, but that there are areas of real concern. Our economy is still creating jobs, though at a reduced pace. Consumer spending is still growing, but the housing market is declining. Business investment and exports are still rising, but the cost of imported oil has increased.-Ok, the December report on how American’s spent their money showed it was in the toilet, the worst since 1991. The New York Times stated: Strong evidence is emerging that consumer spending, a bulwark against recession over the last year even as energy prices surged and the housing market sputtered, has begun to slow sharply at every level of the American economy, from the working class to the wealthy.
Sorry Bush, but your full of bat guano on that first point right out of the box. The way the government fixes it’s statistics on job growth have been crap for years. Too many variables that should be included in that statistic aren’t.
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