recession now? yep

WASHINGTON - The economy fell into recession late last year, according to a panel of economists that is responsible for determining the dates of business cycles. Monday's declaration by the panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms what many private economists, lawmakers and members of the general public already have assumed and puts an official date on it: A U.S. recession began in December 2007. For those of you who were waiting for final confirmation; we have been in a recession since last December. Where are our contractor buddies to cheer us up and tell us how good THEY are going to do at the new gym? If we just had MORE Happy Talk, all this would disappear. Its obvious that Unhappy Talk about record rates of unemployment, forclosures, bankruptcies, and the like that have caused all this mess! Sure, it may be hard to find anything good to say when you have lost your job, home, life savings, and business but thats just because they arent trying! They are all just content to sit home and collect their unemployment checks!!! Lazy, shiftless bums...... all of them.. and probably all Democrats too... they just need PATIENCE!! as I am sure that some of the contractors wealth will trickle right down to them.... maybe... eventually ... perhaps.... soon..... any minute now....

recession now?

The standard medicine for a recession is more government spending on infrastructure (roads and bridges), an extension of unemployment benefits to prop up demand (and relieve suffering), grants to cities and states so they can keep spending and not add to the recession with their own set of cutbacks, and interest-rate cuts. Those fiscal moves are exactly the package of fixes that the Democrats in Congress have proposed for a second stimulus package. I think that kind of plan would indeed be good news for infrastructure companies and local governments, and could well reduce how far the economy will fall in this recession. However, the amount of money Congress is talking about -- and the amount in the first stimulus package (remember those checks that some of us got?) -- is small compared with the amount that the credit crunch has taken out of consumer buying power. Add to that the flip side of the wealth effect -- people spend less when their houses and stock portfolios are worth less -- and you can see why this recession is a lot more likely to look like the long recessions of 1973-75 and 1980-82 than the blink-and-they're-over recessions of 1990-91 and 2001. - Jim Jubak
Joseph Steiglitz is an economist who predicts that we are talking 2010 for a recovery, not 2009, as many are hoping. A bottom may be put in during 2009 but the economy wont start growing until 2010. Batten down the hatches. Tighten your belts everybody- everybody EXCEPT City government, of course, who are somehow immune, ignorant, or just could care less about the situation of the average residents.

are we there yet?

•New orders of durable goods -- cars, furniture and other items that are expected to last three years or more -- fell 4.5% in August, the Commerce Department reported, after posting slight gains in July, June and May. Even after the exclusion of orders for aircraft, which fluctuate wildly from month to month, and automobile sales, which everyone knows are in the tank, new orders were down 3% in August.

•On Sept. 25, General Electric (GE, news, msgs) told Wall Street to expect earnings of $1.95 to $2.10 a share in the third quarter of 2008 and not the $2.20 to $2.30 a share it had projected earlier. In addition, the company said it wouldn't raise dividends in 2009. That will mark the first time in 21 years the company hasn't raised its annual dividend.

•On Sept. 26, the Commerce Department (boy, those guys just keep dishing out the bad news lately) announced that the economy had grown at an annual rate of 2.8% in the second quarter of 2008, instead of the 3.3% calculated just a month ago. Corporate profits fell 7.1% from the second quarter of 2007.