What Happened to All the "Recession" Talk?

You have not been listening to Hillary or Obama then. We are in a depression according to them.

I don't know about a "recession", but around here (military community), people are really feeling the pinch. The price of EVERYTHING has gone up (fuel prices). People are cutting corners and trying to find ways to stay afloat financially.

The economy may be healthy according to growth, but the COL has made it much harder for the middle and lower middle class around here to survive.

I thought he was banned months ago.

Hello,
That is right and economical rate going very high.

Thankyou,
Regards,
Pakistan Boy,

http://www.PakistanGiftsMall.com

http://www.PakistanGiftsShop.com

Was he banned? I thought he had just faded away.

I'm certainly glad to hear the economy's looking up, my business is down 60% from this time last year and the business I do get earns 40% less profit. That's across the board for anyone in the home building and remodeling business around south Florida. I was fortunate and was able to sell my properties before things got to bad but allot of builders got stuck with these money pits and are getting in deep.

If your the repo man business is booming, it's up some 300% over last year according to a friend of mine who's in that line of work. People are letting go of luxury items likes boats and RV's to stay afloat. I don't know what business your in and I don't know if this could be called a recession and I haven't heard any of the candidates say we were in one but for most us, the economy's in the toilet.

That's the rub. The overall economy is ok (not great, but not bad). However fuel has caused many people to shift their spending. I have a Brother and BIL both in the restaurant industry (GMs of Individual restaurants associated with chains). They both report sales down big from last year. A habit of people "buying down" when more money is going to other uses.

But a recession is measured by the total spending, not spending in each sector. So while no one is going to deny that housing is in dire straights, the rest of the economy is picking up the slack.

Now when your company (or my Brothers restaurants) start laying off people, that will show up in the economy and in the indicators and that may yet lead us to a recession. But for now, as anemic as it is, the economy is still growing.

So true Brandie!  Much like a lot of people! 

It might not be as bad as the media says it is, but some people have lost their jobs are have been down sized. 

That happens even during boom times. Not all companies are booming (or busting) at the same time. Virginia just laid off a bunch of workers - at the Employment Commission! (they processed unemployment claims).

Only two groups of people think that the Bus economy is anything other than an utter disaster, mentally retarded people and billionaires.

Which are YOU?

aaah ha ha ha ha!!! Yes, the economy is indeed doing quite well. So well in fact that by this time next year you will be able to exchange your U.S dollars for Mexican pesos (hopefully) at an even exchange rate. If yer lucky. This:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20027.htm

Enjoy your soon to be 5 dollars per loaf of bread!

I know you are being sarcastic for effect, but you probably should have used a different currency. The Dollar has been tanking it against many currencies - but not the Peso. Just check out the latest exchange rate.

And I may have skipped a post of 2, but I do not remember anyone saying it is doing "quite well". I think the issue was not bad, or not in recession. There is a big difference (except to democrats) between "quite well" and "not bad".

LOL. Great source of information, i mean propaganda, there.

This is true. However with a whole year to go who can say what will happen?

Yup, propaganda. It's all a pack of lies you see. So much so that the fact that GM just anounced they're closing 4 more plants, (the only way you'll be able to get a Hummer is if you join the army... and keep your mind out of the gutter) Ford is doing the same, and American Airlines is laying off 6000 employees speaks NOTHING to the current state of the U.S economy. Oh yeah, Dow Chemical anounced a couple weeks ago that they're raising their prices by 20% on pretty much everything they make and sell.. that's not gonna affect the consumer at all!

 

What will be the exchange rate of the dollar in Colorado versus Vermont? The reason the Peso is not changing in relation to the dollar is that like it or not, their economy is based upon the dollar. Period. The largest import is the illegal alien money going back to the country. That is the down side for Mexico, but the reality of the situation.

It's people who think any economy is "President X's" economy who are the mentally retarded ones.

Still no edit button, so let me change that to read "uneducated ones" - wouldn't want to sling the same mud TP does, though I was only using her own terminology. She's not mentally retarded, just ignorant and rude.

The problem is hidden within the fact that the majority of economic growth is only being enjoyed by the wealthiest. So even though GDP didn't show a recession last quarter the reality is that there are a lot of folks in the middle and lower economic classes are getting hammered. Globalization is tough and one should expect that the American standard of living will fall as it happens, but there is a limit to how much and how quickly it should fall.

Where did you get that information from?

This article is probably a good starting point that sums up a lot of what is going on and some of the reasons why.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09leonhardt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


It is very difficult to show numbers reflecting the recent quarter since census bureau data is not updated that swiftly but it should be obvious that the trend shown in the
census bureau graph in the article has not changed in the last year.

There are also various links on the web showing income inequality trends but i think some of comments/info found within the following link to be worth pondering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States

Thank you. What I see is that the "Income Inequality" is not really changing as a percent, just in whole dollars. Which of course one would expect. In other words, it is not getting worse, it is just not getting better.

to give a simplistic view, lets take 2 people. Joe, the Mechanic, makes $20k a year. John the Anaylst makes $100k a year. Each get a 5% raise. So last year, John was making $80k more per year. However this year, John is making $84k more per year.

Nothing has really changed. Both got decent raises, but 5% of 100 is greater than 5% of 20, so John's raise was bigger, but the proportional difference is the same.

Of course you are not going to see it reported that way, since that is not "news". But reporting that the "inequality" is growing sells papers - even if it is not entirely true, but merely a playing with statistics to prove a preconcieved agenda.

My initial statement was in regards to the economy as a whole...That is after all what the post is about. My statement was that "the majority of economic growth is only being enjoyed by the wealthiest".

The article and census data pointed out that the average wage went down during the last economic expansion for the first time since WWII. The fact that average wages actually went down during an economic expansion means that the the working class as a whole did not get anything out of the last business cycle. You cannot compare 100k and 80k wage earners...they are both in the middle class and not even close to the wealthiest for which my statement refers to...The wealthiest are making millions or billions. Income equality as a whole is IN FACT as reported by the Census Bureau now surpassing the lvl that it was at in 1928, which is very troublesome to a lot of economists including Alan Greenspan which i simply name because many people actually know who he is. This is not playing with statistics. This is what the Census Bureau statistics shows and has been the topic of several speeches that have come straight out of the mouths of the Fed Reserve over the past few years.

So the point is there may not be a recession in the usually terms of GDP but if the working class is making less money (or not keeping up with inflation), paying more for necessities such as food and energy, and the unemployment rate is increasing then the working class is experiencing the same pain they feel in a recession because only the wealthiest are experiencing the benefits of any economic growth that is being reported in the GDP.

I only used the numbers for demonstrative purposes, but was making the statement based upon the graph you linked to.

Also, 12-20 million illegals MAY have had something to do with average wages and trends. These days, you may hire an american to do a job, but chances are better than average, it will be an illegal doing the work.