Slashdot Log In
US Has Been In Recession Since December 2007
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Dec 02, 2008 08:16 AM
from the not-news-to-a-great-many dept.
from the not-news-to-a-great-many dept.
The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the US has been in a recession since December 2007. The NBER is a private, nonprofit research organization of academic economists who determine business cycles. The stock market took a dip on the news that reached double-digit percentages for some tech stocks.
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
A long-standing rule [bloomberg.com] of thumb [businessdictionary.com] for "recession" is that it is defined as contraction in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarters (six months).
More info [theglobeandmail.com].
By that long-accepted definition of recession, the US is not even yet in a recession. The US GDP decreased for the first time in recent history only in the third (most recent) quarter, by 0.3%. In the second quarter -- earlier this year -- real GDP increased 2.8% [bea.gov].
But how long has the media been ceaselessly hammering it into our heads that we're in a recession, tolling the bells of doom and gloom? How many times have we heard the phrase, "In these tough economic times" inserted into nearly everything we see or hear? How long has the drumbeat of the "recession" been played, when we had nothing but positive growth reports, even in the midst of the sub-prime crisis?
Worse still, many people actually believe that whatever recession we'll end up having is exclusively the fault of only the current President, and can't look back to anything before the year 2000 [meridianmagazine.com] for any blame whatsoever. The egregious irresponsibility of the sub-prime lending has a long and sordid history.
It is this kind of partisan willful ignorance on the part of many that has enabled the political agenda among some to drive the notion that the US is in a severe recession caused by the ineptness and reckless irresponsibility of the Bush administration, when the US had nothing but growth in the GDP until only a month ago. If you asked most people how long they thought the economy had been shrinking for negative, they'd probably say things like, "A year? Two years?"
Wrong.
Last quarter. And we just found out about it.
So we've heard talk, day after day, night after night, an incessant drilling into our heads that we're in a deep and severe recession -- one that may even now rival the Great Depression! -- creating panic and fear, causing people to pull investments and hold onto their wallets, change purchasing plans, in turn creating bleak forecasts for manufacturers and other business, which causes job loss, and then -- voilà!:
Is it any surprise we're going to have a recession on our hands?
Capitalistic systems only work when the participants have faith in the system -- when that faith collapses, for whatever reason, you get a recession. And that's a normal and accepted part of the cycle.
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
The inflation adjusted debt accrual rate for the US government in the past 8 years has been about 380 billion dollars per year. This is equal to 3.4% of the total size of the economy.
Ignoring inflationary measures by the US government, the GDP has shrunk, not grown, for quite some time.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
I personally don't like the idea of metrics you can substantially alter by simply borrowing a few hundred billion dollars from China.
There are some people who think you can replace economic growth in the private sector with economic growth in the public sector and it's the same thing. That may be true in Soviet Russia, but in the free world, pork financed with debt is an inflationary measure that doesn't increase the actual size of the economy.
My personal metrics don't really change. In my personal finances I don't pretend debt = income, I'm not about to let the federal government pretend the same.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
Just that the GDP growth was entirely funded by federal debt. We're in a time of nearly unprecedented (inflation adjusted)debt growth. Nixon managed to shrink the inflation adjusted size of the debt. Ford let it go nuts. Carter managed to shrink it. Reagan let it explode. Bush let it explode. Clinton tried to reduce the hemmoraging, but George W. Bush and the two congresses have spent more than any president since World War II.
Real GDP growth ceases to be a meaningful number when such a large part of it is just the congress throwing money they borrowed from China around.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:5, Insightful)
The system as it existed worked on faith. Not facts. Faith that an industry that produces nothing and adds no value can be the most significant industry nonetheless and make EVERYTHING else secondary. It is not the first time.
During the internet bubble, real businesses that produced real goods that real people bought with real money were considered to be worthless. The future was in... well pets.com and what not. Pipe dreams, ad based revenue. It became hard for ordinary businesses to even find investment because they didn't promise the sky.
Of course, you can't say that the financial industry is much the same, that all these speculators add nothing, are fluff. But that is what happened, we had the financial industry fluffing itself up by selling itself its own products over and over again. This whole mortage reselling would be similar to Ford and Chrysler (apologies if they are the same) buying each others cars over and over and counting that as total production. The financial industry obtained a far larger share of the total market then it really is supposed to have. It worked because everyone believed it, believed that Wall Street really is important. It isn't.
Then it collapsed, people did indeed loose fate. Somewhere someone burst the bubble. What we got now is not so much a reccesion, as a re-appreasal. We now got to decide what exactly the role of the financial industry is supposed to be. Is it a service industry to the rest of the industry (exactly like say a cleaning company is a service industry) or is everyone else in the service of the financial industry.
Do we want banks to be just banks, lend our money to others for a profit that they partly keep and partly give to us or speculators, driving up prices, investing only in their own profit margins rather then investing long term in other industries.
A few economists, even as high up as the world bank are daring to question the system right now. That perhaps we should see the bank again as it once was, a service to society rather then the controller of the entire economy. No longer should the financial industry have a 40% share of the economy but rather something closer to 4%, back to REAL industry that actually produces value being the motor again, not shoveling money around.
Frankly I been watching the developments with great intrest. Right now I think a LOT of goverments are showing their true colors, bailing out banks that were never trustworthy, never played by the rules to help out the rich who put their money in their high risk accounts at the cost of the working mans taxes.
Parent
Re:No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:5, Insightful)
The other thing is, even the "real" production is useless crap that has designed obsolescence.
They talk on the news about how holiday spending is going to be low and how much its going to hurt the economy. Do we really want an economy based on the sales of what amounts to Christmas toys?
Did you know that when the Core Inflation rate is calculated they disregard things like milk, bread and fuel? You know the stuff that people...need.
Parent
Re:No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, you can't say that the financial industry is much the same, that all these speculators add nothing, are fluff. But that is what happened, we had the financial industry fluffing itself up by selling itself its own products over and over again. This whole mortage reselling would be similar to Ford and Chrysler (apologies if they are the same) buying each others cars over and over and counting that as total production. The financial industry obtained a far larger share of the total market then it really is supposed to have. It worked because everyone believed it, believed that Wall Street really is important. It isn't.
Then it collapsed, people did indeed loose fate. Somewhere someone burst the bubble. What we got now is not so much a reccesion, as a re-appreasal. We now got to decide what exactly the role of the financial industry is supposed to be. Is it a service industry to the rest of the industry (exactly like say a cleaning company is a service industry) or is everyone else in the service of the financial industry.
It is a mistake to assume that the current financial clusterfuck is because of bad mortgages or a bubble burst (we didn't have any serious issues with the Dot Com bubble). The bad mortgages are nothing but the trigger to two serious underlying problems:
(1) Most people in western countries live beyond their means.
(2) But most importantly: Credit Default Swaps.
The current financial situation is due mostly to [banks/investment firms/everyone and their dogs] betting on the failure of different entities. This is all due because of Credit Default Swaps are totally unregulated and they are a speculator's wet dream. The current house of CDS cards of about 50+ trillion $ (yes, trillion) is crumbling. First wave was MBIA and other bond insurers being downgraded by rating firms. This immediately triggered a metric fuckton of CDS collateral calls. Bear Stearns and Merill go under (well, saved last minute). Freddie and Fannie get bailed out, this immediately calls for another round of collateral calls. This second wave caused the collapse of Lehman, the nationalization of AIG and the massive cash infusion into Citi. If either big auto makers goes down, prepare for the worse. Oh and Goldman Sachs has started to write down bad assets too, no bank is safe.
This all thanks to speculators betting on companies with their unregulated toys: the Credit Default Swaps. It has nothing to do with believing or not in a system or losing faith in Wall Street. It's all about making a bunch of really bad bets without having cash on hand to cover the losses. And now that the bets are lost, it's time to pay. But t here is no money ...
Parent
Re:No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:5, Informative)
Gold only has the value that other people think it has.
While that is true, the real argument for the gold standard is its fairly constant and predictably increasing supply. All the gold that will ever exist on earth is already here, and we find a little more every year. The main difference is that the government can't just make more gold when politically expedient, like they can with paper money. However, that's also its largest negative according to most economists. The current bailouts would be impossible with gold coins.
Parent
Re:No matter how deluded, the poster has a point (Score:5, Informative)
If the dollar was backed by gold, we would not NEED "faith" in America or the American economy.
Right. The value of the dollar would then be backed by the limited and fairly stable supply of gold. They're not making any more of it. And that would work fine if the economy was a static and unchanging system. Price levels would remain constant.
But, the economy is not static or unchanging. New products are constantly coming to market, increasing our standard of living, and generally making life more pleasant and productive. Each year there are more and more new products. Just look at the average kitchen today versus one from the 1960's.
The problem with a static money supply is that the same amount of dollars are chasing an ever increasing supply of goods. Econ 101 says, through supply and demand, that the price of all those goods (including stocks, real-estate and other investments) will fall. So, over time, because of the falling prices of everything, the best investment is to simply hide your gold under your mattress, confident that tomorrow you'll be able to buy more with it than you were today. Deflation
Without that money in circulation, in investments or spent, it becomes impossible for businesses to raise money for future investments, governments collect less tax, and the economy stagnates. The current monetary policy is not the best. But, a strict gold standard would be even worse.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, but when measuring this economists always take the so called "real GDP". In other words, GDP adjusted for inflation, using the official CPI figure. What they don't tell you is that the CPI is completely disconnected from reality [shadowstats.com] - a figure manipulated by government economists so that inflation-adjusted payments and benefits can be as low as possible. CPI has absolutely nothing to do with real inflation and "real GDP" has absolutely nothing to do with real economic growth.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Informative)
I hate to say it, but you are living in cloud-coo-coo land. Of course we are in a recession, and have been for some time. In my business, I deal with corporations, both large and small. All are hurting, all are cutting spending, and this is a major topic of conversation at literally every meeting I go to. To think that this is driven by the media is to be deluded.
The "Mandate of Heaven effect," by which the party in power gets blamed for a bad economy, and praised for good results, regardless of what they had to do with it, is another matter. I agree with you in principle, but it seems clear to me that the current administration had plenty to do with what's going on in practice.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't matter how many times you repeat this stupid lie, it's still a lie. (A reasonable summary of Cards bullshit: http://adastrum.kansascity.com/?q=node/408 [kansascity.com]).
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Funny)
Obam-ho-tep.... Obam-ho-tep.... Obam-ho-tep.... Obam-ho-tep.... Obam-ho-tep....
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Interesting)
Recessions are a normal part of the capitalist business cycle. Recessions wash out excesses in the system by shaking out inefficient companies, thus clearing the way for new competitors, and they work to keep supply and demand in sync over the long term. [msn.com]
[...] recessions are considered a normal part of a capitalist economy [...] [businessdictionary.com]
Etc.
As for your assumptions about Bush:
1. I didn't vote for Bush.
2. I voted for Obama.
So it's kind of funny you just called me "one of the last hard core republicans" when I'm anything but. What I don't like is hypocrisy and the one-sidedness of always only blaming one political party or one President -- whether it's Clinton and the Democrats or Bush and the Republicans -- for whatever ill is at hand. For the current economic situation, we had unprecedented political opportunism: it was politically expedient and beneficial for some liberals to push the notion that we're in really bad shape, even rolling out the Great Depression talk, and that Bush (and all the other things you hate about Bush, like the war!) is to blame for it.
There are so many contributing factors that it would be ridiculous to assert that economic decisions made in the current administration in the last 8 years have nothing to do with it. But at the same time, it's equally ridiculous to put blinders on to the incredible irresponsibility and shortsightedness of the decisions with regard to sub-prime lending in the name of getting people into homes. We never fully paid the piper for the internet bubble collapsing, and a lot of that, on a large scale, was parlayed into a booming housing market (and artificially created, so some extent, because of changes encouraged in lending practices).
Parent
Derivatives and Naked Shorting, not Subprime (Score:5, Insightful)
Subprime lending has very little to do with the current recession. The default rate is only slightly higher than average. The real problems have to do with derivatives, naked shorting and other financial shenanigans that Washington has refused to regulate. When we repackage debt, and insurance on said debt, and resell both dozens of times over, even a slight increase in defaults will knock over the whole house of cards. When we allow people to sell stocks they don't even own, and haven't even borrowed as in regular shorting, nothing but chaos can ensue.
In short, it is not the poor, who were simply patsies, who caused this mess. It was, as always, the greedy rich. Blaming the poor and those who try to help them get a fair shake is simply despicable.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
(half my retirement funds are now gone).
Like most things in your post thats wrong. Stop believing in the Obama campaign as the source of all your financial info. The correct statements would be pick one:
My retirement fund is now worth half what it was
This recession has actually caused my retirement fund to shrink
Or my personal fave:
What the hell ! You mean we can't buy big houses, SUV's and rack up credit debt endlessly ?!?! What do you mean we have to 'compete' for jobs ? Whats this crap ?? Dont choo kno I'm an American !!!
Its time to sort the wheat from the chaff. Man the fuck up. (and spread that to your friends, and their parents too - the great depression was FAR FAR FAR worse than this and they were not whining as much as people now either.)
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Funny)
Actually if we are going by great depressions comparisons, if this truly IS another one, then we have MUCH worse coming down the bend.
The great depressions didn't just become "great" overnight. It took YEARS and YEARS and 2 presidents before it turned around.
What if we're in a "lousy" depression?
(couldn't resist :-))
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
You haven't actually lost anything until you decide to sell at the lower value. The market will come back, it always does.
That's great, unless I'm 65 and expected to live on the money I get from selling my house, moving to an apartment, and liquidating my investments. The stock market, had I got in 10 years ago and invested in a safe S&P 500 index fund, has done absolutely nothing. Zero return in ten years. Ten years is pretty close to "long term" in my book.
"day traders" are responsible for all the major flux in the markets, and at all times. they should be put to the wall
Day traders are responsible for the unprecedented and unequaled liquidity in the US stock markets. They are the reason you can *always* sell or buy a stock. AIG and other bailout recipients have problems because they held onto assets, like CDS, that now are completely illiquid. They can't sell at any price. What they need is a CDS market filled with day traders who are willing to speculate on those assets and are willing to buy them at *some* price. Without speculating day traders, there is no market for you "long term" investors.
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:4, Funny)
Nice anecdote. I'm past suprise in finding a liberal offering up information intended to generate an emotional reaction rather than inform. Jobs have been lost in every year and under all economic circumstances.
Yeah, CURSE those GODLESS LIBERALS.
They're always looking for an EMOTIONAL reaction, because they want to MOVE TO SOCIALISM. They want to OUTLAW religion. They want to make abortions MANDATORY.
Worst of all, these liberals want to hand Osama bin Laden the keys to the castle so he can attack America again, because the "Blame America First" crowd gets off on that sort of thing.
(I'm sorry, I'm revelling in the irony. It's politics, and a lefty attacking a righty over appeals to emotion is just as ignorant as a righty attacking a lefty)
Parent
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
Why, then, did President Bush sign H.R. 5140, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 on February 13?
Because there are lot of other indicators that you might be heading for a recession -- like decreasing growth, for example.
But the definition of a recession is two quarters of negative growth, which we haven't had yet. By another definition, we haven't even had a declaration of being in a recession by one of the bodies that makes such declarations until yesterday.
So then why have we heard constant talk about how the US is in a recession for over a year now?
Answer: political opportunism, plain and simple. If you can make people believe we're in a recession and that the party of the current president caused it, in the midst of a presidential campaign, that bodes very well for the opposing party.
No matter your politics, you should consider that incredibly irresponsible. Aside from very real economic issues, we've also had nothing but recession...recession...RECESSION -- with the implication being that it's Bush's fault, and sometimes that being explicitly stated, depending on the pundit at hand -- hammered into our collective heads for nearly the entire campaign cycle.
When McCain said, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," (emphasis mine) he was -- and still is -- 100% correct.
Unfortunately, it was better for some liberals to push the idea of a recession, which will now end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy. How long do you have to hear things are terrible before you believe they are, and start making changes in your own life? And then start feeling the effects of millions of other people making those changes, and people losing jobs, and businesses closing, and this vicious cycle causing a downward spiral?
Disclaimer:
1. I didn't vote for Bush.
2. I voted for Obama.
So assuming I'm a die-hard Republican because I'm saying something you likely disagree with isn't going to work.
Parent
Re:Can someone explain where the money went? (Score:5, Insightful)
The value of money is subjective, so when the market as a whole starts to view something to be of lesser value, suddenly the value of that something is lower.
There is some intrinsic value in something like gold, which is shiny, heavy, and with good conductive properties, but mostly it's because people treat gold as a store of value. If other people don't want your gold buillon, you've just got a lump of shiny,heavy,conductive metal rather than the ability to buy hundred of thousands of dollars worth of products you want to have.
Same goes for the green paper, same goes for the stock number, and it even applies to houses. They're valuable in that they provide a place to live, but the housing bubble came from the growth of value far beyond the intrinsic value of the house as a place of living. It's not a business that grows and earns interest, it's just a place to live that people might want to buy in the future when you move out. Some return is possible because of increasing demand to live in that spot as population grows, but people believed in endless /high/ returns on a simple home.
Then they leveraged that imagined value to borrow and they used borrowed money as leverage to get more imagined value, which they used to borrow more, etc...and the numbers all went up. The imagined value got passed around through everone's hands while numbers soared, until eventually people started to wonder when to pull out before others realize these things aren't really worth that much...then the crash comes.
Now banks found that their asset's imagined value has collapsed, now they don't have the surplus of money they thought they had, so they cling to their reserves and fear lending it out so they can stay solvent when a client asks to make a withdrawal.
Tight times decreases loans, without loans, businesses have difficulty growing and functioning, and the crunch on everyone's savings has them reducing their spending, so businesses get fewer customers, reducing their purchases from supplier businesses, it all just loops continually throughout the economy. It's hard to see the exact end result or when it will all end.
Parent
thank goodness slashdot covers this. (Score:5, Interesting)
you nerds can thank us later after you're done spending your way to patriotastic victory over the stock plunge and housing crisis.
Re:thank goodness slashdot covers this. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Not a recession (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure they are more accurate but they are mixing up precise esoteric terms with the 'generally understood' terms.
People understand what the general term means in terms of their daily lives and for them "recession" is bad. What started in 2007 it wasn't "bad" for the ordinary Joe - in fact a recovery might have occurred and we'd never have known about it. Now that it's the 2 quarters of negative growth thing, it's a real recession.
i thought the economy was bad enough (Score:5, Funny)
but when these economists start retroactively applying the recession to previous time periods, thats just cruel and unusual punishment
why do we tolerate these economists? why don't we just lock them in a dungeon somewhere? what did we ever do to them to make them hurt our economy so bad?
maybe if some of us form a posse and tar and feather some economists these jerks will relent and make the economy good again
Monkey Economics (Score:5, Interesting)
It's sort of like a junkie being asked diagnostic questions like "Where does it hurt?" by a doctor who is prescribing him opiates.
Not really a surprise. (Score:5, Interesting)
Since the only growing industries seem to have been weapons and war, it's only natural that when you take the influence of government debt out of the picture, the economy has been shrinking for a long time.
There are some people who think you can replace economic growth in the private sector with economic growth in the public sector and it's the same thing. That may be true in Soviet Russia, but in the free world, pork financed with debt is an inflationary measure that doesn't increase the actual size of the economy.
What's worse, this 3.4% growth in the economy financed by debt is going to cause a cascade plunge. Right now we're like a family using debt to pay off debt (the growth in the national debt is equal to the money spent maintaining the current debt). What always happens in cases like these is the debt supply runs out, and the family goes bankrupt. If you think we're seeing hard times today, just wait. Paying back this 10 trillion is going to send the US back to the stone age by comparison.
"Exceeded double-digit percentages ..." (Score:4, Funny)
So they dropped triple-digit percentages? Did any of them drop more than 100%? I thought the whole point of shares was that you couldn't lose more than what your investment was?
Umm, rational markets? (Score:4, Insightful)
FFS you "rational actors", you'd better get your act together or I'm going to have to start paying attention to behavioral economists!
Re:Umm, rational markets? (Score:5, Insightful)
What's good for a person and what's "good for the economy" are often completely at odds.
According to politicians, the patriot will be completely overextended with debt, barely making all his or her payments, one paycheque away from oblivion.
According to common sense, the non-idiot will try to have as little debt as possible, using it only for major capital expenses rather than trying to live off of it.
According to politicians, the patriot will spend every penny, so the money he or she makes will have maximum exposure to the economy.
According to common sense, the non-idiot will try to have savings, so if something happens they can just coast on savings until the crisis is averted.(Politicians hate that idea. How can they pander to people who aren't on the verge of collapse?)
According to politicians, the patriot will buy a new laptop, car, and house TODAY using credit. They don't have to pay until 2011 anyway, so DO IT! DO IT NOW!
According to common sense, buying things with cash will save considerable amounts of money. First, the interest accrued on debt never takes place. Second, the fees involved with taking out debt never take place. Third, it's easier to get deals and bargain with cash in hand resulting in lower prices.
The rational actor is unpatriotic. Their actions are contrary to maximizing economic growth in the short term.
On the other hand, my personal belief and experience is that debt works differently than economists think. It increases the volatility in the economy. Individual actors add massive amounts of money to the economy, but are suddenly extremely limited in their ability to participate in the economy.
Consider two people: A person with debt, and a person without debt.
The person with debt adds 10k to the economy by buying a new Toyota Yaris. The economy recieves his 10k. For the next year, as he pays back the debt, his ability to participate in the economy is reduced by $900/month, and he is effectively locked out of making any further contribution to the economy. The economy spikes in Q1, but is minimal in Q2, Q3, Q4.
The person without debt doesn't buy that car, but is capable of spending $900/month on the economy. Economic output is constant in Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.
Now think about this: Many people have 50 year, $500,000 mortgages as a result of the housing bubble. With the economic spike done and over with, what remains?
Parent
Too much thinking going on here... (Score:5, Funny)
- "I think the experts will tell you we're not in a recession." [President Bush, 2/10/08 [thinkprogress.org]]
- "The answer is, I don't think we are in a recession right now." [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 2/11/08 [whitehouse.gov]]
- "First of all, we're not in a recession." [President Bush, 4/22/08 [thinkprogress.org]]
- "The data are pretty clear that we are not in a recession." [Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Edward Lazear, 5/7/08 [wsj.com]]
- "I don't think we are" in a recession. [Director of the National Economic Council Keith Hennesy, 6/3/08 [whitehouse.gov]]
- "I think we have avoided a recession." [White House Budget Director Jim Nussle, 7/31/08 [marketwatch.com]]
- "I don't think anybody could tell you right now if we're in a recession or not" [Dana Perino, 10/7/08 [thinkprogress.org]]
Re:Too much thinking going on here... (Score:5, Informative)
A recession is two consecutive negative growth quarters in terms of GDP.
Let me just quote wikipedia for you here.
A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle, or "a period of reduced economic activity....Some business & investment glossaries add to the general definition a rule of thumb that recessions are often indicated by two consecutive quarters of negative growth (or contraction) of gross domestic product (GDP)
You know what a rule of thumb [wikipedia.org] is right? It's not a law handed down by God, but a rough guide. This is economics, not science. Even if you were to abide strictly by the 2 quarters definition, I bet you couldn't give me a reason why it's 2 quarters and not 3 or 1.
Parent
Recession? Meh. (Score:5, Insightful)
I refuse to participate in any recession.
As long as I work and earn, I will save and spend just as I always did. My family's economy won't be dictated to by some namby-pamby report by a bunch of gloom and doom busybodies.
Seriously.
If you practice fiscal responsibility (something the U.S. government seems unwilling to do, hence the current mess), work hard and consistently, keep your skills updated and always marketable, you'll stay out of trouble... or at least be nimble enough to make whatever moves are necessary to get out of trouble very quickly.
Some folks want to wail and gnash their teeth at the falling sky. Hey, whatever floats their boat.
Re:Recession? Meh. (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole problem is that a whole lot of people, from Wall Street bankers to low wage workers, have not been practicing fiscal responsibility, and show no inclination to start doing so.
Parent
This is good news (Score:4, Interesting)
Predictions (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Insightful)
"They" have known the economy was in trouble for at LEAST a year and likely longer. But they knew one thing for sure -- if they announced or reported it as such, the economy's floor would have dropped out. So instead, the news and other outlets have been dropping hints and skirting the big picture by talking about failing elements of the economy hoping everyone will start to form their own conclusions. And every time the word recession was asked far beyond a year ago, the only answer was "not yet" and they kept hoping things would get better.
The Bush economic stimulus package worked to some degree. Many people horded it -- stuck it in the bank. Other people paid bills with it. But the over-all result was measurably positive... and the government did not commit trillions to making that effect. If that notorious $700bn were committed in the same way, we would see a HUGE rebound in the economy... instead, the money is given to banks to encourage them to do things they are unwilling to do... and what's worse, the government isn't getting the money back!
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Insightful)
"They" have known the economy was in trouble for at LEAST a year and likely longer. But they knew one thing for sure -- if they announced or reported it as such, the economy's floor would have dropped out. So instead, the news and other outlets have been dropping hints and skirting the big picture by talking about failing elements of the economy hoping everyone will start to form their own conclusions. And every time the word recession was asked far beyond a year ago, the only answer was "not yet" and they kept hoping things would get better.
The Bush economic stimulus package worked to some degree. ...
Huh? The April hand-out? As far as I've heard, it had almost no effect at all.
(it was too small and too untargeted to have any significant effect on the economy-- it essentially was a very small tax cut, primarily at the lower income levels. Might have prevented one or two bankrupcies, if it happened to hit somebody right on the razor's edge, but wasn't enough to save anybody's house.)
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Per person it's 2884.48. For a family of 4, that works out to $11.5k, almost half the poverty line in the USA. For a lot of families, that sort of money would be enough to get high interest debts out of the way, increasing available income, and digging a lot of people out of the hole they've dug themselves into.
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Insightful)
This year, like the previous year, and the year before that, I will definitely NOT shop my ass off for Christmas, nor will I stuff my face silly on Christmas, only to feel bloated the next day and have to diet so I can stomach New Year's eve binge (which, in case you didn't guess, I never do either).
Christmas, like Halloween, father/mother/grandma/grandpa days, are commercial inventions, fake joy and fake happiness destined to make you shell out your hard-earned money and, since the great Bank Robbery^H^H^H^Hbailout plan, supposedly help the economy recover.
Well, I paid my loans, I don't live on credit, I spend my money cautiously, even when there's no "crisis", so I fail to see why I must buy Christmas junk to support those who don't.
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I paid my loans, I don't live on credit, I spend my money cautiously, even when there's no "crisis"
You, sir, are a sucker.
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this a troll post?
Mod parent insightful.
I'm also a sucker. I similarly stayed out of debt, didn't take part in the dangerously overinflated housing market, used credit cards responsibly and generally lived within my means. Not that it was painful, I've got reasonable means as a software engineer. But I didn't join in the great-big-debt-party with everyone else.
Why am I a sucker? Because the government will now tax me to prop up people that did get too far in, that did take that dumbass high multiple on a house, that did get into debt. We can't have the people of the country actually paying for their actions, no. Rest assured, I really am a sucker for thinking that keeping my own finances in order was an advantage.
Parent
Sucker (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, you are a sucker. But because you believe that welfare and the bailout are the main reason the government is taking your money.
Military spending eclipses any other program by 2 to 1. So, first, you should be complaining about the defense shield program, which won't work, the Iraq war, which didn't work, and all of the other investments in destruction that enrich corporations and their owners, and do nothing for the people that pay those taxes. To put it in perspective, you'd have to have a 500 billion dollar bailout every single year added together with health care, welfare, and other social services in order to match military spending. If we paid the average per capita that other nations do, we'd spend around 180 billion instead of 1000 billion.
If you didn't want higher taxes, I hope you didn't support the war. Taxes will go back to normal levels, because someone has to pay for the three billion dollars that are flushed down the toilet in Iraq every week, on top of all of the other idiotic military spending programs that are never criticized. Even talking about military spending is anti-American, but criticizing taxes that improve the lives of the taxed is considered patriotic. How's that for some cognitive dissonance.
So, in conclusion, I'll repeat something I heard quite a bit in 2003. If you don't want your taxes spent on programs that you don't want, just remember, this is America: love it or leave it.
Parent
Humbug! (Score:5, Funny)
For the last few years, I have taken the stance that Christmas could do with a good Humbuggering, and have taken to actually saying, literally, "Humbug" whenever people start with the "Merry..." , "Happy,..." etcs and general ostentatious jolliness on December 1st!
For many years prior, my lack of delirious excitement and palpable enthusiasm, as well as overt cynicism about the commercialization and general over-selling of the holiday, had me labeled "miserable", "hopeless", "a grump" and in recent years "the grinch". The way I see it, "Humbug" is just giving the crowd what they want, and it has the added advantage that people no longer expect, nay, demand my mandatory jolliness throughout the "season".
I actually enjoy Christmas, but the way I see it, the holidays are from the 23rd to the 31st of December. None of this all winter madness. The bastards are not getting once once ounce of holiday cheer out of me outside of those dates, and inside of them, I'm spending most of the time asleep.
So in conclusion; Christmas!? HUMBUG!!!
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget Mardi Gras that comes shortly after those....
Oh wait, you mean Mardi Gras isn't a NATIONAL holiday yet?!?!?
Goodness...if I lived in another state, I think I'd get to working on that one....
Parent
Re:The Magic 8 ball told me that a long time ago (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, there is a real meaning behind "Christmas": the entire population of the temperate Northern Hemisphere deluding themselves into thinking that cold and lack of daylight are somehow jolly!
In case nobody's told you, your savior was born in April or May.
Christmas is the day of the Mass of Christ, not Jesus's birthday. The Catholic Church chose the day to coincide with an existing holy period in pagan Europe, since people were already in the habit of celebrating that week. Nobody knows (or particularly cares) what the exact date was. Christian scriptures only hint at the year by recording stuff like who was king at the time.
Parent
Re:Really ? (Score:4, Insightful)
So basically, you like to take your name off things when you're going to make a personal attack. Guess they call it AC for a reason.
Parent