Hi Tom,
Yeah, I think we all had a clue we were in a recession. Um, there were a few red flags on that one.
I was in a local historical meeting ( which translates to many elitist) when I commented how lucrative the the project had been in spite of the ecoomy.
One of the eletist remarked, ” oh, Betty Ann, the economy doesn’t affect THIS group”! Wow!
I didn’t know whether to laugh to push her chair over. Seriously!
Anywho, I do believe that we are in or close to a depression. We will probably officially hear about that this time next year.
Oh well, isn’t it about time we learned to appreciate the real gifts in life and not be so hung up on material goods?
I have a feeling a good lesson is in progress!
Thanks for the blog.
XO

I don’t think they really care, as long as they are making their big bucks, who cares about the middle class?
Certainly not Washington.
Bush never gave a hoot since he go into office.
Can’t January 20 get here any sooner?
When will criminal charges start against Bush, also?

Awe, just put it on your CREDIT card????

Jesus.

It wasn’t hard to see in “07 that we were in a recession and it’s even less hard to see it now. The people in charge just want us to think that they know it all and know how to fix it. If they knew so much they should have done things to stop it from happening in the first place!

Cindy…Ga.

It should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that we have been in a recession for over a year yet our leadership is just finding out today.

Since the second plane hit on 911, we have been in a recession/depression yet were artificially kept afloat by egregious interest rate cuts, Greenspanian hyperbole and pure fraud.

Our nation has become a cesspool of failed leadership, gross materialism and morally bankrupt executives and citizens.

I can just hear our leaders now: huh? what? duh? come again? excuse me? say what? should we? should we not? aaah? yikes.

Well………duh. Even before the pundits and the media started crying the “sky is falling” people knew that a recession was happening or beginning.

Here is the interesting thing, I heard of a brief CBS newsflash that Black Friday sales were up 7% from last year! Considering there is so much ‘bad’ news I am suspecting that people are now starting to have hope that help is on the way!

With the new president, and tax breaks for ALL who make LESS than $250,000 …….. all this will help start the trend towards positive growth and thus……….jobs! A new day is dawning soon!

JC-Los Angeles

JC… the last recession had not ended by 9-11… you know… the one Clinton left starting in 98 when he de-regulated loans so anyone could get a mortgage.

You might want to do a little research on recessions in this country…
But don’t let facts get in the way of your hate…

Here’s to hoping, Tom. They should. I don’t know if these leaders realize that laying out the facts and game plan is a way to comfort people and help them climb on board. Do they avoid addressing a negative situation because they fear it reflects on them? Or are they still trying to figure out what to do?

I suspect that the American people are more interested in finding solutions than pointing fingers right now.

Recession hits part of United State, probably more than a year ago, and kept expanding like cancer with hopeless efforts to fix the problem, yet no one admit by that time. Now based on numbers, it is official. Even people are totally depressed of the situation; recession does not mean depression from economy point of view. Yes politicians dance around the issue (fundamental of the economy is strong). The ideal question is how the new administration can reverse the recession in short period of time.

Well, no one puts the “Recess” in “Recession” like our Government and the math of Bushonomics!
I knew there was a Poll involved somewhere….

Yet none of this falls at the feet of the democratically-controlled congress?

whodda thunk it, a recession?

It makes me wonder if we would have admitted we were having problems, oh, say, about a year ago, if we just might not have saved the country about….. $700 billion dollars.

The media needs to take part of the blame: they always blame us common folk as being quick to jump the gun, paranoid, or “ignorant” to what we see in front of our eyes. We might be smart, Tom, but UNTIL the media says it: what we know doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately now isn’t the time to acknowledge a “Recession”, but the beginning of a “Depression”. You see folks,it’s different this time? Our financial system isn’t just confined to a comfortably,”Closed-In System”,as it was in the 1930’s,but entangled geographically with every known entity in the,”Ffinancial (globally) Universe! Heck,”Wall Street” is already predicting were in the bottom of the seventh inning of of this chameleon they call a recession,and you know the politicians will be right behind them. I will inform you of some very disturbing news regarding”China”,the catalyst of the,”Go-Go(2000’s)Decade” reported in China’s(yesterday) news. Quote: China’s President HuJintao spoke before the,(25 Member) Chinese Politburo that GDP/GNP will plummet from 9% to 7%, which could cause social/economic stress in a fledgling (relatively in historic years) economy.

The biggest rat of all, Bush managed to go by “unsniffed” not once, but twice.

There is more to this economic recession than just the mortgage crisis. Until we tax cheap imports from foreign countries to level the cost of products, and start producing more in America than just food, we will continue the downhill spiral. The out sourcing of jobs has a lot to do with the problem.
We have become a nation primarily of consumers rather than producers. When US jobs decline production declines. People out of work cannot afford to spend, this creates a vicious cycle. As a result, people out of work lose their homes as well. This is what happened in the Great Depression. America was at its peak when it led the the world in production.

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
George Wilhelm Hegel

Larry,
It takes many years of economic failure before the economy falls into a recession. The congress was controlled by the republicans for the the first six of the last eight years. Get your facts straight before you distort them.

“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
Mark Twain

Wouldnt it be nice if the people we voted to put in office had a website like obama put up for your concerns and comments.I dont have a phd are a college degree but sometimes all it takes is a little common sense.Politicans get up in front of the camera and say this and that americans want this.They have no idea what america wants are needs.Keep throwing money at banks take care of wall street.Do you even have a clue on how americans feel about the money you have thrown at the banks.And the 2 page appliacation to get millions.Its harder for us to get a couple hundred dollars in food stamps than it is for them to get millions.And theres no one who knows where the money is going

Well, let’s all just smirk at the same time. The government depends on their citizens to be stupid, and yet, we all knew we were in a recession, at the very least.

This, coming from a government that told us about weapons of mass destruction. What truths could we ever expect from these people?

But then again, while not being stupid, we do like our denial: as in, let’s not care, as long as the credit card goes through at the cash register.

So much for the trademark called American common sense!!

DUH!

Well, D’uh!!!

I saw this comingh after I lost my job last December and had to dig in for a long unemployment. I’ll admit, it doesn’t look exactly like I expected to, but it’s close enough.

Thanks, Tom! Always good to hear from you!

Thanks Hugh!

A few years ago, I started thinking corp. executives and more than a few politicians were quite a bit alike in thinking that if they throw the bull around, pound it into our heads enough times, the “little” people would be brainwashed into thinking what they said was true. However, most little people are in tune with reality eventually, especially when it affects them one way or the other.