Monday, December 1, 2008

Recessionmania: 1 Year In


That's right you bean-eating slobs. We've been in a recession for a year! From Calculated Risk:

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has decided economic activity peaked last year and that December 2007 marks the beginning of the current U.S. recession. That means all my charts (with the recession starting in Dec '07) are correct.

Haha, yay, great. Then there's this rosy post from Salon's Andrew Leonard titled, "The Month the Economy Died" (heh):

October continues to solidify its reputation as the month the U.S. economy dropped dead in its tracks. On Monday, the Commerce Department reported that construction spending declined by 1.2 percent in October. (The Associated Press describes the drop as "larger-than-expected" -- a formulation that it is beginning to sound a little silly when applied to economic data from October.)

Let's see, what else happened in October? Manufacturing activity fell to a 26-year-low, sales of new homes dropped by 5.3 percent, sales of existing homes dropped by 3.1 percent, residential housing construction fell by 3.5 percent, and non-residential construction dropped by .7 percent. Moral of the story? The housing sector has yet to reach rock-bottom.

And in an entirely related piece of news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 377 points by 11:45 EST. Call it "rational non-exuberance." The more data we get, the more clear it is just how far off the rails the U.S. economy went in October.

Ok, great, yay, oh no this will never end will it? What should we do to stop it? Well, Paul Krugman linked to this article, about some sleazybag economist who started shit-talkin' his country and now he's in for a hurtin':

Now free after two days of questioning, Mr. Smirnovs hasn't been charged. But he is still under investigation for bad-mouthing the stability of Latvia's banks and the national currency, the lat. Investigators suspect him of spreading "untruthful information." They've ordered him not to leave the country and seized his computer.


He gets what he deserves for being a filthy pessimist. We must Hope! Also, who can give banjo lessons for when the free radio is too expensive?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In a recession, it isn't always bad. Most people don't realize how much money there is out there. During economic times like this, there is more money to be had than ever. Because of the bailouts and economy, lenders are bending over backwards to bail you out too. Believe it or not, there is people getting tons of cheap money nowdays to start businesses, buy homes, pay off debt, and more. Recession Bailouts for YOU