Personally I wonder why he doesn't have his own treadmill somewhere.
RSS Feed
Email Subscribe
Friday, December 5, 2008
It’s a Recession, Not a Depression
Did you have ANY doubts that we have been in a recession? I sure didn’t. Yesterday, the National Bureau of Economic Research here in the United States confirmed it, “Yes, it is officially a recession.”
What may come as a surprise to you, though, is that we have been in a recession here in the United States for a year already, since December 2007. At least — that’s according to the definition given by the aforesaid authorities.
But it’s a strange thing about recessions. Just as it takes a while to determine you’re in one, there’s also a lag on the back end. We’ll likely be coming out of the recession before anybody confirms that.
That’s why, in a strange way, it’s a good thing that we have been in this recession for a year now. Recessions by nature are temporary. Historically the “official recession” doesn’t last long — not more than a year and a half.
Here’s a chart from an article by Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal, showing recession time frames:
No one knows for sure how long this recession will last. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke gave a speech yesterday in which he said that weakness in the economy would likely continue for a while. His remarks struck me as realistic: not overly optimistic nor pessimistic. And here’s the important news: he scoffed at references to the Great Depression of the 1930s, saying “there’s no comparison.”
Chances are the only way we will really know we are coming out of recession and back into growth is by looking backwards, after we have already started the recovery. And just like it’s darkest before the dawn, we may be ready to come out of this situation precisely when things appear bleakest. We just may not know it until later, after we look backwards.
Hang in there!
RSS Feed
Email Subscribe
75th Anniversary of the 21st Amendment.
The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition.
Wiki
RSS Feed
Email Subscribe
(Photo) Jennifer Aniston Wet T Shirt Pic in New Calendar
Employers cut 533K jobs in Nov., most in 34 years
WASHINGTON — Skittish employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years, catapulting the unemployment rate to 6.7 percent, dramatic proof the country is careening deeper into recession.
The new figures, released by the Labor Department Friday, showed the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.
As companies throttled back hiring, the unemployment rate bolted from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent last month, a 15-year high.
Job losses were widespread, hitting factories, construction companies, financial firms, retailers, leisure and hospitality, and others industries. The few places where gains were logged included the government, education and health services.
The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture was dismal.
The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.
Job losses in September and October also turned out to be much worse. Employers cut 403,000 jobs in September, versus 284,000 previously estimated. Another 320,000 were chopped in October, compared with an initial estimate of 240,000.
Employers are slashing costs to the bone as they try to cope with sagging appetites from customers in the U.S. and in other countries, which are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The carnage — including the worst financial crisis since the 1930s — is hitting a wide range of companies.
In recent days, household names like AT&T Inc., DuPont, JPMorgan Chase & Co., as well as jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., and mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. announced layoffs.
Fighting for their survival, the chiefs of Chrysler LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. will return Friday to Capitol Hill to again ask lawmakers for as much as $34 billion in emergency aid.
RSS Feed
Email Subscribe
Dixie Chicks singer sued for defamation
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines is the target of a defamation lawsuit by the stepfather of one of three 8-year-old boys slain in 1993.
Maines spoke out for three people convicted of the slayings and alleged the stepfather was instead involved in the killings.
Terry Hobbs, stepfather of Steve Branch, who was killed in 1993 with Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, filed suit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Nov. 25. The suit names all three members of the Dixie Chicks, but focuses on Maines.
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Hobbs claims he suffered loss of income, injury to his reputation and emotional distress.
Maines attended a Dec. 19 rally in Little Rock, where she claimed Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols and Jessie Misskelley — known to sympathizers as the "West Memphis Three" — were innocent and that supposed new evidence pointed to Hobbs. Her comments echoed a Nov. 26, 2007, letter that was still on the Dixie Chicks' Web site on Thursday, in which she claimed that new DNA testing of hair from the crime scene linked Hobbs to the killings and that his behavior after the slayings indicated his guilt.
RSS Feed
Email Subscribe
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Subscribe To Us
Posts
All Comments
