Larry Summers on This Week: 'Everyone Agrees The Recession Is Over'
Isn't that great news? He also told George Stephanopoulos on This Week there will be "growth in the spring." (Just like Chauncy Gardiner in "Being There.")
But it isn't true. The recession isn't over until jobs increase, and that's not really happening. Summers is saying we "only" lost 11,000 jobs last month, and that's not exactly true. The numbers were brought down by a number of factors, including the large numbers of people who have given up and stopped looking for work.
Nonetheless, everyone agrees Larry Summers is a Very Serious Person, so I will take his word for it and just sit here, waiting for my pony.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And Mr. Summers, let me begin with you, and let's start with just the overall economic situation right now, especially on jobs. We saw that drop in unemployment in November, but private economists predict that unemployment is likely to head back up. Mark Zandi sees it peaking at about 10.6 percent next year. Others say it could go up to 11 percent. Is that in line with your forecast?
SUMMERS: George, here is what I know. We were talking about depression, we were talking about the financial system collapsing. Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over, and the question is what the pace of the expansion is going to be. These things happen in stages. First, GDP goes up. That has happened. Then, hours that are worked by workers who already have jobs go up. That's starting to happen. Then employment goes up. We got very close to that this year, this month, with only 11,000 jobs lost. And then unemployment starts to come down. So these problems weren't made in a month or a year, and they are going to take a substantial time to solve. But what we can take satisfaction from is that we've walked back from the brink. And you know, forget what we say. Most professional forecasters are now looking for a return to job growth by spring.
Now, when job growth starts, more people are going to be looking for work, so it will take a little longer for the unemployment statistics to come down, but make no mistake, we were losing 700,000 a month when President Bush turned the economy over to President Obama. The number last month was 11,000.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me pin you down on that, though. You believe the economy is actually going to be creating jobs in the spring.
SUMMERS: That is the judgment of most professional forecasters. That's right, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So given that...
SUMMERS: If you look at the employment statistics, they will show employment growth. They were showing losing 700,000 a month. Last month, they showed losing 11,000 jobs. They will bounce from month to month, but I believe that, as do most professional forecasters, that by spring, employment growth will start to be turning positive.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So given that, we saw the president allowed some job creation ideas earlier this week. What is the upper limit on what he will sign into law in terms of new job creation measures early next year? $100 billion?
SUMMERS: The president is going to work with Congress to do what's necessary. George, it's a bit of a Washington thing to put this in terms of price tags. For example, the president is doing a whole set of things, working with other...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the American people want to...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: It's not a Washington thing.
SUMMERS: To promote our exports. That doesn't have a -- that does not have a direct cost. But the president has talked about doing things for infrastructure. It doesn't cost anything to encourage banks, as the president will be doing, to meet their responsibilities and expand the flow of credit to small business.
We're in a very different -- we are in a very special kind of economic situation, and frankly, jobs have to be the top priority, and every bill is going to be a jobs bill going forward. We hope we can find common ground. We emphasize support for small businesses, repairing the nation's infrastructure. These ought to be things that everybody can agree on.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, let me just pin you down, though, one more time on that. You did lay out a number of ideas that don't cost money, but extending unemployment costs money. Aid to states and local governments costs more money. Investing in infrastructure costs money. So what is the upper limit on what President Obama will sign?
SUMMERS: The president is going to do what's necessary to respond to this crisis. He's put a figure of $50 billion on the infrastructure support that he proposes. His proposals on unemployment insurance are primarily a continuation of the legislation that the Congress has already passed and that has been put in place. And he recognizes that when we take new steps, we have to do it in the context of a framework that is fiscally responsible. We can't just look in isolation at one measure. We've got to look at the $8 trillion in deficit over the next 10 years that the president inherited, and start making progress with respect to those deficits. That's what the president did in his budget. That's what the health care bill does with the most consequential set of health care reforms that have ever been put forward, and they are now on the brink of passage.
Could still be job creation problems - even flat numbers are not good enough if stagnant.
Also we could still face a "double dip" recovery where the numbers fall again (that would be very bad)
I hope we start getting some very solid and sustained job growth numbers - THEN the recession will be truly over and the economy ready for the next bubble.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
1. The casino mentality is going strong
2. We have a multi billion dollar trade deficit
3. We are years behind Europe as far as climate and economic sustainability
4. We are slotted to spend $700,000,000,000 a year for the next 12 years on DEFENSE!
$1 trillion per year.
The $700 billion is only the Dept of Defense, and they don't do defense, you find 'defense' at the Dept of Homeland security.
$1 trillion per year and rising.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
dropping a sh*tload of bombs on 3rd world countries is many things, "defense" ain't one of them!
Our insane military budge coupled with our lack of proper funding for domestic issues, looks like we're the idiots who spent $10K on an alarm system for their $400.00 POS hand me down Ford Pinto.
I am glad you mentioned Pinto. I use the story of the Pinto when converting neocons to our side.
http://motherjones.com/politics/1977/09/pinto...
In every program that goes to them and the results of their action is over 54 percent of our national budget...
And Emanuel did not have Obama to only give them the money if it fit his paygo policy..
The corporated-republican democrats have taken over our party with the recruiting , funding and suporting by Emanuel and now Obama has join his club...
None
As far as the banking empire is concern for now... It they really had one.... They have received our wealth and are very happy...
How do they expect to get American jobs back it they have been outsourced overseas.. ON top of that they are still giving work visa to foreign countries workers like India ,, to come into our country and take the professional jobs HERE>>>
As far as I am concern Obama , Emanuel , Blue dogs , centrists and some of the progressives are full of BS>..
They have become paid assassins for the Corporate monopolies and even some foreign countries..
We should be recruiting real democrats to run against "ALL" the inconbent republicans and democratic-republicans , I will never know... I would not give a penny to none of these paid corporate representatives.
These corporate democrats which are in office will never receive another penny or vote from me...
They have become arrogant about not keeping their promises and shoving the corporate policies down our throats... Just who in the h... gave them the authority to tell and force us to buy what in the h... they demand if we wish not to???
There is no difference between Obama and the democrats following Emanuel's corporate policies than that of Bush / Cheney shoving it down our throats for the previous 8 years..
..
None
and buy everything at fire sale prices with our very own money!
Hallelujah!
I so totally love this system. Hey, now that the worst is over, I have an idea. Why don't I spend the next few years working my ass off so I can afford the interest on my own money that the banksters get at no-cost from our wonderful government (now with more Change and Hope electrolytes, it is what we all crave!)
Dance, dance! you fools! LOL
Silent Monks Singing Halleluia
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
But there was no dancing! ;-)
I'm sorry, but how much does this fucking idiot get paid to spew this bullshit? The jobs lost went down in November because everyone was gearing up for the Christmas season you nitwit pie face. Go shove a few more prime ribs down your fat face jag off. I think it may be making you smarter!
Professional forecasters... What a joke this man is.
You say nothing.
I am no economist, but from what I have read the serious issues that caused the collapse have not been addressed.
They gave a lot of money to big banks and nothing to American working families.
Larry did such a good job at Harvard, Obama just has to rely on his acumen.
How could one Administration hire so many people that proves the Pete Principal; well besides Bushco that is. Well, ok besides Clinton too. Well, ok, besides King Bush the First also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDrXr3E_3E
Dr Herbert West.
And stand close to security.
I don't know about that
Looks like his hairline is still receding.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
is getting longer.
This past week I answered a call from someone I knew in high school. We hadn't spoken in 32 years. My old friend was desperate. He had gotten the flu, was fired from his job, his wife was not working, and they fell behind on their mortgage payments. They're being forclosed on. Without jobs or much in savings they're going to soon be homeless. By the way they have two children.
Although the lender was willing to somewhat renegotiate the loan, the process requried so many thousands up front to close the deal. That's why he was calling. He needed enough money to close. I was his last hope, and I don't have it.
With health care costs still the leading cause of bankruptcy, and no reform coming anytime soon, and a jobless recovery, and foreclosure still going up, this guy has the nerve to say the recession is over.
Some idiot wrote a letter to the Dallas Morning Nudes claiming FDR's spending policies didn't relieve the Depression.
When actually, he reduced unemployment by 60%, and the only second dip was when he listened to deficit hawk republicans of his day to cut back on the spending.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
but that is untrue, tho it certainly did give the economy a boost.
After all, if 1 3-year war could end a depression, then 2 8-year+ wars should have us just rolling in jobs and money.
... claiming that WWII ended the depression, is jut another desperate attempt at re-writing history by conservatives trying to deflate the success of FDR's domestic policies (there were some obvious misses, but as a whole FDR was a fantastically successful president, and somewhat of a populist... which no wonder drives conservatives insane even to this day)
Also conservatives need to understand that countries in the midst of a depression are poor, and can't afford to wage war. Most definitively a country still reeling from a massive depression can't fight 2 concurrent fronts in the largest military engagement in history.
Actually it did help end the Depression, but not in the way people think.
It pretty much decimated the European and Asian industrial base so that for the next 12 years or so we were the only game in town
And we didn't have to provide as many jobs because of our own war dead.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
and heralding an unmitigated expansion. Though...
why FDR had to cope with a depression to begin with.
It is so easy to be a conservative, eat other people's food, swing your feces all over the place, and then spend your downtime criticising the cleaning crew because they just missed a spot in the carpet with your sh*t in it...
What's also odd is that FDR often spoke of priming the pump, an early version of trickle-down economics, and often consulted with business leaders over policies.
He's one of the few examples of that actually working.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I have no problem with business leaders being consulted, as long as labor representatives are also consulted for example. That is what actual leadership is.
We have absolutely none of that any more...
FDR helped make it possible for Unions to strike with the Wagner Act of 1935, although some of it was taken back by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (overriding Truman's veto).
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
-they seem to think they can convince people that unemployment isn't bad at all, the economy is booming.
But its hard to convince someone who has not had a job to 8 months that he/she is employed and has health coverage.
The "acceptable" forms of unemployment roughly 5-8% has the brunt born mostly by minorities.
Then when their kids run wild because ma and pa aren't there too look after them, it becomes a "War on Crime" issue.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Or a "morality" issue.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
A good reading day at Naked Capitalism (Yves Smith et al)
Edward Harrison here
here
here
here
There is no way the recession is over when the consumers have turned into citizen grinches.
-----
Zero Hedge here
The American citizens, stealthily called consumers so they forget everything and spend, spend, spend, have lost trillions in wealth.
The working class (62% of the population) had almost all of its wealth in their homes, which have been hit the hardest. We are a long ways from being out of the woods.
-----
The influx of 328k people into the EUC program suggests that the jobs report of only 11k lost was cooked.
Zero Hedge here
-----
here
We need 100,000 jobs created per month to stand still. We are still loosing jobs.
-----
Bruce E. Levine here
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Sometimes I wonder if they want to keep the jobs scarce
And health care reform as nothing more than a pipe dream
Because as long as we're worked longer and longer hours
And depend on these jobs for our health insurance
We won't be able to better our lot by looking for better work that might cause the unfair ones to fail
And we might start actively pursuing politics and demonstrating
And they don't want us to rock the boat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBwsG8ubFw
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Let them eat cake!!!!!!!......
Who can afford cake at a time like this?
are the biggest enemies of feudalism.
The broader measure of unemployment currently stands around 17%.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/ec...
But our vast economy muddles on. I think what we are seeing is a mirror to Japan’s zombie banks in our employment figures. The zombie banks in Japan were caused by the banks continuing to prop up insolvent companies by infusion of capital they didn’t have. Both the banks and the firms were dead, but neither accepted it.
We still have an economy, but not one that helps anybody other than the already entrenched (bankers, insurance, health-care). Everyone else is shell-shocked. Our economy continues to be propped up by the banks, the military, insurance and health, but everyone else is on life-support.
Finance and banks are supposed to be there to support the rest of the economy – they cannot sustain on their own. The use of the military takes us backward. And insurance and health…well…
It’s the rest that need to come off of life support. Until that happens, we remain in our Great Recession.
Remember during the Reagan-Bush-Clinton years how the US was going to become a "service economy" as our manufacturing base exitted stage left?
No need to make anything of value.
Financial services, cleaning services, food services - take your pick.
Bzillionaires .. or serfs.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Yeah. A service based economy is fine - as long as there is something left to service.
http://ccfit.nsu.ru/~shutov/hookers/hookers.jpg
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
which the 1% seem to get the most of. Trading numbers in a computer around won't work for very long unless there is some solid source of wealth creation behind those numbers.
In fact some economists suggest that stock markets and savings accounts are just a method of locking up money so that inflation doesn't go berserk in a prosperous economy. Those institutions are supposed to serve the people creating the wealth, not just those "managing" it.
Obama must have an inkling, don't you think? It really looks like he just doesn't care what sort of world his children will inherit.
Notice Summers didn't actually answer the question that was asked. Note also that Stephanopoulos neither calls him on it, nor asks for some back up on who these "most professional forecasters" are. What a useless show. Should just call it: This Week With Propaganda
Just to be clear, are these the forecasters who didn't see the housing bubble collapse, or the tech bubble collapse, or the manufacturing job collapse? Or are they the ones who knew where the WMDs are in Iraq?
Excuse me if my belief in "professional forecasters" has become a bit strained...
For some reason this seems appropriate to this thread:
Raw Video: Italian Leader Punched in the Face
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
... that Berlusconi idiot had been running his mouth for the better part of the past 2 decades.
Sometimes a punch in the f*cking mouth is the best way of asking the vermin to sh*t the f*ck up already.
Ya that's the answer.
I am not going to shed a tear because some asshole has gotten a concentrated dose of karma in the face.
It's just that HE uses violence. My mom is from Italia and so Silvio is constantly discussed in our family.
As if that was even possible. Frankly it is a tad appalling that a president of a democracy has to get punched in the face. But sometimes there is no recourse left after a systemic approach by the elites to ignore any attempts communicate by the people suffering their policies.
I always find that the people who have delivered the most harm on us, are the ones who cry the loudest when payback is exerted even in the slightest of forms.
Frankly, if more people at the top were pegged a notch or two, a much better world would ensue. That being said, I am sure the assailant will be nothing more than a "mentally perturbed" lone guy...
Keep those pitchforks and torches handy folks.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Throwing aa punch he had a better chance of hitting the target.
Your better off clinging to a carrot on a thread hanging over a cliff then buying this constant load of crap.
Bring the next freaking bubble-scam on already.
We've been sold a pile of crap, and things are going to continue this way for our Nation, until we realize that long ago...the Corporates seized control over our own Government, our Military, and our Media.
This will not change, unless Americans wake up and put an end to this madness.
I fear, it's much, much too late.
The reason being is this:
the American people (for the most part) have been systematically "dumbed down" to the point...they no longer, lack the capability for true reasoning.
They have been led into the "American Dream" mindset.
And, as the late George Carlin once quipped:
"...it's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep...to believe in it."
I believe we're in the teeth of a depression. The classic definition of a depression is two quarters of negative growth in the GDP. I think the stimulus was a strategy calculated to generate a blip in GDP big enough to avert an official consensus definition of a depression.
However, the fundamentals of the economy scream depression. The ranks of the jobless, homeless, working poor, homeowners with troubled mortgages, and bankruptcies have continued unabated. Past economic policies have off-shored too many jobs--especially manufacturing and services--and have transferred more wealth to fewer people.
Conservatives deride any discussion of class as "class warfare," but the middle class is being forced into the ranks of the poor with such ferocity that it can't be seen as anything but warfare. Summers and Geithner are covering up the sins wrought, in part, by institutions and policies they oversaw.
Agreed.
As far as I can tell nothing fundamental has changed other than the printing of more money that is handed over to banks to lend back to us at interest. Obama should not have voted for the bailout.
Next year, unless something has changed, we are actually in for yet another wave of major home foreclosures the like of which lead to our economy crashing in the first place. This one may very well be the worst too.
I don't expect the economic dust to settle until the end of 2012, if not even later. I fully expect for this thing to be a long ride, especially as we reach official umemployment numbers at 20%+.
2012-2014? It seems to me that we are in a depression, but that little fact will never be officially televised to the people. The govt will play with the statistics so official unemployment numbers stay in the teens. Maybe this is the new normal, a big L shaped "recovery".
We are so optimistic in this country. My little pessimistic soul asks, who says it will get better? What jobs are going to bring us back to prosperity? C'mon! Maybe it will just suck for everybody for a really long time. The middle class lifestyle was never guaranteed, it just seemed that way for some people (and those will be the ones most pissed off). At this point, I am really worried about people mentally cracking over this mess. I don't want to see riots, but it seems like it could happen.
In a depression. I choose 12-14 because the waves of foreclosures and mortgage adjustments should be more or less over and a year seems like a good amount of time to recover if we are.
As for the middle-class lifestyle, there is no reason why it should cease to exist. Given our technology and capabilities we should be living even better, much better, than we are. Which leads me to the jobs question.
Where will jobs come from? From new developments in transportation, agriculture, energy, and luxury areas. Those jobs and the higher quality of life associated with the pay and the products are just waiting there for us. The problem is that old tech and old industries are still worth too much money.
Back to the topic I am pretty sure everyone, including the guy of interest here, believes we are actually inside of a long depression that might get worse. There are a lot of people, maybe including him, that have a vested interest in making you or I believe it's all green shoots.
negative growth".
No, that is the definition of a RECESSION not a depression.
For a looooooooonnnnnnggg time.
nope. not for a long ass time.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Which only reinforces my premise. Look at what's happening with healthcare reform. That's having the devil's own time getting passed. Contrast that with the alacrity with which The Stimulus Bill was passed. Even the Republicans realized that they needed to pass the stimulus or send us swirling into an official depression.
To amplify your correction: A depression is defined as two years of decline in GDP rather than two quarters.
I apologize for the error.
my bullshit sensor is tripped just as often as when W. wuz eeeeeeeel preznidente. sick of the revolving door...reap-deregulate-reap-deregulate...
Oy.
Planet Oyyyyyyyyyyy.
when he sez 'everyone agrees'......who the fnck is he talking about?
You couldn't do better to piss me off than having Larry Summers as point man to some sort of Economic Recovery.
I shake my head in disgust and amazement when I see this bozo flap his jowls on the TV. Come to think of it, I did the same thing to GWB.
I'm with Matt Taibbi on this one "Obama's Big Sellout"
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31...
telling the homeless and hungry that the recession is over.
Some stuff you can't make up!
place was clean and spotless before his guests were to show up.
How truly incompetent he actually is.
Who cares what Summers has to say about anything. We know he is an Ayaan Rand acolyte, so his views are clear. Those people don't deal with reality and when faced with it, simply deny it exists. Who I do care about and decreasingly so, is Obama. It is his actions that matter. Summers is the man who is supposed to take direction. It seems the other way around at this moment. Am I disappointed in Obama, yes, am I surprised, no! I warned family and friends during the election he would severely disappoint them, as well as commenting on several blogs the same thing. Now I hear progressives and liberals in bewilderment over his actions. Had anyone had taken the time to do as I did and look at his campaign donations and where they really came from, instead of buying the line he was funded by the people with $25 donations, they would've known this was coming. Obama is now a full partner with the washington machine. As soon as progressives and liberals get that the sooner those who defend him at all costs will stop doing so, and join people like the unions, the Congressional Black Caucus, the gay community, and those of us who do not have blinders on to challenge this president. If it damages him politically, so be it, maybe then he will start heeding our words. If we fail to challenge Obama, for fear of weakening him, the way we failed to challenge Bill Clinton, we will continue to see the conservative policies eminating from this white house. Unless he has something to lose from the left, he will continue to ignore us and our demands. It is beyond disgusting to see this president tell progressives and liberals we have to take what we can get, while constantly catering to the right and the conservatives in the Democratic party. If he thinks that's a winning coalition for 2010 and 2012, then let him win with that coalition and we should let him know now he is on his own. Let him know we will no longer be taken for granted. If the country is going to follow destructive, right wing conservative policies, let them come from a Republican. But we on the left can no longer allow the centrist Democratic coalition tear down our brand and our responsibility to help the working and poor people of this nation. Let Obama and the conservative governing Democratic leadership in congress lose the power they obviously covet more than their responsibility as legislators. I can't remember the number of times I heard Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid tell us during the Bush years, give us the power and will make the positive change the American public demands. What a load of bullshit. They have taken the power we gave them and told us to get lost. Ralph Nader was right in 2000, there's not worth a dimes worth of difference in today's democraitc party and republicans. Yes, there are many true blue progressives and liberals who want to do the right thing, but the leadership has marginalized them, so effectively Nader was right.
The professional forecasters have already shown what they know...
NUTIN!!
Translation: "What The Fuck Have You Been Smoking?"
Main Street still cannot get funds/loans that they need; Unemplyment (U3) figures stand at 10.0%, while U6 figures stand at 17.0%; Wholesale prices (excepting energy, food, & healthcare) and inventory are still shrinking; Working wages and hours worked are still shrinking. What are you thinking, anyway?
Oh, wait. I answered my own question. Wall Street & TBTF Banksters are seeing increased wages and/or bonuses, AND profit outlooks for the Healthcare Industrial Complex (thanks to Congress) are brightening.
Never fucking mind - I know where you are coming from, you Corporatist shill you.
Fuck you, very much, asshat!
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
this mentality is more of the same on wall street.
they will be fine until the money runs out.
this nation is going through a decline of wealth due to deregulated capitalism.
reagan put capitalism on steroids.
the rest is history.
the recession is only a way of explaining to a country in denial that we are toast.
or as i heard a person state stick a fork in us we are done.
what kind of universe would it be if capitalism was successful?
profits over people will self destruct.
capitialism leads to a very selfish short term mentality that will even create wars for profits and cares less if 50 million dont have health insurance.
we are bottom feeders in america, the worst of the worst in the industrialized world.
our decline is karma defined that few understand even jesus stated what we sow we reap.
reap time in america.
As far as the banking empire is concern for now... They have received our wealth and are very happy...
How do they expect to get American jobs back it they have been outsourced overseas.. ON top of that they are still giving work visa to foreign countries workers like India ,, to come into our country and take the professional jobs HERE>>>
As far as I am concern Obama , Emanuel , Blue dogs , centrists and some of the progressives are full of BS>..
They have become paid assassins for the Corporate monopolies and even some foreign countries..
We should be recruiting real democrats to run against "ALL" the inconbent republicans and democratic-republicans , I will never know... I would not give a penny to none of these paid corporate representatives.
These corporate democrats which are in office will never receive another penny or vote from me...
They have become arrogant about not keeping their promises and shoving the corporate policies down our throats... Just who in the h... gave them the authority to tell and force us to buy what in the h... they demand if we wish not to???
There is no difference between Obama and the democrats following Emanuel's corporate policies than that of Bush / Cheney shoving it down our throats for the previous 8 years..
They had their hands in the pockets of the corporations so long , they do not care just who in the h... knows it.
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/11/blue-...
..
None
-especially when you observed "They have become arrogant about not keeping their promises ..."
They have gotten away with the most horrible crimes imaginable... they are thinking they're untouchable by the Law, or by the People. All they have to do (they believe) is flood us with propaganda 24/7/365. I think they're in for a big surprise! And not a new Lear Jet for Christmas.
Susie, do you have any evidence that there will not be growth in the spring? I'd like to see it. Every financial planner I deal with agrees things are slowly getting better and we will see job growth by spring. Why you insist on screaming that the sky is falling is beyond me.
If you read Paul Krugman we require 300,000 new jobs PER MONTH for FIVE YEARS just to get back to "normal".
It's very much like Looking Glass World, where one must run as fast as possible to stay in place, and twice as fast to get anywhere.
Its almost like our successive "Bubble Economies" have ruined the US for even an 'excellent' economy. Sort of like taking meth. After a while one can't function without it.
Why are you so irrationally optimistic about what mouthpieces for people who are richer than Christ tell you? Do you have any evidence that there will be growth in the spring? I'd like to see it. And not something from the bullshitting cribs sheets your pals, the financial planners, receive from their financial planning overlords.
Every financial planner you deal with who agrees things are slowly getting better and we will see job growth by spring are salesmen who are on a commission. They get money when you buy. And this spring, when you have to sell to make ends meet, they'll make loads more. They make more money when you lose. They're big liars, you know. Why you think Susie's concerns are groundless are beyond me. She's not getting a commission like your FP 'pals' are.
me-oww!
Uh, hello? Of course "financial planners" are going to tell you things are going to get better. They don't make any money if people don't buy into their bullshit financial products, do they? Hey everybody! Ckerst says we just have to clap louder and everything's gonna be ok. God, I'm so relieved!
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
His bonus buddies agree that THEIR recession is over.. What about the country which they've been cannibalizing? His priorities are very bloody clear. How dare Obama leave this piece of self-serving trash and the other shifty bastards of his economic team in place? (Elizabeth Warren is the only official of any consequence who appears trustworthy at this point so I don't give her much more time.) So many good citizens, the real strength of our country, are suffering, while these crooks congratulate themselves on their 'work'- in public, with a straight face.
The days are getting shorter and we need light not bullshit and there only seems to be bullshit.. everywhere- bullshit. Vote for bull or vote for shit.. Coke or Pepsi- or polluted water.. I gotta stop.
We're in a depression now.
He and the kids in his sandbox can declare all the shit they want, like I just did, but it doesn't make it so. They desperately want it to be over.
Sorry, with the kind of losses we have seen with the bursting bubbles, the bailouts that banks used to multiply their wealth, the incessant pressure on individuals with foreclosures, jacked up credit card rates, the preparation for the rich man's next greatest windfall bubble, cap and trade, we are still rushing toward hell in an out-of-control hand cart. And these fucks don't care. They just want little people to put more money in their already full-to-overflowing pockets.
So expect more of the "Olly olly oxen free" bullshit from the bulls.
me-oww!
"To promote our exports. ..."
What exports, Larry? Military hardware? Farm equipment?? What?? We don't manufacture a fucking thing in this country anymore; We sent all our manufacturing industries to China, all our tech jobs to India. So what else does the U.S have to export - outside of bullshit, that is.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
Larry Summers is smoking the good stuff.
NOBODY 2012
increase"
That's not true. Obviously you don't understand the definition of the economic term "recession". The current recession ended in June when the GDP went positive. Look it up if you don't believe me.
not a recession? And tell me, did they use the same formula to determine the GDP they've used in years past? I ask because I've seen cheats change formulas for determination to suit their needs. Been personally targeted by that shit.
me-oww!
capitalist economic systems are. The previous poster is technically correct.
We need to understand that whatever is good for the "market and economy indicators" it is not necessarily coupled to what is good in terms of basic humanity and decency.
You could very well have a jobless recovery, which indicates the end of a recession. In technical terms it means that a few people are back at making a boatload of money, and those people are not you nor me nor anyone you're likely to know.
I think most Americans haven't noticed that their productivity has more than kept up with inflation, it is just that they are too focused on working hard to realize that their salaries and earning power are the ones which haven't kept up.
LOL... dance, dance idiots!
I'm not an economist. I'm just a working computer programmer. Yet I saw the obvious signs of pending economic collapse five years ago. I saw the obvious signs of a recession in 2007, long before anyone with any authority was admitting it. I now see an ongoing recession with no job growth, and the seeds of yet another economic collapse within a year or two.
If I see it, why doesn't this person? I mean, sure, to some degree the economy is based on people's perception of the economy. But what we have now is only the hollow illusion of an economy. We're not getting anywhere worth going until we admit the problem, regulate bankers back to the 1930s, raise taxes, and start pouring money on job growth rather than on banks.
... and in basic research at least, we have been in a somewhat permanent depression state for the better part of this decade really.
We're becoming a nation of nursing assistants eating at Subway every day.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
Gosh darned the massahs are really good to us, look at them caring for our strength of character and our eating habits! They sure do know best!
Most state budgets will be cut to the point where most nursing homes will start to fail. We are headed back to the 1930's and 40's.
A little story from back in those days. You see, back in the late 70's and early 80's for a period of 8 years I worked in a nursing home that had 3 floors. One floor was dedicated to hadicapped and mentaly retarded people.
One of the residents, 'Don', told me a story. You see Don lived in the county home down in St. Peter Minnesota back in the 40's and it seemed they had an orderly that worked there that like the patients to do everything his way. One day Don was going to the shower and the fellow wouldn't let Don use any hot water. Don complained. The orderly promtly broke both of Don's ankles and left him lying on the shower room floor for a period of a couple of weeks. He was given food and water, but had to live right where he was for a couple of weeks. By the time he was given medical care, his ankles were beyond help and he was wheel chair bound for the rest of his life. Don was only slightly retarded and many other handicapped patients that live where I worked had long histories with each other, they all confirmed his story. The orderly? Nothing happened as this was simply how things were back then. People in this country better get used to the 'wharehouse' mentality for the storage and final disposition of the elderly and handicapped cause that is exactly where we are once again headed. Unless you have money of course.....
"Did you fart?"
"No. That's the sound economists make when they predict stuff."
.
So does his estimate that the recession is over look at each state individually or the country as a whole? I would say the whole country because he can take Alaska and their "growth" and cancel out the pitiful negative situation we have here in Michigan. It's awful here people. But I thank god I am not in California. I feel for those people, it must really hurt. And then our worthless governor was on Meet the press yesterday and was totally sucking up to the Obama administration when she is facing the real possibility of having to cut 20% of our state government.
We must look at our country that we are only as strong as our weakest link.
Really? Just 11,000? What the heck. How come over 1,600,000 people applied for first time unemployment compensation nationaly last month. Just 11,000? Must be from his home state only.....
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