Newsweek: The Recession Is Over! But Not for You

newsweek.com:

Irrational exuberance, it's not. But even stagnation would be an improvement over recent history. The U.S. economy shrank at nearly a 6 percent annualized rate between September 2008 and March 2009, a shocking slowdown that pitched the global economy into recession for the first time since World War II. "This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression," Nobel laureate Paul Krugman said in January. Catastrophe may have been averted. But when economists proclaim a recession over, they're celebrating a technicality: they mean economic output has stopped contracting. And while that is good news, you might wait a while before adding Judy Garland's rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again" to your iPod. GDP growth alone can't feed a family, or pay a mortgage. Cursed with a high national debt load and blessed with a dynamic, growing workforce, the U.S. economy needs annual growth of at least 1.5 percent just to feel like we're standing still.

Read the whole story: newsweek.com

Comments

[kanakokashima]

This is an absolutely absurd cover story. The government has applied both trickle down and trickle up economic theory to combat the recession-- both of which takes considerable time. They are just saying that like a lot of sell-out magazines... Read more on http://letterstotheeditors.wordpress.com

[Marmann]

Elliot Spitzer calls this a "Ponzi Scheme." http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/25/spitzer-federal-reserve-is-a-ponzi-scheme-an-inside-job/

This happened way before Obama was elected.

[baxterblack]

Hearing this news, I feel like someone in my family is being robbed and assaulted right before my eyes and there's nothing I can do about it. And the only "consolation" is Ben Bernake whispering in my ear -- "It really doesn't hurt a bit."

[jillsond]

NarcissisticSpice

[robbrian]

What is it about the MSM that keeps it from writing about the only way to extricate America from the abyss of debt?

We know that when we borrow from the privately owned Federal Reserve system, we must pay interest. We also know that in the past, we created legal tender and issued same without interest.

If you needed funding for your business and you had to choose between the two, would you consciously select the former? Hell no! You would select the option that reduced your costs to a minimum.

Well we have the same opportunity as a society. We used to have debt/interest free legal tender; Colonial Scrip, Pennsylvanian Scrip, Lincoln's Greenbacks, JFK's silver Certificates.

Because none of thes American currencies generated profits for bankers they were driven out through counterfieting, decrees from the King of England, or the supporters met untimely death.

So, there will be no meangingful reform in fiscal policy unless there is cathartic reform in monetary policy.

[1sparrow]

the depression started mid 2007. if you want better news , you have to pay for it. oh, it will last at least 5-6 years, before it goes mediocre.

[desertman]

When a government economic measure does not match common public experience, it has little use outside of academia or the spin-doctoring rooms of the Federal Reserve, White House and Wall Street.

If you ask people simply if they are employed or unemployed, and the response likely would indicate an unemployment rate much closer to 20.6% than the 9.5% being reported.

[HMDMSR]

First things first! Who will the battle between the Freemasons and the Bilderbergs?

[Agent420]

When they say that they recession is over, the do not mean anything about indicators. What it really means is that business is back to normal because bonuses are back in play with billions going to dozens.

[desertman]

There are only bonuses in companies being artificially propped up by the Feds.

[buckeyedave]

the recession is over? really? Yet unemployment keeps rising? What we see is only a decline in the speed of the recession. Since only about 5% of the stimulus funds have been spent. The stimulus is largely a non factor here. In 2010 democrats will have the bulk of said stimulus funds at their disposal.
What we will see is a lot of cash being thrown around at pet projects and claims of how this is working to try to buy votes.
Just watch, the so called stimulus was timed so that most of the funds will be spent in 2010, an election year.
Why the big rush to pass such a huge bill when the bill will not be put in play for 12 months?
Did not congress pass this bill with such urgency that it was not even required you read it before you vote? Why?

[desertman]

Despite the warm feelings and “green shoots” of summer, this contraction is far from over.

[HMDMSR]

Many Americans, including the author of the above article, expect the economy to return to normal, by which they mean a consumption led economy. The author makes reference to the development of the highway sytem in the US, and how it had a positive effect on the economy. This way of thinking must be outgrown. Building the highway system helped Americans squander how much oil? It contributed to how much pollution? How much unnecessary development? We need to come up with an economy based on balance and sustainability, not ont one based on endless growth.

[Carolab]

Correct. Community models are the sustainable way to go and yet the big plan is for global trade, global financial control.

[Carolab]

Consolidated under the Fed and other "world central banks", via the IMF and the BIS.

[PhilipTaylor]

Do you have a link to this Community Model Concept?

[themainpoint]

What recession? Isn't this just an ongoing, massive transfer of American wealth from the masses to a few groups? Isn't the destruction of our living standards happening just slowly enough that people don't freak and blatantly enough that people can't even believe it?

We'just transferred tillions of taxpayer dollars for handouts to banks and their investors. Even though these same actors were the primary cause of the housing meltdown, they got a taxpayer handout while American homeowners lost their equity and safety net. Yet homeowners still owe banks the full sum of the inflated prices!

Oil companies got their unearned handout by speculation when oil prices spiked despite no idecrease in supply, raising consumer prices for absolutely everything that is transported.

Trillions of our tax dollars have gone to unecessary war.

As the middle class disappears and wages go down despite an increase in productivity, corporations and big investors rake in even bigger profits.Unions with their protections have declined steadily. Now this ought to promote a healthy work ethic!

This so-called recession is for average Amercans, despite all the nonsense about "sharing the pain."

And now it appears that we're about to sit by as Congress transfers what's left to the Wealth Care Industry, under the title of "health care reform."

I don't have the answers,, but this is no regular recession.

Who needs a king when you have the US Congress to hand the reins of our childens' future over to corporations like these?

[SammyD]

The answer is revolution as per the Constitution.

[RyanCSmith]

I think it would be more accurate to say the bleeding has stopped, but that doesn't mean we're anywhere near out of the woods with 10% unemployment and chronic underemployment everywhere.

[jmpurser]

It's a medical truism that all bleeding stops one way or another.

[Carolab]

NYT Weekend Opinionator: Is Wall Street Picking Our Pockets?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/weekend-opinionator-is-wall-street-picking-our-pockets/

[CaptainStormfield]

http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/

Someone certainly is. Spitzer was going after the fraud in mortgage lending when they
decided to make an example out of him.

[Carolab]

More importantly, he was also reopening his investigation into AIG's offshore reinsurance companies -- Gen Re, Coral Re, etc.

[nellpost]

Patience is a virtue!

[EyeballKid]

Well, for sure, THEY'VE got theirs. Geithner couldn't have a happier smile. What I like about the current layout of the HuffPost is that we can be pointed to the Newsweek article while we read Huffington's column on what's really happening to the REAL economy (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/states-forced-to-cut-serv_b_244039.html).

We don't need any more reason to be bitter and cynical, especially if we have extended family or friends who have to rely on social services to maintain a modicum of a "quality of life." Indeed, it is the "perfect storm of suffering." Meanwhile, the banksters are rolling in the cash, given to them by... US... at the direction of... THEM-- the federal government and its bedpartners, the Fed and the investment banks themselves. Spitzer was right. It's the greatest Ponzi Scheme in recorded history, and those who are smiling are the ones who are at the top of the heap.

We should also be aware that the president who got elected on a theme of "change" for the common person on the street has also partaken in the engineering of this heist of the public wealth. He didn't get it right. He wasn't close. In fact, he took off in the opposite direction and ran away from serving those who voted for him. Where are the jobs? Where's the return of manufacturing? We know that the banks are happy. So what?

[MyTake]

How correct you are.

Would someone please develop a website that trains the FAST FOOD satiated Americans on how to MASS PROTEST the White House and Wall Street and take back your country!

[itssafetosay]

Exactly. The disconnect between what is really happening in our country to millions of people and what is happening on wall street and capital hill is the worst i have ever seen in my lifetime. It's especially disheartening to see that the man many of us voted for, and fought for, is so unlike the man who campaigned with an "audacity of hope" and change. Someone, who for the first time in years, would fight for the common man.

It's not a matter of giving him more time to fix the mess of the last 8 years and longer, when he has supported and kept in place the same corrupt system and people who were here before. If I could see some evidence that he is displeased with this financial heist and is trying to do something for the people of this country, not just the rich financial sector running this country, then I'd feel better. But the bottom line is I feel duped and stupid.

I think I feel especially disappointed because I believe he is one of the smartest presidents to come along in a very long time. He seems to have many admirable qualities, unlike Bush. He seems like someone who would do what's right no matter what. But he has either proven to be too easily swayed or the system as it is and those in power, are just too powerful. If that's the case, then when and how is anything ever going to change?

[pokethis]

I feel the same way.