Friday, October 30, 2009

Color me skeptical.

So the talking head on the local morning news announced, in her most bubbly tone of voice, that the recession is over! As of yesterday! Sure, unemployment will continue to rise and consumer confidence, already at its lowest ebb ever, was likely to continue plummeting like a paralyzed falcon, but GDP had grown. Better than a "jobless recovery", we seem to have invented the "recoveryless recovery"; nobody's working and nobody's buying anything, but gosh darn it, we feel good about ourselves, so it's a recovery!

Never mind that all that "GDP growth" was imaginary, based on moving buckets of water from one end of the pool to another in hopes of raising the water level...

15 comments:

JimB said...

"Cash for Clunkers" pumped up the GDP in the last quarter making a great sound bite for the evening news. What are they going to do in the next quarter when the GDP drops like a rock due to very few car sales????

Word ver=conables... how appropriate

Tango Juliet said...

Massive government spending accounts for the "growth" in GDP.

Anonymous said...

Sure, the economy is really great. I get to say goodbye today to several co-workers today getting laid-off because the company is cutting off funding for capital projects. But hey, we'll make a profit this year.

The economy will be even better once Obamacare and Cap & Tax are heaped on top of SOX and all the other crap we have to drag along.

cj said...

Well duh! People voted, and this is the 'Hope' part that they voted for.

But sorry, I need to go meet with the rest of my virtual team who are all in India since almost no one left in the US seems to have a job. I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear that everything's honky dory over here. Of course, the next hour will be spent explaining 'honky dory'.

Chris said...

Paralyzed falcon? Has someone been channeling Bored of the Rings?

Anonymous said...

Well, lessee: If GDP includes government spending, and the government is running a helluva deficit, shouldn't that deficit be subtracted, not added? :-)

Sorta like a guy who's just borrowed a hundred grand hollering, "Look at me! I'm rich!"

Art

Alan said...

So when the economy was actually good, the media said it was bad because Bush was in office. Now when the economy is bad, they say it's good because Obama is in office.

Makes sense to me...

George said...

Up here in Canuckistan, we've been getting the same message from politicians ... federal and provincial. I don't know how anyone can say, with a straight face, that we have recovered from the recession when the economy of our biggest and best trading partner still resembles warm dog meat.

It doesn't seem to matter; Conservative and Liberal politicians speak with forked tongue.

Regards.

WV = rible. Perfect!

Tam said...

"Paralyzed falcon? Has someone been channeling Bored of the Rings?"

Y'know, "channeling", "fully internalized"... it's such a fine line. :D

TJP said...

So at what point do we get to say that the Stimulus has/hasn't worked? If it has, then the fiscal conservatives were right all along. If not, then there was no point in ramming through five-alarm emergency legislation.

The traditional, 20th century method has been to expand government during weak economic periods. Suddenly the Great Unwashed have realized that taxes hurt. This has lead to confusion and frustration for those with an economics disability, hence the "teabagger" and "domestic terrorist" labels.

You have to love our social engineers, though. When all else fails, misanthropy is the answer.

Bram said...

TJP - The Stimulus bills (there were 2 of them) worked exactly as designed. Government grew, special interest groups were paid off and my taxes are increasing.

Will said...

FDR tried to spend his way out of the Great Depression, and it didn't work, either. Morganthal (sp), his money man, admitted it about 1940.

Will said...

Not sure were the money went, but a local talk radio host says each clunkers deal cost the .gov about 24 THOUSAND dollars! That's one hell of an overhead.

Kristophr said...

If the treasury prints enough currency, we will all be millionaires ... and a cup of Starbucks Crude will cost a million as well.

The spike in the DOW is not keeping up with inflation, folks.

Lynx217 said...

The economy ain't been good in years. The economy will be back on track when all the builders are back to work, from the steel workers to the masons to the electricians and elevator guys. They're the first to get laid off, the last to get rehired. I know... my man's been laid off 3 of the last 5 YEARS. It BITES. And the union will banish you if you take other work to feed your family, even if it's not in your field. So pft to both the conservatives and liberals on this one. I don't think either side has the slightest clue what is REALLY wrong. But does anyone know how to fix it? REALLY fix it? I haven't heard a good solution yet. I want to see Obama, Bush, and all the other politicians survive on a $10/hr job. Try THAT!

- Disgruntled