patrick.net

Next? We're still in the last.

Just because things stopped getting worse in 2009 doesn't mean we left that recession. The economists are just playing word games.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CIVPART

Total employees fell from 138M to 130M. It only stopped there because deficit spending rose from $200B to $1.4T:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=1FI

Bellingham Bob says

Next? We're still in the last.

I'd say we're in the same depression, and on the next downward leg of it, but maybe we're mincing words...

Yeah, every Recession of this magnitude has at least two legs down.

Bellingham Bob says

People still don't really understand that the 2003-2007 good times were just from the housing bubble -- the bubble didn't follow from the good times, the housing bubble actually provided them.

I'll buy that. It's largely why there was a strong bounce back after 2001. And that huge surge of economic activity that was pulled forward is largely why we're dipping down so severely these days.

Bellingham Bob says

People still don't really understand that the 2003-2007 good times were just from the housing bubble -- the bubble didn't follow from the good times, the housing bubble actually provided them.

Exactly, we never fully recovered from the 2001 recession because the housing bubble obscured the non-recovery. The so-called "lost decade" is of the bankster industry's creation.

I found this chart today, that illustrates the effect of high energy costs on the recession beautifully.

http://datadepot.msresearch.us/Track.aspx?t=72

Plot the green dots, every time Gas $2.70 and bellow there is rapid growth. That glimmer of hope is squashed as people take their extra money and dump in Oil which makes gas more expensive, which cost more to get raw materials to support your business model. Markets and the economy starts going south again, and doesn't pick up, until gas is around $2.70 a gallon again.

The next President will be elected on America's lack of energy policy. Or I should say, the misuse there of. Or better yet, the Greeny bullshit gobbledygook in lieu of. Or the promise to stop the speculation.

We may end up even worse, but the next President, will have Gas prices as the Lion share of his/her campaign issues.