For some time now my Sunday page is dedicated to the Bard of Murdock and I take the day off. The Bard’s poem is posted as usual so not to worry. However, I am writing today because this most important news is being drowned out by the debt ceiling drama of the last many days. The information I am about to share with you would normally dominate all media even the MSM, but instead it has received almost no attention.
Yesterday, Friday, I read a post at the Inform the Pundits blog that knocked my socks off. For two years now, we have been told by our political leaders, by our government, by Fed Chairman Bernanke and, by Treasury Secretary Geithner that the Great Recession officially ended in June of 2009. “Officially” because it was then, we were told, that the GDP had increased X months in a row and that meant that the country had finally began its recovery. We the people living on Main Street America have consistently sad that we aren’t seeing any evidence of a recovery. From our point of view, the country has continued to be in recession. And guess what? We have been right all along and the “experts” were wrong!
From the Inform The Pundits article we learn:
The U.S. Department of Commerce through the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released updated GDP figures today.
This month’s report is especially important because it contains annual revised figures covering the period from 2007 to present. The changes aren’t good.
[...]
Some BEA Report figures that stand out:
- Real GDP from 2007-2010 shrank at an annual rate of 0.3%
- Real disposable personal income revised downward by 0.6%
- Consumer price index revised upward 0.2%
- Q1 2011 GDP growth revised downward to 0.4%
- Q2 2011 GDP growth reported at 1.3%
Please, spend a few minutes thinking about those numbers. This article should be considered a must read. THERE HAS BEEN NO RECOVERY! We intuitively knew that there had been no recovery. Now we have the proof. Everybody on Main Street needs to be talking about this everyday through out this election campaign season.
We are still in the greatest recession in our history. All this talk by Obama and Geithner and Bernanke that we must be careful not to do anything that would stop our fragile “recovery” and plunge us into a double dip recession is NONSENSE! There has been no recovery. We were sold a bill of goods on TARP. It did nothing to get us out of recession. We were sold a bill of goods on the Stimulus Package. It did nothing to get us out of recession. We were sold a bill of goods on QE I and QE II. they did nothing to get us out of the recession.
Isn’t it time that all elected and unelected officials is Washington sat back and said we have to stop what we have been doing and reverse course? What does it take to galvanize Americans into a united action to save this blessed country?
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a wake-up call that galvanized America behind a common goal. The financial crisis of 2007-2008 was a wake-up call that should have brought all Americans together to again save our blessed country. It didn’t. This time the threat is not a foreign power. This time we are the threat to the survival of America. We brought this mess on ourselves. If you missed the chance to read the zerohedge.com article linked in yesterday’s Guest Saturday post, I implore you to read it now. This is by far the best and clearest analysis of how we got where we are today that I have seen. Once we all understand how we got into this mess, the way out should be clear to everyone.
There are only two things our country can do to save itself, assuming it is not already too late. We must get serious about reducing government spending and, maybe even more importantly, we must create an environment in which our economy will start growing again and thereby create the jobs that are so desperately needed.
Do you see any sign that the people who govern us are serious about saving America? I don’t. This three-ring circus taking place in Washington on the debt ceiling is disgusting. A handful of Republicans are serious about spending cuts but only a handful. And no one has made any serious proposals to get the economy growing again (cut corporate and business taxes and remove the regulatory constraints to doing business). Over regulation is killing our economy and killing job growth. Please read this short article and watch the video. Atlas is shrugging, my friends, and for good reason.
So, I ask again. What does it take to galvanize Americans behind the common goal of saving America from complete collapse? Is it too late? Must the total collapse occur first before we will unite to save ourselves from the monster we ourselves created?
Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
Adrienne
July 31, 2011
Is it too late? You betcha! It’s simple math and math doesn’t lie. They’ve constructed a welfare society where half the people are takers. We need a cadre of people to oversee and distribute the funds (government workers), and the poor peons caught in the middle get raped without even a kiss beforehand.
All I hear is talk about Medicare (which needs reform), and SS (also in need of fixing) but no one talks about getting rid of the thousands of programs the feds have that are unconstitutional. The feds take our money and then redistribute back to the states that kiss the most a**.
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
I see that I’m not the only one whose blood is boiling. With very few exceptions, none of our elected “representatives” give a damn about America or the people that make up America. They care only for themselves and their Party. How can we expect that those who have willingly participated in dragging this country toward total statism will suddenly change their stripes and lead us out of this mess?
Adrienne
July 31, 2011
…and furthermore – why are we even talking about a national budget instead of talking about all those unconstitutional programs? The feds wouldn’t need all this money if they did what they were supposed to do – defense, defending our border, and interstate highways.
One day last week the juxtaposition of two news reports on our local talk radio station was very interesting. The first was blah, blah, blah about the debt “crisis” and following that report was how the courts upheld Obama’s funding of fetal stem cell research. Just why in hell are the feds funding such things???
And a panel to “study ways in which to cut spending.” How absurd. I bet you and I could sit down and in one evening, fueled by adult beverages, could solve the whole problem. You know what they say about committees.
OK – rant over.
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
Exactly right. Adrienne. The cost of thousands of unconstitutional programs has finally caught up with us. We the people allowed the power to shift from the states to the federal government. Had the power stayed with the states, we might still have some Californias. But the country as a whole would have been far better off. A panel to study ways to cut costs is just another way to kick the can down the road one more time and they are too blind to see that the road is a dead end.
silverfiddle
July 31, 2011
President Obama has brought us the worst recovery since the great depression
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
Others before Obama brought us to the edge of the cliff. Obama is just trying to finish us off.
LD Jackson
July 31, 2011
If this is a recovery, I would hate to see another recession. The Obama administration can talk this game of “recovery” all they want, but what I am seeing everywhere around me tells me this is no recovery.
TexasFred
July 31, 2011
Bingo Larry, dead on target!
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
They really believed that they could continue to deceive us, Larry. They have a very low opinion of We The People.
bunkerville
July 31, 2011
Zero coverage on this. I bet one of the reasons that Obama does not want to limit what he can spend. We are looking at massive layoffs coming. Several companies were just mentioned on Fox that were planning major layoffs.
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
The zero coverage, Bunker, is why I felt compelled to write this post today. By the time the debt ceiling issue is resolved this will be old news as far as the MSM is concerned. It will be up to the bloggers to spread the word.
TexasFred
July 31, 2011
The only thing we have seen from Obama and Company, and ALL of the House and Senate for that matter, is shuck and jive and a healthy does of smoke and mirrors.
If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you’re not a racist, you’ll have to vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you’re not an idiot.
Pretty much sums it up…
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
It is a sad state of affairs, Fred. Very sad.
Roger Gerard
July 31, 2011
There Never Was a Recovery
by Roger Gerard on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 5:09pm
I never believed the hype from the administration that the recovery had begun and only just now has slowed. There never was a recovery. It was a political statement during an election year. Investors reacted to the hype and bought into the stock market to get ahead of the curve. Some companies cleared out their inventories in preparation for new models. The so-called recovery was simply a reaction to the hype and has now cooled. There has not been an increase in consumer demand to fuel a recovery. Consumers and companies are holding on to their cash not knowing what to expect from this administration. Everyone is waiting for the next shoe to drop. The expiration of the previous administration tax cuts may be that shoe.
The country has encouraged debt over saving and sup-prime mortgages over conventional mortgages unlike Canada which did not have a sub-prime crisis. But then they did not have Barney Frank and Chris Dodd either. Germany is on the way to recovery. The German government cautioned Barack Obama about too much stimulus spending of borrowed money contributing to our national debt. Most members of this administration have never managed anything or worked in the private sector and most certainly don’t know how to manage an economy. Advice from their Keynesian economic advisors with their socialist inclinations may prove to be disastrous.
I had an economist working for me at Intel who believed that central planning by government was better than the free market because it was more efficient. It may be more efficient to have the government decide what kind of cars, computers, TV’s etc to produce but it takes freedom away from the consumer to dictate what he/she wants not what the government decides should be produced and made available to the public.
On the Sunday morning talk shows, especially “This Week”, the pundits were attempting to excuse the lack of empathy exhibited by Barack Obama on the siting of the mosque in Manhattan. If George Bush had said the same thing the liberal press would have been critical of him for his lack of sensitivity to the issue of a Muslim center so close to “Ground Zero”. Obama knew what his speech writers wrote and what he was saying. It was after an uproar that he felt he had to “explain himself” as though Americans did not understand what he said. What a condescending attitude.
Roger
http://google.com/profiles/007jug
Conservatives on Fire
July 31, 2011
You said it very well, Roger, and you said it back on March 2, 2001. My hat is off to you, Roger.
Cheryl
July 31, 2011
A news report from North Carolina this week: A Ukrainian billionaire (strange enough there) who owns chicken processing plants in NC is shutting them down, closing shop, firing all the employees, done, kaput. The reason? The price of feed corn for chickens has “skyrocketed” due to the Ethanol subsidies, creating a shortage of said feed corn, thereby making the chicken processing business untenable in America for the Ukrainian billionaire. Put that one together, folks! The foreign billionaire cannot make enough money in America thanks to American government policies. Well, gee. surprise….even American businessmen and women can’t make money in America due to government policies.
The feds just handed our local county 5.8million smackers in the past two weeks to reduce teen pregnancies. This is from a very well greased fed program that is handing that kind of money to counties and communities all over the country. Our State Dept. last spring funded a gay pride event in Bulgaria. Hmmmm…..Maybe they should have had the gay pride event here in my county to stop teen pregnancies….oh, well.
Point being…they keep handing out money we don’t have for pet social engineering ideas that have paved the road to our own oblivion. Of course there has been no recovery. Just like there is no man-made global warming. Mumbo Jumbo Rhubarb Rhubarb….Geniuses…all of them.
Conservatives on Fire
August 1, 2011
While most Americans on Main Street and most Republicans in Washington understand the crisis we are in, the socialist who run our government are totally oblivious to the crisis and continue throwing money at their pet projects and writing more regulations to squeeze the last remaining life out of our productive sector. Insanity is the only word that comes to mind to describe what is happening to our country.
John Scotus
August 1, 2011
Must a total collapse occur? Maybe.
Obama has been bad for the US and needs to be defeated in 2012–economic recover or not. While I am not happy about the financial situation in the US and truly wish it were better, if the economy were really recovering, would Obama’s poll number be so low? Maybe it will take an economic collapse or a near collapse to get Obama removed from office.
Always On Watch
August 1, 2011
Those of us “with our ear to the ground” have known all along that there has been no recovery — except for creating more federal jobs. The creation of those jobs keeps the D.C. area insulated from the severe economic shock being experienced by the rest of our nation.
But how many jobs can the federal government pay the salaries for?
Conservatives on Fire
August 1, 2011
I fear it will continue as long as there are buyers for our bonds at low interest rates. Once the interest rates are forced up, the game is over.
Country Thinker
August 1, 2011
But QE2 is working!
Conservatives on Fire
August 1, 2011
Okay, CT. I’ll bite. How is QE II working?
Country Thinker
August 1, 2011
Just a joke!
I do want to note, though, that QE2 was intended to boost growth through “the wealth effect” by pumping money into the stock market and creating new investment dollars. Ironically, many of the same people who want to “tax the rich” are in essence trying to reverse QE2 under the theory that money in the hands of the wealthy doesn’t spur economic growth. Nonetheless, many of these same Robin Hoods (e.g., Robert Reich) are some of the staunchest defenders of QE2.
But seriously, there is a numbers game at work here. Real GDP is inflation-adjusted, so it is dependent on how inflation is calculated. About a year and a half ago the Fed changed its official inflation measure to one which gives housing prices approximately double the weight of the previous measure. We also know that “volatile” prices like food and energy are omitted. In other words, calculate inflation differently and “real” GDP could well be negative.
Conservatives on Fire
August 1, 2011
It’s amazing how government works. I’m an engineer and have a pretty thorough background in math. But Washington math is something all together different.
I knew it was a joke. I was looking for the punch line. LOL
MK
August 2, 2011
Is it just coincidence that the recovery was trundling along merrily while obama and the democrats were in power. Now that they got thrashed, suddenly the economy is in tatters and who is to blame, why it can’t be the left can it, no way!
Out here in Australia we don’t quite have a recession yet, but our federal government is working hard to push us into one.
Conservatives on Fire
August 2, 2011
Here is hoping that you all can vote that “Lady” out office before a recession comes.
Pedro
August 2, 2011
They will destroy the dollar, since printing money is the only way the government can pay its debt now. People have lost their homes, jobs, etc., and they still refuse not only to reduce spending, but to keep spending levels the same. It’s insane. Inflation is coming!
Conservatives on Fire
August 2, 2011
Here is my arm chair economist take on pending inflation, Pedro. Ironically, uncertainty due to Obamacare, Dodd- Frank and, Obama’s consistent threats to raise taxes is causing banks and businesses to to sit on trillions of dollars in cash. If something happens to drive interest rates up, like a lowering of the US credit rating, inflation will begin. Banks and businesses will want to move out of cash and into hard assets. As those trillions start circulating throughout our economy, run away inflation will ensue.
But I’m just an old engineer so what do I know.