This Recession, It's Just Beginning

Washington Post ^ | June 27th, 2008 | Steven Pearlstein

[I see my hands]

I'm not interested in belief, just facts. Are we in a recession? A two or three letter answer will suffice.

[afnamvet]

Remember, we're in a national malaise in this country, uttered Jimmuh to a nationwide audience. Carter is an evil, witless little man.

[RightWhale]

That is probably true. Somebody was on Coast last night with major scare stories of economic collapse including currency devaluation as if that is something that might occur without warning and only gold would be immune.

[Tallguy]

Considering that those two economies are big exporters and the cost of shipping has skyrocketed in the last two years you find manufacturers leaving those countries and coming back to the U.S., Europe, Canada, etc.

Hope you're right. I'm a manufacturer's rep & my bottom line would be helped greatly by corporations 'bringing home' manufacturing. Getting tired of all these plants being packaged up & shipped to the Far East with a big bow wrapped around them.

[Misterioso]

Your box is tiresome.

[VOA]

...my bottom line would be helped greatly by corporations
'bringing home' manufacturing.

This topic was covered by the WSJ a week or so ago.
In the article, they had a graph showing how the cost of moving
a shipping container had tripled since 2000 (or 2001?).

One company that's returning is one that makes the sideline heaters
for outdoor sporting events. The company had relocated manufacturing
to China a few years ago. The company honchos had been perturbed that
they'd been unable to sell their US-based plant...until
they realized the numbers were telling them to re-open the plant
here in the USAand phase out off-shore manufacture.

[DHerion]

I’ve been thinking the biggest reason we’ve lost manufacturing jobs is the growing impact of FICA taxes - something foreigners workers don’t have to pay. Although I support private accounts, an alternative would be to junk the entire FICA tax system and have a 5% national sales tax instead. It would level the playing field since U.S. and imports would both pay the same amount.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Kudos to you for keeping up the drumbeat but I’m sick of trying to explain this and getting the same old tired denials from the Freepyannas. They are on their own. I don’t care if they sink anymore. They’ve got it coming. They will be the loudest to cry when things get worse.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

You mean from the phony government numbers? Nope. I can’t show you negative growth from the governments phony, doctored numbers. Nope. Can’t to that. I’ll let the government do that for you when the recession gets so bad they can’t hide it anymore.

[Jeff Chandler]

the governments phony, doctored numbers.

Yeah, all those conservative Republican government bureaucrats who love to bolster the Bush Administration. They'll make the numbers look better than they actually are so the Democrats won't benefit from a bad economy.

Next time, we can discuss the hordes of evil right-wing career State Department employees pushing the neo-con agenda around the world.

[what's up]

It doesn't require faith to KNOW that despite the hysteria about recession for the past year or so, we are STILL in growth.

Them's the FACTS.

[Sooth2222]

I know. The DJIA and plenty of retailers have charts that look like they are circling the bowl.

But Wal Mart is the world's largest public corporation and employs 2,100,000 people.

I sure as heck didn't expect a chart like that from reading the WaPo article.

[The_Republican]

I would guess its because inflation is causing customers to search for good values and that is Walmart’s game. It may be a bit more recession-immune, but if everyone else is tanking, it would too, eventually.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Just for the record, do you believe the officially posted values for GDP, inflation and unemployment? Do you think they reflect reality in real economic growth, price pressure and jobs?

If Exxon Mobile makes a huge profit because oil prices are soaring, is that inflation, or is that GDP growth? The far higher retail prices paid by consumers is not counted in core inflation, yet the effect of that massive increase in dollars flowing to Exxon Mobile from the time when gas was $3 a gallon to the time it is $4.50 is considered “growth”. It is not growth. No more gallons are produced or consumed. No more volume of products is being handled. Inflation is being packaged as “GDP growth” and these higher prices working through the economy are being attributed to GDP, while the under-reported inflationary pressure is discounted.

I hardly think that is fair.

[Jeff Chandler]

Just for the record, do you believe the officially posted values for GDP, inflation and unemployment?

No. For the entire duration of the Bush Administration, they have been consistently bearish for the headline news, then quietly revised upwards weeks later.

The economy has slowed, but the recession hysteria is a Democrat media creation intended to panic the American people into voting for the Marxist. It's 1992 redux.

[Randy Larsen]

Have the MSM and the Democrates conspired to force our economy into the tanks?

They do control the purse strings...

Maybe they talked too much, and now WE the people will have to pay with loss of income and rising prices!

I hope I’m wrong, but it don’t look good!

[WashingtonSource]

This seems to be wishful thinking on the part of Marxist Pearlstein.

[Misterioso]

They do control the purse strings...

What purse strings?

[Randy Larsen]

Congress controls the purse strings...

[Misterioso]

The article claims the recession is in it’s beginning stage, does it not? But you, as the frog, can’t tell the temperature of the water.