Harper says recession over only in technical sense

Reuters via Financial Post ^ | 2009-09-21

[Clive]

OTTAWA -- The recession in Canada is only over in a technical sense because the recovery is extremely fragile and there are still problems in the job market, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday.

"We've got (Federal Reserve) Chairman (Ben) Bernanke and others saying the recession is over but I think that's only in a technical sense," Mr. Harper told a televised news conference in Guelph, Ont.

"As long as we continue to have challenges in the labor market that affect Canadian families on the ground, then I don't think we can truly say the recession is over. So I think the recovery, while it exists, is extremely fragile."

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Monday that measures taken by Canada to stimulate the economy have a built-in exit strategy that will enable a return to balanced budgets over the medium term.

"Temporary measures will expire at the end of the two-year time frame outlined in the budget," Mr. Flaherty said in a speech in Gatineau, Quebec, across the Ottawa River from Ottawa.

"And, as the economy improves over the medium term, the government is committed to returning to balanced budgets through spending-growth restraint."

He said a group of experts is providing him with timely information on financing conditions facing businesses.

"I've asked that committee to keep the government up to speed on critical gaps in financing, and recommend solutions," he said.

[Clive]

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[ThunderSleeps]

Seems to me that the shills in power claiming the recession is over - in any sense - is mere wishful thinking. Companies continue to bleed red ink, lay off workers, or simply close their doors. People are losing jobs. Property values continue to fall. The stock market is limping along. Doesn't sound like much of a recovery to me.

I'm a software engineer. To me this sounds like someone claiming their project is ready to ship. Sure, it barely builds, the compiler issues hundreds of warnings; it won't install on anything but Dave's machine; it crashes on all but three of the test cases; all the help text is still only available in Korean; but hey, we're ready to ship!

[Vince Ferrer]

The economy is like the Titanic. At some point, experts assured us that they both stopped sinking. But in the case of the ship, experts aren’t proclaiming that it will pop back up again any minute now. So maybe the economy insn’t like the Titanic.

[mamelukesabre]

These people say all kinds of stupid crap. The official definition requires two sequential quarters of positive growth before a recession is declared OVER. that hasn’t happened yet. We haven’t even had one quarter of positive growth yet.

But then, the official definition requires two sequential quarters of negative growth BEFORE we are in a recession. The idiots were saying we were in a recession before that happened.

I think they are all jumping the gun trying to be first to make the declaration. And in doing so they are not even meeting the official definitions.

[Frantzie]

LOL! Yeah you wish what is going on with Obama was even close to the worse vaporware. It is far worse than that.

God I wish we had a sensible and intelligent adult for President like Stephen Harper.

At least Harper was born on this continent. He is a h*ll of a lot more eligible than the usurper Hussein.

[Post Toasties]

Well, people didn’t raise much of a fuss when they claimed a recession during Bush’s watch with 5% unemployment before there was even one quarter of negative growth so the Leftist shills apparently believe they can claim a recovery with no quarters of positive growth and a 10% unemployment rate.

[calex59]

Could the frickin’ communist be any more two faced. “Technically the recession is over, but in reality you will continue to lose jobs and starve a**!”. What a bunch of weasels.

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping, Clive.