Posted on 08/23/2003 10:01:53 AM PDT by Bob J
Edited on 08/24/2003 6:04:42 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
"Recession's Woes Grow"
by JohnHuang2
An already pathetically sluggish recession was hammered further Tuesday as the "number of new housing units started in July [soaring] 1.5 percent from the previous month to 1.872 million units, the highest level since April 1986," CBS News Market Watch reports, citing the Commerce Department. Dealing the recession a heavy blow, the report indicates that, "Compared to July of last year, housing starts rose 12.4 percent."
Plunging the recession even deeper into crisis, the wave in new home construction activity appeared broad-based, gripping "all regions of the country except the West," added Market Watch.
The report marked the latest in an escalating and withering barrage of bullish data spelling mounting troubles for the limping recession. Signs point to a recession clinging on life-support even now, stung by reports of higher-than-expected 2nd quarter GDP growth, shrinking trade deficits, and surging business and consumer spending. Further making the recession increasingly vulnerable of late: The rallying stock market, which has seen the S&P 500 advance 23 percent since March. The massive Energy Crisis, which swept the northeast Thursday, gave the recession only a fleeting lift. A one-day lift. By Friday night, with juice flowing again, the Energy Crisis itself was plunged into crisis.
"Sales at U.S. chain stores," minus the blackout, "climbed 3.3 percent in the week ended Aug. 16 compared with the same week a year ago, after rising 3.1 percent the previous week," Reuters reports. Buffeted by "tax rebates" which benefit only the "wealthy" (see Democrats), the recession shrunk 3.3 percent in the week ended Aug. 16 compared with the same week a year ago, after shrinking 3.1 percent the previous week.
On the housing front, leading experts warned recently that rising mortgage rates meant no more sizzling home construction activity. Homebuyers, despite the warning from leading experts to knock off the home buying, heedlessly kept on sizzling home construction activity.
"No one knows why home buyers keep treating leading experts this way -- must be some ego-trip consumers are on," said Free Republic chronic poster "JohnHuang2," noted "expert" on basically "everything."
"If consumers keep cold-shouldering learned advice from leading experts, we'll end up with roaring prosperity on our hands," added "JohnHuang2," who spams Free Republic with gazillions of articles at ungodly hours weekday mornings.
Adding to the recession's growing woes, stocks on Wall Street edged higher Tuesday as the three indexes posting major gains despite the truck bombing in Baghdad.
But not all the news was bad for the recession. Leading experts predict this month's sizzling housing numbers will be the housing sector's last hurrah, after predicting last month's sizzling housing numbers would be the housing sector's last hurrah, after predicting the previous month's sizzling housing numbers would be the housing sector's last hurrah, after...
But, meanwhile, there can be little doubt the bullish numbers are testing the beleaguered recession's resolve. 'Will the recession persevere'? Democrats ask. Restoring the ailing recession to health won't be easy -- especially with tens of millions of shoppers, in brazen disregard for the recession, filling malls and shopping centers every day. Democrats, who deny they're rooting for recession, see the recession as on a noble mission, paving the way for Democrat victory in '04. While Democrats urge the recession to 'stay the course, baby,' the gathering storm clouds point to a booming economy for the coming year.
When that happens, the recession won't just be closed for maintenance, it'll be shut down for good.
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From Baghdad, there's good news and bad news. First the bad news.
"A suicide attacker set off a truck bomb on Tuesday outside the hotel that serves as U.N. headquarters in Baghdad," CBS News reports. "At least 20 U.N. workers and Iraqis were killed, including the chief U.N. official in Iraq, and 100 were wounded."
Whodunit? "U.S. officials said the involvement of al Qaeda -- the radical Muslim group blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks -- could not be discounted," MSNBC News reports.
Nonsense, say Janeane Garofalo, Barbra Streisand and other noted experts. "U.S. officials" can point the finger at al-Qaeda all they want, but, C'mon! Get real! Al-Qaeda? In Iraq? In cahoots with Ba'ath Party remnants? Working hand-in-glove? Allied against a common enemy -- the Great Satan? Islamofascism and Saddamism, experts assure us, are like oil and water. They just don't mix. They can't mix, in fact. It's impossible. Ask any al-Qaeda operative what happens the moment he crosses the borders into Iraq. Instantly, he stops being a terrorist! Just like magic. He now becomes a noble, 'gallant' "guerrilla fighter," fighting the "evil" U.S. "occupation." The foreigner even ceases being foreign. He's now part of the "Iraqi resistance." Indeed, the typical Jihadist, even before crossing the border from, say, Syria, undergoes miraculous, life-changing rebirth. As the al-Qaeda guy approaches the border, terrorist thoughts suddenly vanish. Instead of blowing up car bombs in Jerusalem, you think of blowing up water pipelines in Baghdad, amid searing summer temperatures, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Or blowing up oil pipelines, costing Iraq badly needed export revenue, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Or cutting powerlines, knocking off electricity, to 'help' the Iraqi people. Don't have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about, you say? Ha! Obviously, you haven't been paying attention to "reporters" at Reuters. Clearly, you've been brainwashed by Saddam-bashing, Mullah-hating neocons crawling in this White House.
And the truck bombing Tuesday at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad? Well, the good news is, that didn't really happen. Had it happened, it would be terrorism, and terrorism in Iraq is, say experts, simply impossible. In Iraq, there are only 'noble' guerrilla fighters -- not terrorists.
Kidding aside, Sen. John F. Kerry issued a statement following the blast, blaming the blast on the Bush administration. He says the lack of "international troops in Iraq through an expanded United Nations Security Council mandate" is the reason for the blast. Well, that settles it. That suicide truck driver, seconds before blowing up, was probably yelling out the window, 'Yo, Bush! Want the bombing to stop? Then allow international troops in Iraq through an expanded United Nations Security Council mandate! Listen to John F. Kerry, and stop going-it-alone!'
U.N. personnel understaffing in Baghdad made the terrorists really, really mad, so they blow up U.N. personnel in Baghdad to bits. Further, the lack of electricity and water is a source of tremendous frustration for ordinary Iraqis, say Democrats. So, to ease this frustration, these ordinary Iraqis go out and cut powerlines and blow up water and oil facilities.
If either of these propositions makes sense to you, your name must be Howard Dean.
Anyway, that's... My two cents.. "JohnHuang2"
© 2003 JohnHuang2. All rights reserved.
Hopefully this gets as many replies as the country is going down the toilet posts by the chicken little clique.
Bump for the economy.
Full employment is not fixed. It's a variable. Declare it to be ten percent unemployment -- then the economy will really be sizzling!
Or, the second proposal is simply delete the jobless dolts! Cancel their SSNs, their drivers licenses, all records of their existence! We got "tens of millions" shoppers shopping. Nobody misses these ten million. Hey, if you get laid off well, what good are you?
First they're making the President look bad. Second they're giving those old fuddy duddy doom-and-gloomers ammo to whine about losing jobs. Jobs here in America have anything to do with a healthy economy? LOL! How paleo can you get? Corporations are finally getting labor costs under control and things are looking good in the market!
Besides, they're the ones who hung on to those IT, human resources, accounting, banking, back office "buggy whip" jobs. Times have changed.
Better get this done quick. We need the room for those millions and millions of hard-working, tax-paying, family-loving workers co-President Fox is letting us have.
LOL
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