[Chester]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343671,00.html

[Doug1627]

Good read. I still do not know what to believe. It seems most everything is a lie nowadays.

[Quasi]

If you really want to learn more about what's going on with the economy, I highly recommend reading this:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/2008/04/we-no-longer-live-in-constitutional.html

Here's a snippet:

Is the market on drugs? It appears so, and there's no shortage of help from Faux News and the media. Fox is out today talking about how "there's no recession."

There should be a law that knowingly false statements made by media "pundits" expose one to financial penalties or perhaps a bubba stay. I'm not talking about accidents, I'm talking about intentionally-false statements - including this one.

This guy is a life-long Republican, so there is no political bias. He's been one of my investing gurus for 6 months or so and I have great respect for his technical analysis of the markets.

The big news today that caused the market rally is that the $30B Bear Stearns buyout is being backstopped by the U.S. Treasury. That means our tax dollars are, apparently illegally, bailing out an investment bank brought down by its bad investments.

[bkt]

Someone correct me if this is wrong, but isn't a recession defined as two consecutive quarters of no economic growth or some loss? Even last quarter, as pitiful as it was, we saw growth.

Things are definitely very interesting right now and the potential for all hell to break loose certainly seems to exist. It's just that by the strict definition of "recession" we may not have quite hit that point, yet.

[Quasi]

True, the official "recession" call is made 6-9 months after the fact by a group of academics. I think the real question most people want to know is not "were we in a recession", but "are we currently in, or are we heading for a recession".

Setting aside the media and just looking at my own personal experiences: my fuel costs have doubled, my grocery bill has increased, houses in my neighborhood are getting foreclosed upon, my company laid off 50% of its corporate staff, and my investments, if I hadn't moved to cash in October, would have now lost 15-20% of their value. But Fox News says everything is great, so I must be imagining all of that.

[bkt]

Originally Posted by Quasi

True, the official "recession" call is made 6-9 months after the fact by a group of academics. I think the real question most people want to know is not "were we in a recession", but "are we currently in, or are we heading for a recession".

Fair enough. Outlook for growth, however it's calculated, for next quarter looks to be in the negative range. If that persists, yes, we're currently in a recession.

Originally Posted by Quasi

Setting aside the media and just looking at my own personal experiences: my fuel costs have doubled, my grocery bill has increased, houses in my neighborhood are getting foreclosed upon, my company laid off 50% of its corporate staff, and my investments, if I hadn't moved to cash in October, would have now lost 15-20% of their value. But Fox News says everything is great, so I must be imagining all of that.

Fuel costs around me are high -- between $3.40 and $3.60 for regular and high-test respectively -- but not as high as they have been (well over $4 several months ago). I share your concerns. When things look like they're in a shambles and some talking head tries to tell you everything is great, it's likely to a) piss you off, and b) cause you to completely lose faith in that news source.

Originally Posted by photog

You are completely accurate in your comment. But, if you subtract out the Federal deficit, how much growth was there?

And therein lies the hocus-pocus factor. How is growth calculated today, and is it consistent with years past?

[fxstchewy]

Liberal Media is our biggest enemy, if we get Obamination or Hitlery we will be in a recession because they will tax us to death, and Mccain is not much better, hopefully Mccain will pair up with Sanford from SC.
The next Pres from what we have to chose from kinda scares me, but, I am a "Typical" white person......Chewy

[matt g]

Originally Posted by fxstchewy

Liberal Media is our biggest enemy, if we get Obamination or Hitlery we will be in a recession because they will tax us to death, and Mccain is not much better, hopefully Mccain will pair up with Sanford from SC.
The next Pres from what we have to chose from kinda scares me, but, I am a "Typical" white person......Chewy

The conservative media is just as big a problem as the liberal media is. People want everything to be easy these days, so rather than think for themselves, they let the media feed them their thoughts.

[Quasi]

Originally Posted by matt g

The conservative media is just as big a problem as the liberal media is. People want everything to be easy these days, so rather than think for themselves, they let the media feed them their thoughts.

+1!

See sig:

[HankStone]

We will soon find out as in time will tell,all else is BS.