Shrubby says no recession, Bernanke disagrees..

[Virginia Dare]

FED FOCUS-Bernanke gives nod to recession, without saying word

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke didn't utter the word, but analysts reading between the lines of his testimony to the U.S. Congress this week say he came as close as a central bank chief can to acknowledging the chances of recession.
Since the start of the global credit squeeze in mid-2007, the Federal Reserve has been cautious about suggesting U.S. economic and financial conditions could get worse, in part for fear that markets might overreact.
Yet speaking before Congress this week, the Fed Chairman held true to his vow for greater transparency, predicting that economic growth, which slowed sharply in the fourth quarter of 2007, would not return to normal levels until at least 2010.
"While the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has yet to decide to whether the U.S. economy is in recession, Bernanke's replies have all but confirmed the economy is already in recession," said Ashraf Laidi, chief foreign exchange strategist at CMC Markets US in New York.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7345478

This is like being on a runaway train with no conductor, or maybe on the Titanic with no captain?

[spanone]

1. where's cheney? when bu$h* took office he was screaming 'recession' to anyone who'd listen

[Virginia Dare]

5. He's busy shredding, burning, and trying to stay alive....n/t

[napi21]

2. The Bushies all live in a bubble! None of them know or recognize

how the "underclass" (to them) lives day to day! It's been a VERY LONG TIME since any of them bought groceries, filled a gas tank, or wrote a check to a utility company! Ya see, it's really quite a simple easy life when you have drivers, accountants, and caretakers to do everything for ya!

[Maggie_May]

3. Like father like son

The prospect of sharply higher fuel prices, including $4-a-gallon gasoline, may not have made it into Oval Office briefing books, perhaps explaining why President Bush was surprised Thursday when a reporter mentioned what energy analysts are saying could happen soon in many parts of the country.

"Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?" Bush responded to a reporter who said some analysts expect prices to soon climb that high. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that. . . . I know it's high now."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-gas29feb29,1,2210127.story

No problem here at all. You think?????

[gratuitous]

4. Nothing more to steal, mission accomplished!

Worker productivity has gone up and up while wages have stagnated or even fallen. All that stolen work has gone into the last six years of propping up the meager economic record of the failed Bush administration. Now, finally and at long last, the tank is empty. All that extra productivity has been stripped to funnel money into the overstuffed pockets of Bush's overrich pals, but they've taken everything available.

Bush can play out the clock until January, no problem. Dispute every contention, deny every metric, and 10 months from now, he'll toddle off into the sunset leaving a smoking hulk of a country. And in 2012, the Republicans will try to persuade America again that their negligent and even criminal governance is just what the country needs. That is, if they're not in the slammer, which is my most fervent prayer most nights.

[Deny and Shred]

7. Not to disagree, but there is always more to steal. Privatization

is among vehicles they are using to put tax dollars in their pockets. No Child... privatize public schools through charter schools, they pushed for privatized Soc. Sec. Even privatizing Medicare.
This was posted by another DUer, and I can't find the thread from whence it came. Anyway, it's a complaint from a lawsuit of attempts to institute a pilot program of privatized Medicare in Missouri.
It names many elements of government involved in monopolizing and inflating medical supply costs, including Rove, A. Gonzales, DoJ, and gives compelling reasons for the US Attorney purge, as well as the mysterious deaths of two US Attoneys within two months of each other, who happened to be the only ones investigating this potential fraud. Could provide a blueprint for convictions.

I suggest begin reading around #50 for the context, with attention paid to the allegations beginning at #100 (p.13, non-Roman numeral). Jaw dropping.

http://www.medicalsupplychain.com/pdf/Lipari%20v%20Novation%20et%20al%20Petition%20.pdf

[gratuitous]

8. Well, they have to make their getaway some time

And while the drive for privatization will probably always be with us, it seems that Social Security is nailed down just a little too securely right this minute. The thieves know they're operating on borrowed time, and if they're going to get away clean, they're going to have to vamoose soon.

[ThomWV]

6. How long can you be in a non-recession until it turns into an non-depression?

Let's see where we stand. Employment is decreasing, incomes are going down, prices are increasing.

"Stagflation" is a word we don't hear nearly enough anymore. Its the term that describes stagnant wages couple with price inflation. In layman's terms: You ain't makin' any more money but prices are still goin' up. Sounds mighty familiar to me. Stagflation absolutely kills people on fixed incomes, retirees take it rough. After that comes Depression, which is just a continued recession. By definition a depression is some number of months or quarters of continuous recession. It was on an economics test one time but rather than get it wrong twice I'll just leave the time period blank, I just can't remember how many it is. The next stage of financial failure is even worse though. That's deflation. Once the price of everything (very good for people of fixed incomes) starts dropping the bottom really sort of falls out of everything economics-wise. Its like falling population when it comes to dreaded scenarios.