The Recession That Wasn't

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Unemployed and Evicted = No Recession

I guess the fact that I, an educated and degreed woman, have been without full time , permanent work since January 2007 ( I managed to snag a series of temp jobs for under $10 an hour, until just the past March, when all the agencies I've been calling suddenly 'had nothing' for me) and the fact that now I must vacate my apartment due to inability to pay rent, and that for some odd reason I am NOT eligible for unemployment (seems I was unemployed too much of the time to qualify for benefits) means there's something wrong with me, or I just have bad luck, but has nothing to do with the true fact that we are in a recession? Hmm.. I think I understand economics now..thank you.

Annette H. of NY @ May 09, 2008 16:23:55 PM

Unemployed and Evicted = No Recession

I guess the fact that I, an educated and degreed woman, have been without full time , permanent work since January 2007 ( I managed to snag a series of temp jobs for under $10 an hour, until just the past March, when all the agencies I've been calling suddenly 'had nothing' for me) and the fact that now I must vacate my apartment due to inability to pay rent, and that for some odd reason I am NOT eligible for unemployment (seems I was unemployed too much of the time to qualify for benefits) means there's something wrong with me, or I just have bad luck, but has nothing to do with the true fact that we are in a recession? Hmm.. I think I understand economics now..thank you.

Annette H. of NY @ May 09, 2008 16:22:32 PM

long term umemployment and jpt

Ironically, when we discuss unemployment, it often misses the most crucial numbers the Long Term Unemployed, and of course Jobs Per thousand.

You say that we are not at recessionary numbers.. then I susggest please go back and recheck your numbers and information, and make sure you don't forget the 1.4 million (weekly) who are long term unemployed and are NOT counted as the Unemployed because they are not collecting their checks. Make sure you dont forget the 4 million who are working part time, because employers keep cutting hours and wages. - Not since World WAR 2 has long term unemployment been as bad as it is today!

Oh, and let's not forget that wages are at the lowest ever adjusting for inflation. In fact our generation is the First Generation which is not making more money than the previous one.

Wages, have been in a decline at least 4 times in the past 5 years.

There are many other issues here to look at.. but, I suggest you consider reading the experts at EPI.org - they have rarely been wrong, if ever.. must be the Education that they have behind them, and that they really are no partisan, and don't have ulterior motives..

I suggest getting some facts straight.. and more than anything look at Payroll Per thousand.. that is the population growth compared to Jobs for the population! Those are the Accurate numbers you REALLY want to look at..

Patsy

Patsy of CA @ May 09, 2008 15:29:20 PM

The "trick" of economic management is supposed to be that of avoiding recessions while also fighting inflation, preserving the value of the dollar, maintaining full employment and NOT running up the national debt and the trade deficit with other nations.

No one wants a recession, but those cheering how this one has "disappeared" might want to consider that your Uncle Sam and his private Federal Reserve is printing money at unprecedented speed in several different ways (diluting the value of your dollars) and seeing to it that if you loan money to a bank (checking, savings or CD accounts) you will incur a guaranteed loss against real inflation for doing so. Magic? Uh, no. More like systemic slight-of-hand.

If we're now out of the recession we were never in (or whatever this author is saying), I'd like to see the artificially low bank interest rates for savers restored to where they were before the last seven or eight "emergency" cuts at the Fed.

Fat chance, right?

It's ironic that "conservatives" in government have seen fit to literally slap the most financially conservative people in our society----the FDIC-insured bank savers, and for all the years since Bush was elected--- while they presided over outlandish usery by the credit card issuers and the greatest runup of national debt in the history of the world. "Conservatives" now need a new word to describe themselves, because their minions have turned this one upside down and made a lie out of what it is supposed to mean.

Daniel David of NM @ May 09, 2008 14:53:25 PM

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U.S. News business reporter Matthew Bandyk examines the issues, people, and debates that shape the nexus of political and economic life in the nation's capital.

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