Money Beat

The Fed’s balance sheet “will eventually have to be brought back to a more sustainable level,” Bernanke said. MORE UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS deployed to prop-up the disequilibrium of ASSET PRICES on Wall Street. FOLLOW THE MONEY AND BUY STOCKS WITH THE BAILED-OUT WALL STREETERS!!!

The first step to recovery is admitting and accepting you have problem. Then you deal with recovery!

Ah yet another of Bush's lies finally surfaces.

The working class has know this for over a year, wages smaller, everything out of the normal person reach. Why does everyone want to hide the faxes that we already know??

The entire world economy depends on the US consumers. What Bush should have been doing, instead of giving these huge tax cuts to the super rich, was making sure all of us had enough money to spend as consumers. As it is now, George W. Bush will go down in history as a very failed President.

T,

Its never been just two negative GDP quarters. There are so many facotrs. So instead of calling this a new way of determining a recession, you should just think that you have always been wrong but now know how its really done. NBER has been around for a long long time. www.nber.org

North Park - Economists have for decades used the 2-quarter measure. Kennedy used it, Reagan used it, Clinton used it...on and on. As you probably know some other organization came out about a week ago and said it started in April/May. These organizations are getting their 15 minutes of fame.

No T youre wrong. NBER has been around for a long long time. two quarters of GDP is just the short easy answer...but its not the correct answer..Man it was 10 years ago I was on their web site b/c I was trying to predict the probably of a recession based on quarterly data using logit and probit regression analysis. These variables used have been around brother. Its been awhile for me but I think they have data going back to the 1940's. So look all Im sdaying is that its not new. Thinking its two quarters of negative GDP is wrong. get over it. I dont care if the Pope used it, its wrong!

Get ready for 8-10% Unemployment - I hope you are saving instead of spending..

The worse part is I think the only reason we got out of the last recession was only becassue people did more work for less. I was laid off during the last recession and When I found new work it was nowhere near what I was making before.

Like everybody already didn't know! Sheesh!

8 years of super-majority GOP rule and all I got was this RECESSION!

Most people in this country already knew that we had been in a recession for quite some time now. I'm guessing that the Bush administration needed to hear the "official announcement" today. It seems that up to this point, they didn't have a clue!

NorthPark -- So, I'll look forward to you calling 3% GDP growth and 6.1% unemployment (like we had in the 2nd quarter of this year) a recession in the future. You won't call it that. NOBODY would -- I don't care if NBER was blessed by the POPE.

T so wait a minute, youre saying this country is NOT in a Recession?

Please just goto www.nber.org and read for yourself. You've annoyed me to no end. I dont know what else to say to you except that youre wrong. Im sure youve had long quality talks with Reagen, Clinton and Kennedy. ITs just not all about GDP or unemployment. There are other variables, if you had any econometrics in college you'd understand. But Im afraid you might have not made it that far, b/c of youre unwillingness to listen.

So, go on believing what you do... it makes no difference to me how ignorant you are or how ignorant you want to be.

Its only a recession when it starts to affect the wallets
of Bush's super wealthy 2%.

For the rest of America, its a DEPRESSION!

Like a whole lot of people, I'm making less than half of what I made BEFORE this monkey came into office.

just what was the 700 billion bailout for???

I can't believe this administration waited until after the election to make an official announcement about a recession. They did not want to influence the votes! Glad the voters saw the truth!

Okay, it's official now. Time to panic. Seriosly though, ssbeck, the ADMINISTRATION DID NOT WANT TO INFLUENCE VOTES?!?! No, it just supported a (totally bogus) bail-out plan, issued several speeches on the economy, and pressured Congress to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ECONOMY! As has already (kind of) been stated, the president's main job is not the economy. He is the Commander in Chief, but on TOP of that, he is the head of the EXECUTIVE BRANCH. Okay, time for a quick eighth grade lesson on how our government works, in a nutshell. The LEGISLATIVE BRANCH (Congress) makes laws, the EXECUTIVE BRANCH (President and Co.) executes laws. HEAR THAT? The president is there for 1. A Check on the Congress with Vetoes, 2. The person who handles the military and gets laws executed, and 3. As a figurehead and a symbolic figurehead for the country. (In recent years, certain members of our news organizations have added 4. A person to blame when everything doesn't go perfectly) If our economy is lame, WHAT WAS BUSH SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT IT?! I say he does nothing, we somehow manage to convince Obama to scrap is Newer Deal ideas, and we let the market do its thing like it has for centuries.
P.S. If you have never read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, or at least heard its principles, then you are missing out on the principles that make our economy run, and you are probably liberal.

According to Keynes, the root cause of an economic downturns is an insufficient aggregate demand. When the total demand for goods and services declines, businesses throughout the economy see their sales fall off. Lower sales induce firms to cut back production and to lay off workers. Rising unemployment and declining profits further depress demand, leading to a feedback loop with a very unhappy ending.

http://nomedals.blogspot.com

It's official. Academics declare that hindsight really is 20-20.

The analysts were announcing it. George Bush, the decider, was denying it. We were all feeling it. Who's suprised by it?

Definition:
Recession = your neighbor lost his job
Depression = YOU lost your job

I am hereby announcing that we've been in a Depression since October 2008, and that by the time these bozos realize it we will have completely recovered.

MORE GAMES being played by the BAILED-OUT WALL STREET gurus - WALL STREET runs on BAILOUT MONEY now and WALL STREET wants to make sure DETROIT joins the BAILOUT BONANZA. If the market looks too good, then DETROIT might miss getting in on the action. ABC with it's depression/recession obsession is part of the FLEECING of the TAXPAYER.