I saw a report today that teenagers are hitting the malls and shopping, so that must be a sign of a recovering economy. Uh…it is spring…kids grow…folks need clothes for the new season.

Idiots.

Chris: I understand, but we have to come out of the first dip. I don’t believe we have and are still on its downward slope. “They” define recession as decline in GDP for two or more quarters consecutively. This number includes govt. spending, and they have spent obscenely for months. What percentages of the “increased” GDP are govt $ versus consumer $, and how do they compare to pre-recession values? They falsely manipulated GDP in order to declare the recession over. Yet, unemployment (U6, not the asinine U3 – methodology purposely showing a drop and as reckless as the accounting gimmicks used to keep unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security off the books totaling around $100 trillion) continues to skyrocket and markets are under ever more strain. We haven’t seen all the bubbles pop yet, by any means. Add to that our nation’s credit rating in jeopardy and, hence, risk rising, adding higher interest payments to debts we already have no means of paying back… We are headed for some serious shit.

I think your source is absolutely correct. The govt has propped up housing prices rather than allowing them to drop to what the market will bear. Eventually, no amount of cash they try throwing at the problem will help, and the crash will be devastating. In fact, the more they try to “help,” the worse they make it. Like throwing gasoline on the fire to try to put it out. The economy (through the markets) has mechanisms of self-correction and the harder you try to prevent them, the harsher they will be in the end.

And, God help us all, they’ve just taken over healthcare. It was a pleasure knowing you fellas, but Barry signed my death warrant the other day. Being a “chronic,” I will be one of the first to go, regardless of the fact that I have potentially years of productivity left in me.

@Eric: Minx can also imply being a tease. Obama is teasing us with this idea that the economy is improving, and also that he created jobs that don’t actually exist.

@Les: Seven years ago that was a jobless recovery. Now it’s booming.

@Angie: There’s another dip coming. I’ve got a source that works for a non-profit company that deals with mortgages in NH. She tells me they are expecting a big housing sales dip by June.

NH, while in a recession isn’t that bad off comparatively speaking. So if the dip is supposed to be big in this state it will probably be far worse in the rest of the country.

Who ever said we *really* came out of the first trough of the double-dip recession they’re trying like hell to create? False manipulation of the economy by government does not a recovery make. In fact, I’d bet a doughnut AND a Double Stuf Oreo that we’re still on the downward slope, in a far worse situation than the powers that be will ever admit – papered over via TARP and Porkulus.

The bastardized Keynesian economics worshiped by the Federal Government is tantamount to stuffing a wad of Bubblicious into cracks in the face of the Teton Dam. Eventually you’re just gonna have to grab your ankles, though whether to kiss your butt goodbye or to prepare for a little more “government intervention” remains to be seen.

We were assured for months (I think the entirety of 2008?) that we were not in a recession at all, as defined by “the numbers.” Then they were forced to acknowledge that we truly were and backed its start all the way to late 2007. When we were told we were not, we actually were; by the time they finally admitted it, we had reached the depression – so how long do we have to wait for that fact to be unveiled, and how far back will they put the beginning of it? In fact, I don’t even think we’re going to see a double-dip… it’s just a flaming downward spiral from here.

Only 442,000 people filed for first time unemployment claims last week! This was less than “experts” expected (again). It must mean the economy is roaring back to life. I’m sure the boom, is a sonic one, made by the faster than sound recovery.

Minx? Obama is a pert, flirtatious or impudent young woman? I’m confused, or maybe that word doesn’t mean what I think it means.

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