They are trying not to say the recession word!

[Maggie_May]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers on Thursday the U.S. economy did not appear headed for recession, but warned growth could prove weaker than expected and inflation higher.

Is Bernanke just blind or is this to keep us from panicking before the holidays? Or is this statement to keep us fighting in a useless war thats costing us billions? For me and my family we are already in a recession food gas utilities already pushing us over.
Bernanke needs to own up to this mess of a economy.

[OzarkDem]

1. Dem leaders are just as culpable as Bush

Why aren't they sounding the alarm on the economy?

Hiding behind their desks in DC isn't a strategy and it will come back to hurt them.

[flyarm]

2. they will not say ressession..they want to pass that gem off to dems!

its the same cycle they always use!

they build the debt and the dems have to tax to pay off their damn debt..Reagan did it as well as papa bush ..it was done in the early 1900's and it continued until the depression..

they are the debt party..borrow and put us into debt party...they always have been..

fly

[Maggie_May]

5. I was thinking last night about the same thing

It came to me as I was doing my bills and trying to make ends meet. I was sitting at the kitchen table remember how when Reagan was in office I was doing the same thing just trying to make ends meet. I remember when I was trying to have 100 bucks or so left over after paying everything for the month to have a little left over for food. Its like a bad dream all over again.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Is Duh An Understatement?

People are feeling squeezed everywhere...thanks to rising oil prices that have doubled in the past 5 years. The ripple through the economy has taken its toll in many ways. The extra money that goes into the gas tank or keeping the house warm didn't go toward paying the rising mortgage...and the rising costs of goods (another side effect of rising gas/production/delivery costs) and the dollar isn't going very far these days. No shit we're in a recession...many have been for several years now.

What's different now is the ripple is starting to be felt by the big boys. They're seeing their profits begin to vanish, their cost cutting still not clearing up losses and their debts growing higher. The fourth quarter promises to be brutal as people will buy less and stay close to home starting a ripple next year of corporate reports that could take things down further.

It doesn't take a Milton Friedman to remember the combination of war defecits and rising oil prices of the 70s that led to 15% interest rates and runaway inflation. The bill collector is knocking harder and harder and this economy is not only cashed out, the cards are maxed out now, too.

[Rabo Karabekian]

4. Every American Problem/Mistake is Clinton's Fault

Recession how could that be? Isn't Bill Clinton responsible for those? Lord Bush couldn't be leading us into one.

[flashl]

6. Use these wizards "creative financing" schemes to PAY off the debts.

Isn't it interesting to observe how the markets and bankers can CREATE MONEY out of thin air to build their wealth but the taxpayer must SACRIFICE EVERYTHING, including their lives, to pay the bill for the robber-baron's ill-gotten wealth?

We accept the robber-baron's claims that just because there are "tax loopholes" laws they created for THEMSELVES, WE MUST PAY the debt.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. That's OK

According the limited, conventional definition of recession, they can avoid it. But, looking at the macroeconomy in a more multi-dimensional way, one can see that the growth is illusory (funded by debt), the unemployment numbers irrelevant (lack of real wage growth), and gov't and personal leveraging at an all-time high.

That's recessionary no matter the definition, but the conventionalists will be able to say there's no "recession". They'd be wrong, but the definition is rigged to allow it.
The Professor

[flashl]

8. Recession is relative within the stratified U.S. economic structure

Perhaps asking and answering the "recession" question really depends greatly on which rung you may claim in our stratified economy.