Recession Over (But Only For The Rich)

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that the recession is over. At least that's what the economic pundits tell us. In fact, they say the recession has been over for more than a year now (since about the end of 2009). Of course they aren't talking about the real world. To them a recession is over when Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shows any kind of gain for at least three months. It doesn't matter that the small gains in are only being felt by the rich (who continue to to better than ever).

For the rest of America, the bottom 90% or more, the recession continues without even the prospect of a let-up any time soon. Foreclosures are still at record levels, housing prices and sales continue to drop, and millions of jobs are still missing from the economy. The unemployment rate still remains very high (and probably will for a long time to come), while the small number of jobs being created are low-paying and barely cover the number of new people entering the job market.

And now we get some more bad news. The government says, in a report released last Friday, that wages and salaries for workers actually dropped by 1% over the last year. But while wages are dropping for those Americans lucky enough to have a job, it is not getting any cheaper to live in America.

The government also released new statistics that show the consumer price index rose by 0.5% in the last month (same as the month before that). That may not sound like much, but it translates into an annual inflationary rise of 6% (and that's a very high rate of inflation).

The major culprits causing this inflation are gas and food prices -- two items necessary in our society. The food prices rose by 0.8% last month (an annual rate of 9.6% inflation) and included most of the staples like fruits, vegetables, coffee, dairy products, chicken, and beef.

Gas prices were even worse. They rose 5.6% last month (an annual rate of 67.2%). And this is after they had already risen by 28% in the past year. In nearly all parts of the country the price for gasoline is close to a record $4.00 a gallon (and has topped that already in a few places). The current nationwide average is $3.81 a gallon.

But cheer up. The recession is over for the rich and they are once again seeing huge salary increases and enormous bonuses. And the Republicans want to celebrate this success of the rich by giving them some more big tax cuts (even though they'll do it by slashing programs that help hurting Americans like unemployment insurance, community health programs, food stamps, Headstart and other education funds, and even Medicare).

These Republican policies really make a lot of sense -- in an alternate universe populated by pink unicorns and flying pigs!