Recession Is Still Alive And Well

"Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy's few bright spots, is faltering.

"The odds of a double-dip are rising and uncomfortably high," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, referring to the possibility that the nation will tip back into recession. "Nothing else can go wrong. There is no cushion left."

On Wednesday, the government offered the latest dose of grim news about the economic recovery: Companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines. And Americans bought new homes at the weakest pace in nearly half a century.

Earlier this week came news that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to the lowest level in 15 years.

Unemployment remains near double digits because job growth in the private sector has slowed."

The above quote is from an Associated Press article on the economy at the msnbc.com site. It shows just how bad our economy still is. Economic pundits have been trying to tell us that the recession is over -- we just had a jobless recovery. I call that a truckload of horse manure!

To be honest, there is no such thing as a "jobless recovery". Until this country replaces a large part of the 12-15 million jobs lost in this recession, the recession will not be over (regardless of any ridiculous numbers touted by the government and economic pundits). A real recovery requires Americans to again become consumers to spur a lasting economic growth, and they will not (cannot) do that until they have jobs.

It is not enough that rich people are once again willing to gamble in the stock market, or that corporations are showing big profits (usually by laying off more workers). Those are not indicators of a rebounding economy. They indicate only that the rich are taking advantage of the recession to suck even more wealth from the rest of us (and that won't last long because there's not much left to take).

Let's cut through all the BS here. There is only one indicator that will signal an end to this massive recession (which may actually be called a depression in years to come). That indicator is strong and continuing job creation. And don't expect that to happen real quick. It's going to take a while to replace enough of the 12-15 million lost jobs to climb back to a healthy economy.

This November is going to be a big indicator of how fast we can end this recession. If the Republicans win enough seats to return to power, or even enough to block job stimulus efforts by the Democrats, the country will remain mired in the recession. Don't forget, it was the Republican policy of deregulation and make the rich even richer (at the expense of everyone else) that caused this recession in the first place. And they have not changed those policies.

Sadly, the recession is alive and well. And the Republicans seem to like it that way.