Always Good For A Laugh

Yes, I'm talking about the "mainstream media". For those of us who know better than to believe everything they put out as "news", there is a lot of humor to be found in their stories.

Take today's story about how "It's Official - The National Bureau of Economic Research has determined the recession began in December of 2007." WOW! GEE!

Actually, the terminology I would use is BS, TRIPE!

First, it is definitely NOT "official" - they try to forge a belief that the National Bureau of Economic Research is a valid, government bureau. It is not. It is a private company that uses its own rules, and its own standards for making such determinations. There is nothing official about them or their determinations. And they do not use the accepted standard of what constitutes a recession, which is two consecutive quarters with a negative GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

So this begs the question, "Why are THESE clowns saying the recession started last year?"

Hey, here's a simple answer - the NBER is a liberal (spelled D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T) organization. And the last thing they want is for the recession to technically begin with Obama's term in office, which it is scheduled to do. So, they simply threw out the accepted atandards, and wrote their own, and using their own standards, they are able to "prove" the recession began a year ago.

I'm not debating when the recession started - it starts at a different time for each of us. If you lost your job on October 5th, the recession probably started in your home on October 5th. Personally, I think the recession, for all intents and purposes began this last spring. That is when unemployment levels rose sharply and and consumer confidence levels fell sharply. That causes fear, and fear turns a downturn into a full-blown recession. But for the media to say that "it's official" because some private entity with an agenda says so is too absurd for words, because the official standard is two consecutive quareters of negative GDP. And we have not yet seen that, though I suspect that this quarter will be the 2nd one, and we will "officially" be in recession come January.

But here is what many folks - including the NBER, apparently - do not understand. A recession is not the product of a President's term. The recession of '99, blamed on Clinton (but Democrats tried blaming it on Bush) was not Clinton's fault. And this recession is not Bush's fault, nor will it be Obama's fault.

Recessions are a necessary, unstoppable part of the economic cycle. First law of physics - what goes up, MUST come down. That includes economies.

But recessions can, and often are, assisted by a lousy Congress and a myopic, manipulating Federal Reserve. By continually trying to ward off "bad times", they only make it worse - like sticking your finger in the dike. For whatever you forestall will only grow in magnitude.

This recession is going to be bad - much worse than it should have been. If Congress and the FED had just let nature take its course, it would have come a long time ago, and would already be but a memory.

I sure wish politicians would realize that manipulation never produces desired results, whether it is minipulating the markets, the economy or the people.

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