Tuesday, December 2, 2008

US recession year 2

Yesterday [01 December 2008], the NYSE lost almost 700 points or 9 per cent in value. News that the US has been in recession since December 2007 caught everyone unaware. Well...many...not all...Some voices had been raised saying that the economic verities of the day had gone haywire, and that the country had slipped into recession. But the old shaggy heads shook it off hiding behind the dry textbook definition that it was too soon to come to that determination. After the failure of Bear Stearns, the old guard thought, they had saved the day. They didn't, and from there the situation went from bad to worse, and them from worse to worser. The US Treasury, the Fed, and the economic advisors and conventional economists tinkered with this and that but after the government let Lehman Brothers fail...it was difficult to believe that the economic establishment thought the spector of recession didn't hover over the global market. It did! Now, the truth is out. It had been swept under the rug until the dirt accumulated into a small Himalaya, it could no longer be denied. And now we know, what we all knew or suspected, we're in a deep and growing recession, bordering on depression. Which raises the question about collusion between the Treasury, the Fed, and the monied and corporate class to preach denial. And denial they did preach. And they bought time till after the US elections, and left the mess for someone else to clean up! So we may soon see a mighty broom sweep out old theories and practices, and hunker down to get a failing economy working again.

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