Don’t worry, be happy!
“WASHINGTON—After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system.
Tired of hearing the grim truth about their economic future, Americans demanded that the bald-faced lies resume immediately, particularly whenever politicians feel the need to divulge another terrifying problem with Wall Street, the housing market, or any one of a hundred other ticking time bombs everyone was better off not knowing about.
In addition, citizens are requesting that the phrase, “It will only get worse before it gets better,” be permanently replaced with, “Things are going great. Enjoy yourselves.”
Yes, you’re right: That came from the Onion. And I’m sure — well, pretty sure, anyway — that it had nothing to do with this, as reported in the NYT:
“WASHINGTON — Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Tuesday that the economic free fall of the last nine months was nearing an end and that the United States should begin a fragile recovery by the end of this year.
In his most upbeat assessment in a long time, Mr. Bernanke said a wide array of indicators, from consumer spending and home sales to a revival in the credit markets, now suggested that the economy was stabilizing.
But the Fed chairman also warned that the recovery would be slow. He predicted that job losses would probably continue until sometime in 2010, and that unemployment was virtually certain to climb from its current rate of 8.5 percent.
In normal times, that kind of forecast would hardly be comforting. But Mr. Bernanke’s view reinforced the growing consensus among private forecasters that the worst of the crisis might be past.
“I think we are in much better shape than we were in September and October,” Mr. Bernanke told lawmakers….”
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122 comments Add your comment
Midori
May 6th, 2009
12:09 pm
watch the loon platoon show up, and credit this turnaround to Bush’s “presidenting”
ByteMe
May 6th, 2009
12:10 pm
According to RealtyTrac.com, the banks are holding onto 600,000 homes that they won’t put into the MLS to keep the real estate market from sinking further. Alt-A and Option ARM mortgages are set to reset in bulk in 2010 and 2011… in a bulge of future foreclosures sure to rival what happened in 2007-2008. Right now, there are just over 3,000,000 homes available for sale, but only 1,000,000 were sold in the past 12 months (round numbers), meaning we have a 3 year supply of homes right now. Normal inventory is about 8 months.
And that doesn’t count the people with good credit who become unemployed and decide to bail on their home mortgage that’s underwater.
Excess inventory = Further Asset devaluation = deflation.
Don’t worry, be happy.
Redneck Convert
May 6th, 2009
12:18 pm
Well, I see some woman on Bookman’s blog this a.m. blasted me for looking down on people that don’t agree with me and not being polite. So I’m asking her in the nicest way I know to please don’t leave no lipstick marks when she kisses my hind end.
This economy is awful under this Obama. If My President was still in office we would be off and roaring and everybody would have a job or two and be rich. The economy went into the tank soon as most people saw we were about to elect one of Those People to the White House. Sure, Obama has a bunch of liars that will make people think things are getting better but it’s a big lie.
I use a simple way to judge how the economy is going. If I’m at Countryland Golf Course and I’m finding lots of tees and even some whole ones when I’m ready to tee off, things are going good. But ever since this Obama took office you can’t even find a tee that’s long enough to use to tee off on a par 3. My way works. This Bernarke and others just make up a bunch of gibberish and try to sound like they know what they’re talking about.
Have a good day everybody.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 6th, 2009
12:23 pm
Multitask – I can worry some, and still be happy.
Mike
May 6th, 2009
12:25 pm
Those of us who complain about liberal media bias don’t find this surprising at all.
The Times and the rest of the mainstream media will be as deliberate in their talking up of the economy for Obama’s benefit as they were talking it down for Bush.
Check out this gem of propaganda:
“Everyone knows the grim news — unemployment in the United States has jumped to 8.5 percent, a 25-year high, and is racing toward double digits. Since November, the nation has lost more than three million jobs.
But not everyone knows the brighter side to the equation: deep in the maw of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, millions are still being hired.”
The article then goes on to say:
“Eddie Hamm, a former construction worker, was unemployed for five months when he drove by the site where the Culver’s was under construction. Mr. Hamm, 29, applied for a job there, and now he’s a “fry guy.”
“I’m just happy I got hired — I didn’t want to stay home, not doing anything,” he said, hardly complaining that he is earning half the $15 an hour he made in construction. “I don’t look at it like I’m making $7.50. I look at it — I’m having a job in a down time, and it’s a job where I can move up.””
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/business/economy/06hire.html?em
Can you imagine such an article during the Bush admin? Not bloody likely.
I was looking forward to this particular benefit when Obama was elected. At least the press would be trying to help the President instead of trying to destroy him. There are not many things you can count on, but liberal bias in the mainstream media is one of the,m.
booger
May 6th, 2009
12:28 pm
Midori,
Turnaround….what turnaround? You actually read this and came away with turnaround?
Kamchak
May 6th, 2009
12:29 pm
Job losses will continue as employment data is a lagging indicator when it comes to forecasting the economy.
Glass half full?
Glass half empty?
Still half a glass.
The real question is what kind of jobs will be available to those of us un/underemployed? Micheal Milken and his leveraged buyout junk-bonds of the 80’s crippled the manufacturing industry and gave us the mid-west rust belt. These careers were replaced with service sector jobs in phone-call centers with reduced benefits and no job security. Many joked about the vast numbers of jobs created during the Clinton administration by saying “yeah, I’ve got three of them.” What happened to those U.S. based phone-call centers? Bottom-line corporate worship decided that it would create more profits if these jobs were in India or Indonesia.
The promise of green technology manufacturing jobs has raised its’ head, but unless corporate America grows a conscience, these manufacturing jobs will be sacrificed for cheap labor profits.
Obozo
May 6th, 2009
12:31 pm
I got it, I got it!
I know how to lie, it’s actually the only thing I’m good at.
Allah Akbar!
Yes I can!
Taxpayer
May 6th, 2009
12:31 pm
It was a dream vacation in the land of ‘Perfect’ that fixed everything for the freshly minted ‘conservatives’ who just couldn’t take it any more. Lounging around listening to Jimmy Buffet’s latest, Tea Parties in Paradise.
Shawny
May 6th, 2009
12:32 pm
Ready to be lied to…? Like we aren’t currently? Crap away trillions of $$$ and ignore the fact that our country’s credit rating is equivalent to junk bonds and see what happens when inflation goes through the roof.
Best cartoon seen recently, but I don’t have a link to it: Prez is laying on a hospital bed…doc says to keep him sedated, because everytime he wakes, he spends another trillion dollars. nice.
ty webb
May 6th, 2009
12:35 pm
booger,
you give midori too much credit for being able to read, and form his/her own opinion?
Bud Wiser
May 6th, 2009
12:37 pm
What gets me is the complete and absolute ignorance of the left, particularly some of those that leave a trail like a slug across the keyboard when posting here.
Your total attitude about Obozo and his victory is that he won, so now he (you) can do anything you want, and there is nothing the opposition can do about it.
If that doesn’t qualify you toads as morons, well, we need a whole new scale of stupid to measure that kind of ignorance.
So what is it you want to cheer yourselves on, and pat yourselves on the shoulder about? Tell us all …. I for one am curious about the motivation. Just as scientists study lab mice in the maze, I like to study mice on the blog, particularly the stupid ones. Are you chasing down your little piece of cheese at the end of the tunnel? Is it instinctive, or racially motivated that 95% + of all blacks polled in the election voted for Obama? He’s not THAT smart, people., Harvard Law Review or no.Are you people finally going to take responsibility for your actions by helping to put this poseur in place just because of the color of his skin?
What about the responsibility when your man makes us more unsafe by the systematic dismantlement of the intelligence community; releasing a thousand or so paramilitary trained jihadists into our population, because dousing them with water was considered “torture”; closing down the only beyond our borders facility where these murders can be held safely away for political, not national security reasons: takes us down an economic road where the US dollar becomes a thing of value no more than what you scrape off your shoes; appoints not 1, 2, 3, 4, but 5 tax cheaters to important positions, one of which has the authority to take possession of everything you have if you pull the same crap he did, then Obama says these are ‘vital’ people to our recovery – is it because of their ability to cheat and lie like PLOTUS; are you morons ever going to recognize what tools you have been, how you have been used (a lot), and what you’re going to get out of it (nothing)?
Quick laundry list of what the “We gots Obama” crowd can expect: increased taxes, decreased ‘freebies’, decreased govt services, decreased safety from terrorists, a worthless dollar, a house if you own you cannot sell, a house that you want you cannot buy, spiraling fuel, food and medical costs. Any of this mean anything to you?
And if you think you’ve got it made because you gots Obama, well, when you wake up, reality will become much more different from your little dream lands.
getalife
May 6th, 2009
12:45 pm
Well, it ended better than I thought.
Americans bent over and took it from our corrupt government again.
Sad but true, so lets stop whining about it.
Move on.
Midori
May 6th, 2009
12:47 pm
Glad to see you reporting or duty so soon, Ty.
AmVet
May 6th, 2009
12:48 pm
Had only this man not been duped into shucking and grinning for the BushCo chickenhawks. Like countless other Americans though, he apparently has seen the light and had enough of the neo-con bunglers and frauds. And their dwindling sycophants…
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has once again bashed conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as well as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin while going a step further this time by piling on the GOP.
Following up on last December’s acrimonious interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Powell told corporate security executives Monday, “The Republican Party is in deep trouble” adding “I think what Rush [Limbaugh] does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without.”
Susan Myers
May 6th, 2009
12:50 pm
This is the pro-torture party’s worst nightmare. President Obama and America succeeding! The horror!
DB, Gwinnettian
May 6th, 2009
12:52 pm
Is it instinctive, or racially motivated that 95% + of all blacks polled in the election voted for Obama?
What percentage voted for Kerry, Bud?
LAB
May 6th, 2009
12:55 pm
Uh oh. Here come the teabaggers…
Quick, get the water boiling!
Mrs. Godzilla
May 6th, 2009
12:57 pm
Bud….
absolute ignorance, slime trails, toads, morons, new scale of stupid…
You left out socialist, commie, pinko, facist,…..
If you are going to excrete a diatribe…..please do it right!
You’re at your most amusing when you go off the deep end holding that broad brush of yours.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 6th, 2009
12:58 pm
LAB
wouldn’t that scald?
Taxpayer
May 6th, 2009
12:58 pm
Why didn’t Texas, unlike other Sunbelt states, see a housing bubble?
In Dallas, home prices have stayed flat since 2000 and they fell just 4.5% in February from a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index figures released Tuesday. That compares with an 18.6% decline nationwide over the same period. Foreclosure rates in the state have remained low.
The Rortybomb blog argues that the state’s strict lending laws had something to do with it. Texas has a ban on prepayment penalties, it also doesn’t allow balloon loans or negative amortizing loans where the loan payment is less than the interest on the loan.
But a handful of states, including Alaska and Vermont, had also banned prepayment penalties, and others, including hard-hit Minnesota, joined in banning them from the subprime market as that bubble inflated, according to the Center for Responsible Lending.
Others have argued that high property taxes and other land regulations in Texas discouraged the Lone Star State from jumping into the housing boom with two boots.
California real-estate investor Bruce Norris notes that the cost of owning a property free and clear in Texas can range from double to triple the cost in California. In Texas, a $150,000 home carries an average $5,300 in taxes and insurance, compared to $2,050 in California. (The gap is more pronounced among $1 million homes, where average taxes and insurance reach $32,500 in Texas, compared to $11,500 in California.) – blogs.wsj
There’s also a little history with a not-too-distant real estate bubble and a little issue with S&L failures that’s still fairly fresh in some minds out there in the Lone Star state. Just imagine what that state could accomplish though if they got rid of all those steenking regulations and taxes. Secession would sure do them good, dontcha know. Dang. They’re worse than California!
AmVet
May 6th, 2009
1:00 pm
Amazing, the evil liberal media tripe continues unabated.
The reason for the economic collapse last September has not been remedied.
The symptoms have been treated but the fundamental causes are still in place.
Some small efforts have been made, but the corporate destroyers of capitalism have neither been removed nor brought to justice.
And George of the Bungle and his cabal had the PERFECT chance last fall to get something REALLY effective done but took the closed-door easy way out. Locking out and selling out the American people. Gutless and myopic, what a combination.
What a legacy…
LAB
May 6th, 2009
1:00 pm
Mrs. G at 12:58,
Oh yeah!
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 6th, 2009
1:02 pm
I’m actually surprised that the lies from the left about the economy “recovering” haven’t been like the recent Georgia rainfalls, steady and furious.
Perhaps after the 8 years of lies about the “bad” Bush economy, they have forgotten how to report good news, you reckon?
The deficit in the last budget adopted by a Republican controlled Congress, in 2006 for fiscal year 2007, was $162 billion, less than one-tenth as much as this year’s deficit!
I know one thing for sure, the pinko media will never give us the truth.
Hog Tied for Now
May 6th, 2009
1:10 pm
we were called a “racist’s” by libs for qustioning Obama’s qualifications to be president during the election. we were called “Hater’s” by libs for questioning the multiple trillion dollar stimulus package. Now the biased media is trying to paint this beautifull picture on the economy,that anyone with a pulse can see is pure bul*sh*t. Who are really the FOOLS? The people that follow this pumped up CLOWN for pres or the people that continue to accept the garbage fed to them by the biased left media? Both answers would be correct.
Cherokee
May 6th, 2009
1:11 pm
Midori, very perceptive of you – and show up they did
DB, Gwinnettian
May 6th, 2009
1:17 pm
we were called a “racist’s” by libs for qustioning Obama’s qualifications to be president during the election. we were called “Hater’s” by libs for questioning the multiple trillion dollar stimulus package.
And it hurted! and I cried!
Susan Myers
May 6th, 2009
1:17 pm
Breaking news – gay marriage legalized in Maine.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 6th, 2009
1:20 pm
So Jay, are you saying that Bernanke is full of crap, or that he should just STFU until he can say with metaphysical certitude that a recovery is under way?
DB, Gwinnettian
May 6th, 2009
1:22 pm
Susan, got ye no Google on that internet machine a’ yers?
DB, Gwinnettian
May 6th, 2009
1:25 pm
Bud, who are these “thousand or so paramilitary trained jihadists” that’ve been released “into our population”?
booger
May 6th, 2009
1:25 pm
Taxpayer,
You failed to mention that Texas has no income tax. One also gets about twice as much house in Texas as in Calif. for the same cost.
Texas is also a state which values individual responsibility. For the most part people there buy something they can afford, and then actually pay for it.
Taxpayer
May 6th, 2009
1:25 pm
Well, I’ll say it without reservation — A recovery is on its way. And, it’s the truth ’cause I know. I do. Really, I do.
AmVet
May 6th, 2009
1:27 pm
One also gets about twice as much house in Texas as in Calif. for the same cost.
booger, have you ever been to Texas and/of California?
Nuff said…
Bosch
May 6th, 2009
1:30 pm
Yeah, Texans are great. Ask Paul.
booger
May 6th, 2009
1:34 pm
AmVet,
Lived in Houston five years, My company had a major office in Calif. and I visited at least three times a year. We had to pay a large cost of living differential payment to get anyone to transfer from Houston to Calif.
Now nuff said.
Joey
May 6th, 2009
1:39 pm
Yeah, things are really looking up. Well, except that:
B of A needs another $34 Billion and Citi another $10 Billion;
We have no idea what B of A did with their original $45 Billion, nor Citi, nor any other bank;
70% of Congress skipped the Oversight meeting;
Wells Fargo did not want the original TARP and does not want any more, but Obama’s guys porobably won’t give them a choice;
GM and Chrysler are the property of The Obama Administration and UAW, at least until the UAW finds a buyer;
Etc.
No worries, mon.
booger
May 6th, 2009
1:40 pm
Taxpayer,
There has never been a recession in the US which didn’t have a recovery. Most, however have occured without the aid of a trillion dollar stimulus package.
AmVet
May 6th, 2009
1:45 pm
“Lived in Houston five years,…”
booger, my condolences…
Kamchak
May 6th, 2009
1:46 pm
Taxpayer
Still a lot of oil money in Texas from the days of $150 bbl days. Have a friend that lives in Houston. He’s a surveyor for pipeline co. His son, with only trade-school training got a job manufacturing electronic control room modules for oil rigs. The company manufactures the modules in Houston, then he travels to India, So. America, Canada, Indonesia, to help with installation. After nine months, this twenty one year old put 20% down in cash on a house in a half empty subdivision in Houston. As I understand he also got many free upgrades as incentive. Now that oil is $56 bbl both have been told about uncertainty concerning their jobs.
Joey
May 6th, 2009
1:49 pm
To you people who gleefully toss the insult of using “teabaggers/teabagging” to label people:
Jay may stop me but until then you are “deep-throaters”.
You swallow everything that Democrats and the Obama
Admistration puts into your mouth.
Susan Myers
May 6th, 2009
1:51 pm
DBG @ 1:22,
The internets ain’t a’workin too good round these parts today. I’m thinkin’ they’s too many of them thar teabaggin’ critters out and about.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 6th, 2009
1:54 pm
Joey
OOPS wrong again.
It’s done intervenously. That makes us mainliners.
booger
May 6th, 2009
1:57 pm
AmVet,
Houston was a great place to live. I lived in Seabrook, on the coast of Galveston Bay. It was a good and rewarding life.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 6th, 2009
2:00 pm
way way off topic…..
http://roflrazzi.com/2009/05/05/celebrity-pictures-godzilla-goes-to-your-thighs/
RealityKing
May 6th, 2009
2:01 pm
Surrrrrrre, I believe what the state media is pushing these days, especially whats parroted on the AJC..(eyes rolling)
And yes, eventually there will be enough job losses to adjust to the dems “different way of doin buiness”. Only 500,000 last week, we’re getting there, eventually we’ll see a turnaround, even when all of Obama’s soicalistic dreams for America come true. Of course, our standards of life will be much lower, as we’re forced to accept a much lowered standard service for our tax dollar. Much like the auto bailouts..
AmVet
May 6th, 2009
2:01 pm
booger, no worries. t’was just kidding…
Swami Dave
May 6th, 2009
2:02 pm
Taxpayer:
Not to be argumentative, but…..
According to tax information from Bankrate.com:
-Texas has no income tax – California has an income tax that approaches 9.5% (on income over $47,000) ti an addtional surcharge of 1% on income over $1M)
-Texas has an up to 8.25% state sales tax compared to a minimum 7.25% in Calfornia (where local additional sales taxes raise the effective rate).
-Texas has no inheritance tax compared to California having none either.
-Texas does not have a state property tax and personal property is typically not taxed unless it is an income-producing asset. California assesses property tax onto all real property.
Respectfully, Taxpayer, anyone who used your “comparisons” of tax liabilities to decide which state is the less-taxed would be victims of outright statistical fraud. Essentially, you based the entire comparison on “taxes and insurance” for hypothetical homes in each state. It is laughable on face.
However, being one who is happy to share information and teaching opportunities, here is a -more- reasonable apples-to-apples comparison of taxes in the two states.
Assuming a $50K / yr income (which a typical homeowner in a $150K home might earn) that the individual spent entirely (thereby encountering sales taxes on that income), the Texas resident would have paid $0 in state income taxes about $4000 in state sales taxes). In California, that same individual would have paid an effective state tax rate of approx 4-5% on that same income (~$2K) plus a minimum of 7% sales taxes ($3500).
For those who earn more (say $250K representing those who might be able to afford a $1M home), it is even more pronounced:
-Texas having no income taxes, their sales tax burden (if they spent their entire income) would be around $20K. In California, since that income is above the threshold, it would be taxed at the higher income rate (9.25%) or an additional $18K on top of the $2K already paid. Effectively, the hypothetical California would have already paid the same in income / sales taxes as your hypothetical Texan and they haven’t paid a dime of sales taxes yet. For the record, comparing apples-to-apples, those sales taxes (if they spent their income) would be another $14K on top of the #3500 already paid (or $17,500).
Net-Net: Your high-income earner in Texas has paid about $20K in taxes and her counterpart in California has already paid over $37K and is still waiting for their property tax bills for real and personal property which they may own.
It doesn’t take a genius.
-Swami Dave
Renee
May 6th, 2009
2:02 pm
I guess the Federal Reserves pockets are over flowing because I’m not seeing much change in the economy from here!! If anything prices are rising and jobs are still going elsewhere…. overseas. First off the crooks are telling us with smiles on their faces.. bull lies again!! While they took in front of us and now they are giving it all to the thieves who took it and the Federal Reserve is one of them that took!! The question is why was this done to us, has anyone really looked into how our banking system failed when there is bank auditors checking there accounts to make sure they were on the up side of things. I can tell you why this whole thing is for the New World Order planed by the Federal Reserve who is not part of our government, they are a corporation funded by wealthy men who went to Jekyll Island in secrecy to form this company to own the world banking system and to rule the world. The book is called Jekyll Island if you want a good read and so is the New World Order book. So until our citizen realize the truth of all this we all will have to live in poverty until who knows how long, and that may be a very long time.
Kamchak
May 6th, 2009
2:06 pm
Joey
If the protesters didn’t want to be called teabaggers they shouldn’t have been caught ON CAMERA wth truckloads of tea bags.