Could this be the bottom of the Great Recession?
In today’s NYT, David Leonhardt wraps up the recent economic news and asks a question:
“What if in the end they got it right?
What if, amid all their missteps and all the harsh criticism, the people in charge of battling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression — Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Henry Paulson and the rest — basically succeeded?
It is clearly too soon to know for sure. But the evidence is now pointing pretty strongly in one direction: history books may conclude that the financial crisis of 2008 turned out to be far less bad than it could have been and that Washington deserved much of the credit.”
Personally, I think it’s too early to even conjecture about such an outcome. If you look at the foreclosures and troubled mortgages still in the system, if you look at the number of companies still teetering, I fear this could be the lull before another storm.
On the other hand, though, when this economic calamity really does begin to ease, this is pretty much what such a moment would look like. So maybe, and keep your fingers crossed.
PLUS:
To update the previous post, I see where the sage and well-informed Sarah Palin has joined Pat Buchanan and other nuts in warning that Obama is plotting euthanasia. Among the likely targets she suggests is her son Trig.
Lovely. Just lovely.
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194 comments Add your comment
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
9:49 am
Most recessions last an average of 8 months, we are currently in the 18th month of this one, so, it seems to me, the socialist policies of the “president” and democrat controlled Congress have prolonged it more than necessary.
But you go ahead and spin as hard as you can, cling to this little tiny thread of hope as your whole entire ship slips beneath the waves, to borrow a favorite illustration from the AJC’s crank cartoonist.
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
9:50 am
1st and 2nd!
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
9:53 am
Hope, as though there is any in sight, based entirely on only a quarter of a million people laid off last month.
Amazing how economic benchmarks set by the state run socialist media change when their clown is in office.
Hope and change, hahahahaha, losers.
rcs
August 8th, 2009
10:08 am
I think it’s too early to tell. But if it is true, with only 10% of the stimulus money spent, will they return the remaining 90%?
Brad Steel
August 8th, 2009
10:08 am
A series cynical negative post from the Nazi Whiner? What a shocker. And congratulations on being first. You should treat yourself to an extra juice box.
If we have corrected, it has to somehow be Reagan’s doing.
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
August 8th, 2009
10:10 am
Well, I sure hope this ain’t the end of the recession. If it is, then I would have to give this Obama credit. And that would be worse than eating dead crow. I’m like @@. I’m all for the country when a good Republican is in the White House, but I’m out to screw it if a librul Democrat is there.
Anyhow, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the stock market to go back down and unemployment to go up again and everybody to be real miserable so we can vote a good bunch of Republicans into office in 2010 and 2012. We can’t stand by and watch the country get better under the librul Democrats.
Have a good weekend everybody.
Town-Hallers Exposed
August 8th, 2009
10:15 am
This Onion article shines a laser light of how the oblivious town-hallers are actually perceived.
George American
August 8th, 2009
10:19 am
Any improvement can be chalked up to the free market correcting itself. Government can’t do nothing right.
There is no way Obarma and his incompetent community organizers have done anything good. They are liars, thieves and cheets!
getalife
August 8th, 2009
10:30 am
They threw trillions of your money to save their rich friends and keep the market at 8000 and now will cut services to the poor.
Libs should join the cons and go yell at them.
Yeah, like they care about the people yelling at them but it’s a start.
Bosch
August 8th, 2009
10:31 am
I guess it would be too much to ask if Palin has even read anything regarding the healthcare bill.
TnGelding
August 8th, 2009
10:38 am
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi
You Whine 
August 8th, 2009
9:53 am
…and third. Strike three, you’re out! Yeah, if only Obama hadn’t announced he was running for president maybe there wouldn’t have been a recession. No matter how much you deny it the trend is postiive.
64 IQ
August 8th, 2009
10:39 am
George…. What’s a CHEET?
TnGelding
August 8th, 2009
10:39 am
rcs
August 8th, 2009
10:08 am
Nah, that’ll kick in right before the election, as planned.
Kayaker 71
August 8th, 2009
10:40 am
Once again, Bookman, you need a lesson in free speech. There a lot of people out there, including me and my family, who are very suspicious of Bozo and his new health care plan. We don’t like it, plain and simple. We don’t trust the people who are proposing it, we are afraid of getting government involved in our health care and don’t want the huge outlay of tax dollars that it will take to run a program that represents upwards of 20% of our gross national product. We don’t want to continue to be responsible for the health care needs of people who are in this country illegally. I am not surprised that none of this bothers you or your liberal peers. We don’t trust our Congress to make a valid decision about our health care future and especially we don’t trust the people who are proposing this fiasco. Read the rhetoric that Rham Emmanuel’s brother wrote about how he would set up a health care system and how health care would be prioritized to those who are deemed “worthy”. And he is one of Bozo’s health care advisors. Seems like that is what Sister Sarah is so upset about. Scares me a lot…. what scares me almost as much is people like you who back this nonsense. We don’t trust our elected officials to “do what is best” for us. Have you looked at the approval rating for our Congress lately?…. still in the teens. And you wonder why we protest.
TnGelding
August 8th, 2009
10:42 am
George American
August 8th, 2009
10:19 am
But they do it so well. Hold on to your wallet.
Kamchak
August 8th, 2009
10:43 am
Off topic–Bosch
David Beckham plans to exercise a clause in his contract allowing him to buy a Major League Soccer franchise at the end of his playing career.
This is a good thing–right?
TnGelding
August 8th, 2009
10:45 am
Kayaker 71
August 8th, 2009
10:40 am
There is no one plan….yet.
The approval rating for Congress would be a little higher if they’d gone after Bush and Cheney.
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
11:35 am
I guess it would be too much to ask if Palin has even read anything regarding the healthcare bill.
Bosch,
I betcha she’s read at least as much of the bill as you have.
AmVet
August 8th, 2009
11:37 am
The market’s resiliency this year is both good news and bad, it would seem.
Clearly now that the deadly bunglers and unabashed criminals in the White House have been replaced, some confidence has been restored. But given America’s longstanding track record of sticking it’s collective head in the sand, is this a good thing?
I don’t see that any of the underlying fundamentals that caused this debacle – the 15 year corporate crime wave that caused the near destruction of capitalism – have been addressed whatsoever.
Have there been widespread prosecutions and demands for economic justice?
No. Obama prefers to “look forward, not backwards.” A very Republican-like euphemism for “I’m gonna play it safe and let the swindlers and crooks get a free pass. (With our money.)”
Has the corporate impunity for these crimes been addressed?
Not really. When King George and his cabal had Wall Street over a barrel last September, they allowed the white collar criminals to shove them in the barrel and roll it over a cliff.
(What a legacy. You’re doing a heckuva job, conned.)
Do any of these paid for politicians who are supposed to be protecting the American people even give a damn about at least pretending they care anymore?
So forgive me, but I am extremely suspicious of business as usual on Wall Street, K Street, Main Street and in Washington D.C.
As reflected in the DJIA.
And though I caused a minor controversy here some months ago about speculating what the bottom might be – followed by a plethora of guesses and even attempts at forming a pool – I would have been wrong.
I did not expect the markets to make large gains. And thought it would go even lower…
BHO has one helluva mess on his hands, that’s for sure; but with the brain dead fake conservatives gone, we at least have a chance now…
Taxpayer
August 8th, 2009
11:40 am
Kayaker 71
August 8th, 2009
10:40 am
If you think that government should eliminate Medicare, then you should just tell them. Get involved. After all, there are plenty of good conservative Republicans out there that feel the same way as you about excessive government involvement in our lives and their massive expenditures of tax dollars. While you’re at it, won’t you join me and others in our efforts to reduce that $630 billion dollar DoD annual budget. It’s high time we quit borrowing from China and others to fund such a bloated government program. Don’t you agree, young man.
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
11:40 am
Kamchak,
Why are you posting videos of my girlfriend downstairs?
Kamchak
August 8th, 2009
11:56 am
RW
That’s not what she said last night.
Michael H. Smith
August 8th, 2009
12:03 pm
So Jay Bookman asks what if: What if in the end they got it right? What if the proverbial “THEY” basically succeed?
I would be ever so happy, probably happier than I’ve ever been in my entire life, if, that IF where true. “IF”, you actually can spend yourself rich and borrow your way out of debt.
I’m and American, and that is what worries me the most. It will not be the Democrats or the Republicans who suffer the gravest consequences if they got it wrong. It will be Americans and we Americans could lose our country in the end, “IF”, they don’t get it right.
Plus:
Getting anywhere near the end of life area is territory the government should not traverse. The connotations are far too great, the subject is far too personal and the government is far too powerful to ever come anywhere close to touching this forbidden fruit, Mr. Bookman.
Dave R.
August 8th, 2009
12:09 pm
I suspect that anyone calling this the end of the recession is whistling in the wind. With only about 10% of the stimulus money having been spent, any turnaround right now is only due to the free market system doing what they do best.
stands for decibels
August 8th, 2009
12:11 pm
the sage and well-informed Sarah Palin has joined Pat Buchanan and other nuts
For the record, and whatever slim chance she may have had to win the GOP nomination?
She’s officially finished as a national candidate. No sane person will vote for her now. Period.
stands for decibels
August 8th, 2009
12:13 pm
“What if, amid all their missteps and all the harsh criticism, the people in charge [...] basically succeeded?”
As I’ve found myself saying on many, many occasions in the past decade or so–I’ve really hoped to be wrong, and I hope that these insiders actually knew what they were doing, that the “send for a thief to catch a thief” strategy worked.
But like ya say, who knows at this point.
Mary
August 8th, 2009
12:13 pm
Trick is safe. Just like Truck and Trap. She needs meds badly. Somebody please NOMINATE her for the republican ticket!
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
12:14 pm
Wherever could these awful rumors about just taking a painkiller and getting out of the governments hair come from?
Please send this video to flag@whitehouse.gov
According to Jay B it sounds fishy.
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
12:18 pm
Note to the nitpickers: I know this isn’t a new practice
The only reason the unemployment percentage went down last month was because an incredibly large number, nearly 800,000 people, fell into the category that gets eliminated into the ether. The percentage went down but so did the actual number of people working.
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
12:21 pm
No matter how much you deny it the trend is postiive.
TN/ Taxpayer/ Whoeverinthehell- Feel free to compare-
January Job Gains Less Than Expected- WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers added ~~~~just~~~~ 146,000 new jobs in January and hiring in the previous three months was revised lower, the government said on Friday in an ~~~~~unexpectedly weak report on the job market~~~~~, but a ~~~~~drop in job-seekers~~~~~ pushed the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years. The gain in nonfarm payrolls in January came in ~~~~below market expectations~~~~ for 190,000 new jobs but was enough to return the nation’s employment to where it was before the 2001 recession began.-2004
I wish I had time to go scare up some of the bookman/ Queen Pinko/ Kanell Urinal whining and moaning about 200,000 people finding employment, but since I is busy, I had to work with Reuters.
Maybe later.
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
12:22 pm
Here’s another one to report
Dang! That one could have fit into the Friday night thread too. I’ll have to remember it for next Friday if the white house snitch brigade hasn’t had it destroyed by then.
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
12:24 pm
Who am I kidding, these goons at the AJC probably scrubbed their archives already.
AmVet
August 8th, 2009
12:26 pm
“…the free market system doing what they do best.”
So laughable, it needs no commentary…
For all you laissez faire, economic liberal losers who are fine with the gangster capitalists walking off with your money, and your kids’ and your grandkids’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1auRCameVY
I Report/ Health Care Industry Plant/ Nazi :-) You Whine :-(
August 8th, 2009
12:37 pm
Reporting dissent is the highest form of patriotism! Is your neighbor suspiciously “well-dressed”? Is he mouthing off about cancer survival rates under socialized medical systems while wearing a cravat? Give us his name, and we’ll give you his spats! Just go to flag@whitehouse.gov, not to be confused with flagging@whitehouse.gov., which is the e-mail address for reporting President Obama’s latest approval rating. Go to flay@whitehouse.gov if you’d like Speaker Pelosi to walk across your back as a whip-wielding SS dominatrix barking “Vee hoff vays of making you tokk less casually, dumbkopf!” Go to flange@whitehouse.gov if you need parts for your new government car, or your new government hip replacement. Go to flaunt@whitehouse.gov if you’d like a special preview of President Obama’s latest bare-chested pictorial for Vanity Fair. Go to flatulent@whitehouse.gov if you’d like to report your neighbor’s cow for excessive CO2 emissions.-Mark Steyn
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
12:38 pm
The biggest player in the health-care debate right now isn’t Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, or even President Obama. It’s the Congressional Budget Office, which is responsible for estimating the costs of proposed legislation. After the director of the CBO testified on July 16 that none of the health-reform bills in the House or Senate would reduce the rate of increase in federal spending on health care, congressional efforts fell into disarray. Many policymakers began searching for a way to get costs below the CBO’s frightening estimate of $1.1 trillion over ten years. Others attacked the CBO, calling its estimates irresponsible.
The CBO is actually being kind to the would-be reformers. Its analysis likely understates—by at least $1 trillion—the true costs of expanding health coverage as current Democratic legislation contemplates.
Where do you suppose the government will make up these costs? Hmmm folks that are really using a lot of health care services but aren’t paying income or payroll taxes anymore seems a likely start.
That ^^^ conjecture as well as the economic analysis should also be reported to Mr. or Mrs. Flag.
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
12:40 pm
With the President & his Thugs promises of retaliation for any negative resposnes/ads by elected officials or groups who challege them on just about anything (Health Care in paticular). Makes one think we’re dealing with a regime not just your normal administration. Scary!!!!!
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
12:45 pm
Oh,by the way that was reported last night on CNN not FOX. “We will (administration) go after them hard,twice as hard! We have the resources do so”
RW-(the original)
August 8th, 2009
12:49 pm
Halibut,
They already have. There’s video of the SEIU thugs Obama astroturfed into action jumping protestors with no provocation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guess what? The left really isn’t against talking over and shouting down their guest
yeah right
August 8th, 2009
12:59 pm
Does Bookman have a wife and kids or is he a midtown queer liberal?
yeah right
August 8th, 2009
1:02 pm
Crickets?
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
1:05 pm
yeah right-ouchhhhhh
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
1:10 pm
Of course Jay is right on it, stating his displeasure with Obama and gang over such tactic’s. Uh no, he endorses it. Or at least it appears so by his mere silence.
yeah right
August 8th, 2009
1:28 pm
Every dark cloud has a silver lining. If the moronic libs get this health takeover bill crammed through, it will help decimate their ranks. A huge proportion of them are gay. And I do not mean in the closet, I mean sing show tunes while they are taking it gay. Once the kenyan completes the slide from socialism into communism, the gays will be destroyed. There will be no money to treat their unique diseases, like AIDS. The kenyan just saw this group as an ends to a means. He just needed their vote, that’s all. Just like the AFL/CIO employees at Lockheed in Marietta. Just an ends to a means. He killed the F22 contracts. The kenyan does not care about the unions, or gays, or the elderly, or the guilty-thinking whites (proven in Gates affair). Capitalism>Socialism>Communism
So as a population, we will soon be completely repressed as a populace. We will lose all freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. But look on the bright side! Our fearless leader will destroy the fags, retards, sickly, old and infirm. After reading the comments from the libs in this forum that will be a good thing. All of the kenyans’ supporters he will eventually throw under the bus.
LOL
david wayne osedach
August 8th, 2009
1:30 pm
If Obama did get it right and this is the end of the recession then he will stand as the best President ever. On the other hand – if nothing happens – or things get worse. He should get booted out in 2012 for wasting trillions!
booger
August 8th, 2009
1:36 pm
Just checked my history books and guess what? There has never been a recession which didn’t end. Looks like no matter when it ends, Obama will get the credit. Fact is this recession will end not because of, but in spite of the govts. involvment.
It’s reported this will be the longest recession since the depression. Interesting to note that these are the two events where the govt. got actively involved in bringing them to an end.
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
1:47 pm
booger-are u saying in reality both recession’s may have ended earlier had it not been for govnmnt involvement? Natural corrections in the market place, something that happens daily.
Halibut Maoir
August 8th, 2009
1:50 pm
There again without Govnmnt’s involvement,there would be no one to bang there chest and take the credit for saving man. Such is the job for Super Obama!!!!
Jay
August 8th, 2009
2:09 pm
Such lovely people dropping by on a Saturday to pay a visit….
DebbieDoRight
August 8th, 2009
2:13 pm
Getting anywhere near the end of life area is territory the government should not traverse. The connotations are far too great, the subject is far too personal and the government is far too powerful to ever come anywhere close to touching this forbidden fruit, Mr. Bookman
I may be wrong, but…………………..weren’t you that same guy who was yelling that Schiavo’s husband had no rights and that it was a god thing that the State of Florida, along with the federal government, stepped in and squashed the florida supreme court ruling allowing Mr. Schiavo to declare his wife as brain dead and have her taken off life support? It could’ve been someone else; but your comment sure does sound familiar.
DebbieDoRight
August 8th, 2009
2:20 pm
She’s officially finished as a national candidate. No sane person will vote for her now.
Dang! That last part about sane people….well, there goes your argument right there!
With the President & his Thugs promises of retaliation for any negative resposnes/ads by elected officials or groups who challege them on just about anything
Oh please!! Grow up!! It would be real nice if you goons knew how to comprehend what you read, but I guess I’m living in a dream world.
Amvet: Is that that guy’s REAL voice? Ewwwww!! Was that song a hit? Now I know why disco was so big, people just wanted to dance they didn’t care what the music actually sounded like.