Rick Raw: Recession Over?–Not by a Long Shot

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Some private think tank called the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) suddenly announced on Sept. 21, that the U.S. recession was over 15 months ago, in June 2009. This announcement was met with expressions of disbelief.

Ah yes, I could almost hear the screams of outrage across the land, raging like a giant class 5 tornado. Get real, I say.

Unemployment is still at almost 10%, new jobs are nonexistent, and foreclosures remain shockingly high. The struggling housing markets are stuck with millions of foreclosed homes for sale with no buyers.

Of course, the NBER group’s proclamation only further agitated the legions of angry people. It means nothing to the millions of people whose lives have been irrevocably ruined by the recession.

The economic apocalypse effectively eliminated the middle class, and created a new poor class of people, unaccustomed to living in poverty. Most of these skilled workers or professionals, like engineers ,will take any type of employment to dig themselves out of their financial hole. It’s just not there.

My class, senior citizens, were hit especially hard, since we received no cost of living increase in our Social Security pay, and President Obama reneged on his promise to give seniors a stimulus check for $250 to compensate for the loss of the cost of living increase.

We were already struggling to make ends meet before the economic apocalypse. Now, we are living on the brink of poverty. Holding our heads just above water. Any financial emergency would drown us.

Yes, at 70, I’m able and willing to work, but no one will hire me. So, I’m stuck. I scrape by on part time writing assignments and have drastically reduced my standard of living. I published an esoteric book that will never be a best seller. And I’m working on a memoir that I hope will sell well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Between my wife and my Social Security pay, combined and our respective modest pensions, we’re better off than most of the unemployed who have run out of out of work benefits. What is their future. Only darkness!

The news only keeps getting worse. The number of Americans living in poverty grew to levels unseen in 20 years. 43.6 million people fell below the poverty line. The number of Americans without health insurance also rose last year to 50.7 million.

So how in the hell can NBER make such an audacious claim. What are they basing their conclusions on–a palm reader? Yes, according to the Wall Street Journal, "More of us are poor." Duh! What a generalization.

The "WSJ" goes on to say, "The president wants to plow ahead with the same policies that aren’t reducing poverty. Instead of rebuilding America as an economic powerhouse, Obama and Congress both offer only short-term fixes that may pay political dividends."

Bob Herbert in "The New York Times" goes further with his doomsday scenario. "It may take a full blown depression before politicians react constructively to this economic disaster."

Meanwhile, the gap between the wealthiest citizens and the poorest people only grows wider. Dan Rodricks in the "Baltimore Sun" said, "Yet, the moment someone dares to point out the gap beween the rich and poor, Republicans throw the class warfare flag."

When Roosevelt instituted his "New Deal" and put people to work on infrastructure projects, it helped to ease the suffering from the Great Depression. However, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into WWII, the economy rebounded because of the war effort involved every part of society. WWII ended the depression.

Today, we need stronger leadership than Obama is giving us. We need someone to cut through the BS and political noise to jolt the economy with a big surge of aggressive change–not politicians trying to get reelected.

I say to the NBER to shut up and do something constructive instead of giving us false hopes.
(Quotes gleaned from "The Week.")