<![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession - Jezebel Comments]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @Moe: Don't say that. I've more or less abandoned my "Finance" tab on iGoogle because of your economic-insights delivered in a refreshingly jaded, but also cavalier and witty format. No more CNNmoney, WSJ.com business, Morningstar, "The Street", none of it. It's all been replaced by Jezenomics, so don't tell me it's a lie.. I can't accept that.

B_boy

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> me likey this article.
I have an econ degree, and a recession can be defined as "two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth", with the strongest indicator of economic growth generally being the GDP. The economy is obviously not in good shape right now, but it is NOT in a recession, which could only be possible if we had negative growth starting last October (definitely not the case). Even healthy economies go through cycles, with ours happening to be in a rough patch right now, and I think people are calling it a recession prematurely because we've been fortunate enough to have at least some sort of economic growth for almost 20 years now (though don't get me started on this past decade)and are just not used to these conditions.

Analysts love throwing the "recession" term around, and the very fact that the term is overused leads consumers to be discouraged, decreasing consumer spending (the largest contributor to GDP)and weakening the economy, thus turning talks of a recession into a self-fulfilling prophecy. We are definitely experiencing stagflation (high inflation/low growth/ increasing unemployment), which often leads to a recession, but this is not a recession. yet.

This was not meant to be a lecture, oops. Just a general endorsement of the fact that we are indeed not in a recession, even if there are a million things completely fucked up about our modern economic/business practices.


vamusical

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @pauljunk: I'd go so far as to say it totally disregards Economics 001, which is about as far as I ever got. (Well, I took 002 also, but that was in night school.)

IT IS A JOKE. JOKE JOKE JOKE.

Moe

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @GTCosita: I like the sound of "fucked". A nice ring to it, no?

redheadedstepchild

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> If you take into account a total disregard of economics 101, then this article is 100% accurate.

pauljunk

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> A note to Jezebel readers:

1. Moe incorporates a type of humor called sarcasm in her posts. If you don't understand sarcasm, Jezebel is not the best website for you.

2. Moe writes with run on sentences, I highly doubt this will change although I would guess that if enough people complain she will figure out a way to make her posts be one really long run on sentence so maybe people should stop complaining.

Lymed

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @ElDub: the dollar's value on global currency markets doesn't mean much at the moment to american consumers, and comparing trends on a percentage point basis to gdp growth is meaningless. other than gas, most stuff does not actually cost that much more - yet. and if the euro economy goes where it appears to be going, the currency will have to suffer at some point. either that or italy will become a 3rd world country.

pferde_schwanz

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Tell that to all my college-educated 30-something friends living on trail mix and skateboarding to futile job interviews.

NoYouAre

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Our GDP "growth" of 0.6% was outpaced by the global deflation of the dollar by 4%+. The recent bounceback in the value of our dollar is based on the developing european recession. The recession has gone global and america is ground zero.

Tell the increasing numbers of jobless, homeless and credit deleveraged that we are not in a recession.

ElDub

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @lamo.i.am: I propose that the western half of Maine join Ontario and the eastern half join New Brunswick. I look forward to being a bi-lingual nation! The regional dialects of Maine - 'deah' Ayuh' and 'Can't get theah from heah' do not count as a separate language.

MadameOvary

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> There are some good points made, but reading this article kind of made my eyes hurt. Less run-on sentences, please. kthxbai

athenaswisdom

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @Snarkysnake: Clearly, casual observations by laymen are a sound basis for economic projections.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @GTCosita: The article was (rather obviously) a parody of all the idgits who've been going on and on about how we're not REALLY in a recession, and how everything will just be fine if we act like nothing's wrong.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> My 5 reasons that we are not in a recession

1)People are cruising around around town ALONE in giant 2 ton SUV's and sitting in line at the Taco Bell drive thru burning $4 gas to buy $5 worth of food...

2) Try to get in a Logan's Roadhouse,Applebee's O'Charleys, or any casual dining place at lunch or on a weekend...

3) The malls are just as packed as always. Especially on weekends.

4)Comcast, Charter and other cable and satellite entertainment companies are reporting record,robust profits. Hannah Montana tickets are being scalped for over $1100...

5)Lexus broke it'sold sales record this year.

There- there is no recession,just a lot of hot air...

Snarkysnake

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> I'm getting an MPA in International Development and, I must say, I eat, breathe, and drink this nonsense. It it is beyond depressing to see how fucked up our government is, how complacent our people have become, and the shocking levels of abject poverty much of the world lives in as a result.

It breaks my heart.



TurtleFace

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @trikitixa: Absolutely Orwellian times. Yes.

CorreLola

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> I've barely finished my morning coffee and you just gave me enough depression to last the day. *sigh*

Vagari

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Seems to me she is pointing out that while technically there is no recession practically there is cause the things they measure to determine economic growth and prosperity are wonky

socasweet

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Spot on with health care. Its something like 12% of jobs and its ALWAYS growing. If economics would factor in the amount of jobs created in health care and therefore the income for people to spend on the economy uptight old guys on capitol hill would not be so freaked out over universal health care!

hammerimissu

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @NotNotLickingToads: this is partly true. but it's also true that excluding housing, growth was at 1.8% - hardly as bad as people are making it out to be, especially compared with european countries that would party all night long if they could get a quarter of nearly 2% growth.

whether one should exclude housing is another question. but it's still cyclical and has less to do with the overall health of the economy than people are making it out to be.

pferde_schwanz

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> I think the article is supposed to be "tongue-in-cheek". It's like, duh, everyone feels like we're in a recession, but TECHNICALLY, because of those reasons Moe explained, we're not. So fuck it if gas is almost 4 dollars a gallon and we can't afford to buy anything anymore, this is NOT a recession. We'll just have to call it something else...

GTCosita

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @regisgoat: From what I gather, it has to do with increased inventories. Meaning that where people can't or won't buy stuff, it sits on the shelves and carries some value as such.

But it's deceptive, because stationary product isn't doing anybody any good...meaning that we're really in the red.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @judithvansteppes: Meh, we were already tacking on 50% to the price of books and the like anyway.

That said, I can haz Canadian version of green card? Any hot canuck women want to marry me or something? I can cook!

(Caveat: must live in or near Vancooover)

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> This is George Washington, now he's a mushroom.. Anybody remember that?

[www.associatedcontent.com]

amygdala1

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Hey, Canadians, live it up. You're a great people, even if your six packs cost $12. (Must be that over-packaging; it's hard to extract one out of all that tough cardboard, especially if you've been drinking first.)
As I understand it, the reason why the economy is not in a recession is because it showed some minute sign of growth, the flicker of a pulse in a patient so wracked with numerous maladies that the doctors are amazed it's still alive. It's not as cognative-dissonant as it looks, even if every day is a horrible struggle to survive, and you can't afford the cotton balls to stuff in your ears to drown out the conservative commentators telling you how good everything would be if Congress just let W. do what he wants to do.

regisgoat

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> DEMOCRACY IN THIS COUNTRY IS A FUCKING FARCE.

Bad and greedy devils are running this place into the ground, so all I can suggest is battering down the ol' proverbial hatches, and sharing your food with as many nice people as you can.

It will just get suckier.

(There, I said it.)

MissAnthropy

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @braak: War is peace, so at least our logical approach is staying constant.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @trikitixa: Debt is wealth.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> "Because They Hate Us."

yup.

DaDuckster

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> i refuse to count "executive personal planners" into our GDP. I think that puts us in the red.

happy may day you capitalist pitgs.

pferde_schwanz

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> No, sorry. We are. It's just too bad that the rest of the world knew before we did. It's amazing the kind of worldview you get when you leave our fair shores and enjoy a little media on the outside. It's not because they hate us - it's because other countries and cultures tend to understand the world as a whole, not just the US and...everyone else. If it were up the the American media, this news of recession would have never leaked.

misscrotchety

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> As a Canadian I encourage this trend. Please stay the course with your economy so I can enjoy the exchange rate. I have to admit its been really fun buying your products on the internet at half the cost I would pay here.

judithvansteppes

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Wait... is this serious?

I hate to tell you this but when the dollar is worth little (and less every day!), gas prices are soaring to the point where the working poor can't afford to get to work, food prices are rising and people everywhere are losing jobs and unable to find new ones- it's a damn recession.

And how does the fact that "the rest of the world is starving" have absolutely anything to do with the status of our economy? Unfortunately there may be more Americans starving soon.

Whatever. I refuse to believe this is serious. Surely somewhere along the line I missed the sarcasm.

ohgoodness

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> "where's george?" He ain't in your wallet..

amygdala1

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @MadameOvary: That's funny. I remember we used to talk about joining with the U.S., but that all ceased when our dollar became on par (it'll change back soon enough, no doubt). I think Ontario and Maine should become one country though; we'd be an easy going people who can pick blueberries really well and whose national sport is camping in the woods.

lamo.i.am

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> find my way to Mariana
On a wave of mutilation..

amygdala1

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> The four riders are surely coming. And Famine is riding an FFV.

AxmxZ

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @Karol at alarmingnews.com: This is the first time I've visited Jezebel. I usually hang out at Wonkette. This post is so...depressing. Where's the celebrity, sex, and fashion? I'm going back to Wonkette. Hail to Oceania!

fungusamungus

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Is it April First again?

That original article is...wow. Someone failed their Liberal Arts thing, huh?

seamer

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> has anyone seen "enron: the smartest guys in the room"? if not, watch it. then tell me if this all sounds a little too familiar.

littlekicks

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @exelizabeth: No, no, Eurasia is our friend! Oceania is our enemy and always has been! Now go back to watching your 100 inch plasma screen tv and stay where I can see you.

If we're not in a recession, does that mean I can haz job? Also, up here in Maine, we talk half seriously of becoming part of Canada. This plan is looking better all the time.

MadameOvary

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @daftpunkisplayingatMYhouse: Fuck 1984...I want Brave New World and its delicious, delicious soma and promiscuity.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @s1ipstream: Sarcasm...it's good stuff, you should try it.

As for the rest...meh. I've got plenty of blood, and can make more at any time. That, at least, should keep me in the beer money.

NotNotLickingToads

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> I...

sigh.

I'll draft a response on zee blog.

ADismalScience

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @daftpunkisplayingatMYhouse: a lot of things that happen these days seem to happen in 1984 - maybe it was a blueprint and not a warning after all!

nothanks

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> but.. how does this affect me?

malvones

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> i actually have heartburn. did you know nexium makes you fat and isn't even covered by a lot of insurance companies?

land surveyor k

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> April Fools?

NoNamesLeft

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Yeah, you lost me Moe; from my neck of the woods, it looks like we be fucked.

s1ipstream

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> I must've missed the part of the post where anything related to celebrity, sex or fashion was mentioned.

Karol at alarmingnews.com

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @daftpunkisplayingatMYhouse: I remember that more in Animal Farm. But I've read that more recently.

However, in 1984, they do frequently switch enemies, and then tell everyone they've *always* been at war with Eurasia.

exelizabeth

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> At least we have topless(?) photos of fifteen year olds to look at. Err, nevermind.

Kickstartheart

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @heathen: A depression is a decrease in GDP of over 10%.

Lymed

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> America is in a recession.

GDP is down, gas at an all-time high, jobs down, food cost is up - We're a bunch of idiots..and everything is going to hell

Lawrence

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @sample032: Yeah; if there was a wink or a nod in there, I missed it.

taxbaby

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> ''And we haven't even started bombing Iran!''

And where will USA get money for that? Huh? Borrow some more from China? And become Chinese province in a dozen of years.

Face it : USA is in debt over its head.

Several things can save it from recession : cut government expenses, stop bombarding every country in sight (The military is there to protect USA, not some ''democratic'' government overseas.), and stop wasting taxpayers money in a million different ways.

Victo

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Maybe we ought to dice up the definition of a recession. There are several different types of recessions, a consumer, industrial, agricultural, financial, and commercial. We got jammed with a combination financial/commercial recession. So, yes and no they are correct we are not in a recession, we are not in a consumer type recession.

Nighthawke

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Forgot one:

Because no one checks the Federal Reserve and they do what is best for us, which means print out more money, thereby reducing the actual cost of a dollar, thereby giving us all the finger.

dirtybee says bee yourself!

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> perception is reality . . . and my "perception" is that I've been looking for a job since December (never mind that worthless MA degree)...gas prices & food prices are killing my ass...and oh yeah, not getting any tax "breaks" for being a caregiver to my terminally ill father...

the "reality" for most "common" folk is that yeah, shit is tough nowadays...

rant. over.

Friday025

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> No. 8 Because it's a DEPRESSION?
{what is the difference between depression and recession? in the financial sense, I mean)(i think i'm in the mental health version of depression)

heathen

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Denial; it's not just a river in Egypt.

ConsumptionJunkie

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> That was just off topic enough that it was neither a legitimate look at the US economy nor a parody.

Pick one and stick with it; don't leave me guessing.

sample032

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> yay! i can't wait until we all miss dinner because we are so environmentally friendly as a nation as to use barrels of oil in order to produce natural fuel.

regardless of how some (corporate) people are gaining money during these times, i'm living in a community that is definitely feeling the pinch of inflation and gas costs and a government that would rather invest money on war than in industry. and that doesn't even begin to address what is happening on other countries. it makes me sick and frustrated.

graceful_gamine

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> @daftpunkisplayingatMYhouse:
War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Um, totally.

trikitixa

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Man, I wish I had a dollar for every dime I had.

saysaudrabarkley

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> GDP would have been negative had it not been for inventories.
[www.bloomberg.com]

VyvyanBasterd

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Doesn't this happen in "1984," when there's a radio broadcast about how the economy is going up and expectations were exceeded; but there is rampant poverty and things are actually getting worse? Anyone?

magiciannamedgob

]]> <![CDATA[7 Reasons This Is Not A Recession]]> Moe,
It's more ADM and Conagra are thriving. The smaller farms, not so much.

Otherwise, it's a well done analysis of why US America is the greetest (sic) nation of them all and not the tottering debt ridden humongous on the verge of taking down much of the world's economy thanks to the greed of the financial industry.

ManchuCandidate

]]>