Obama Report On Economy

Today the Federal Government issued one of its periodic reports on the status of the American economy. The headline introducing the report was that the recession appears to be over and in fairness to this Obama Administration mouthpiece the exact terms as used should be recited. These terms were included in the informative releases that each of the designated national economic districts forwarded to Washington. Here they are: stable; signs of stabilization; moderating; cautiously positive; firmed; and signs of improvement.

It may be my natural inclination to marginalize everything that emanates from Washington but not a single one of these descriptive words conveys to me any indication that the recession appears to be, must less actually is, over.

The real telling data describing that the recession remains real is that again unemployment increased and that more States than ever have a double digit percentage of their citizens without work. Adding to the negation of the claim that we have seen the worst, is that consumer spending remained "soft" and that the only spending increase was in the automobile industry via the "binge buying" facilitated by the "Cash For Clunkers" federal stimulus. On the real estate front, residential sales "flashed signs of improvement" but commercial property was a "drag in most markets".

What does all this language tell us? First, it is clear that the recession is not over and will not be over until unemployment figures stop rising and begin to decrease because of hiring and not because of some convoluted calculation implemented by the White House. Second, it confirms the correctness of my belief that there is little if any positive economic news and that these Obama news releases have to be read in detail and self analysed.

I would hope that there is a visable light at the end of this economic tunnel but to date it escapes all perception.