When is a recession not a recession? When Presidentish Joe Biden says it ain’t, Jack.
Axios reported that White House economic advisors on Thursday moved the goalposts on what a recession is. The traditional definition of a recession is two or more quarters of economic shrinkage, but the Biden administration argues that “by most measures,” according to Axios, “the world’s largest economy remains comfortably in expansion mode.”
Full article, HERE.
FWIW, my bank account and my 401K are both telling me I’m broker’n hell… Inflation, at least according to .gov is 9.1%, but my bank account is saying it’s more like 15-16% at the minimum! My 401K has lost about 30% of value so far this year, and I’m not holding out much hope for any kind of comeback anytime soon.
And DOD, Social Security, et al are saying there will be ‘massive’ pay raises for the military and SS… of 4.6% max for DOD and ‘maybe’ 5% for SS. So a net loss of 4.1-4.5% of my net income, and they’re talking about raising taxes!
Oh, and homeowners are seeing 15-20% ‘gains’ in appraisal values on their homes, which means the property taxes are going up, school taxes, etc. So more money out of my pocket.
Where is it going to end???
I don’t have a clue at this point, I just know I’m hunkering down, buying what I can extra every month, and praying nothing else goes wrong on the house this year…
I’ll note that unlike the COLA raise for DOD and Social Security, Congress voted themselves a 21% pay raise. So that indicates the real rate of inflation, vs the “official” rate of inflation. And as has been noted many times, the “official” rate of inflation doesn’t count the cost of food or fuel, “because those prices are volatile”. I always wondered how we were to supposed survive without food or fuel.
Anyone remember the Carter years? Except he was a lot more intelligent (in some ways) than dear ol’ uncle Joe…
You KNOW things are bad when the pResident makes Carter’s floundering around look good. :/
Well; they change the definition of every other thing to meet their treason du jour. Not surprising they’d do it for this also. Wait for Merriam-Webster to follow suit quickly.
So….Pedo Joe the Meat Sock is mouthing the lies his handlers are telling him to mouth. Here’s my shocked face…..
Anyone with the IQ of a soap bubble knows the economy is in a tail spin. By any reasonable measure the US economy has been in a recession since shortly after the Covid Lockdown was instigated. And it hasn’t recovered. And as the left continues to hammer away at our economy it’s not to far a trip to a genuine full scale depression. One that will make the 1930’s look tame.
No recession. Right. 1000 word rant deleted.
“…and praying nothing else goes wrong on the house this year…
Do tell. A few weeks back, wife and I were inside late afternoon and heard a loud BANGZZZ! We could feel the vibration in out feet. We thought something hit the house and rushed outside. Nothing. Went to open the garage door (roll up) and discovered the big coil spring at the top had snapped in two. Nice. Good thing the door was already down and no vehicles in the garage. Coupla C-notes we hadn’t planned on spending.
Next time that happens to me, I’m putting in pulleys, cable and weights.
I sure hope I can fix what breaks with bailing wire and spit. I don’t much else to work with now that I’m “retired”.
Where is it going to end???
When you own nothing! You probably will not be happy but when The Man (with the gun) asks you if you are happy you will reply “Yes”.
I don’t know where this will end but all indications are that it will not be good in one way or another.
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Starvation and hunger are coming and I mean third world type. America will not be spared from this The western world will suffer just as the third world suffers right now from war, starvation, and disease. These and natural disasters are on the rise and indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ is soon to come. Read the Bible paying attention to the words of Jesus himself when the apostles asked him about his return. We are living in the period right before his return. We are in for a rough ride, so get on your knees and repent of your sins, ask Jesus Then you will be saved into your heart and be saved for Jesus went to the cross and paid for all humans’ sin in order to give them a way to avoid being thrown into Hell. Praise Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings.
The value of my ammo hoard has not depreciated.
Gonna hate to have to use up large quantities of it.
But I hope I survive long enough to do that.
They’ve pretty much re-defined “job growth” as “people who we prevented from going to work by locking down the world but who are now going back to work”. I forget the exact quote but it was something like “the largest growth in people getting jobs in the history of the world”.
I’m well stocked on treadle powered sewing machines (collector) so if the SHTF feel free to fight your way to my house and make your own clothes. 😂
Yes, our government is totally corrupt and lies about inflation every day. Yes, we will have full scale famine right here in the US. If you are serious about food and medical preparedness, check out PrepSchoolDaily dot blogspot dot com. No ads, no annoying pop-ups. Over 1000 articles with practical information, all free to print
Are we really surprised that a government who changes the definition of “vaccine” will change other definitions to suit its purpose?
And “Recession” is itself a nonsense term invented in the 1930’s so Some Crook could avoid saying ‘Depression’ in… well, a (continuing, deepening) Depression.
When is a recession not a recession? When Presidentish Joe Biden says it ain’t, Jack.
I saw my name dropped, so I thought I’d check in.
Last time I filled up the tank, they bent me over for $75 and change. The time before that it was over $70. Now I’m running on empty and I can’t afford to fill the tank.
Naturally, this is the prime time for my insurance premium to come due. One more thing I can’t afford.
It looks like the U.S. of A. may be headed into another Great Depression, like the one back in the dust bowl days. The deal with the Great Depression, which my mother and her family lived through, is:
The banks failed. In plain old English, that meant that if you had two or three large in the bank (and we aren’t talking piggy here), you’d get the word some morning that your money is gone, the bank is closed, and all the capital will be auctioned off in thirty days. But where’s your money? Gone. Vanished. Uncle Sam bailed out the insurance companies, but not the banks.
Stratospheric unemployment. There were no jobs. You could have a string of degrees, experience, and a pristine job history. It didn’t matter. No one was hiring. If you wanted to eat, you had to find a soup kitchen that was still serving.
Decline in spending. No surprise here. People had no money, and so didn’t spend any. That caused both production (which is directly related to labor and raw materials) and prices to fall, which in turn leads to more unemployment, and so forth. A truly vicious circle.
These days we have the F.D.I.C., which gives many people a sense of false security. Because, no matter what anyone says, if the banks fail the FDIC will fail, and you’ll be dead broke.
Judging by the number of Help Wanted I see everywhere, there is no job shortage. So if you’re dead broke, you can get a job flipping burgers, working as a greeter at Wally-World (I can just imagine myself as a greeter), or some other menial job. Naturally, you can’t support yourself by working at Wally-World, but you can’t have everything. Right?
We’re already seeing a decline in spending. So there’s that.
I’m six miles past the point where I give a damn about who’s to blame for all this. I can’t even guess what might be done to fix it, on a macro scale. Part of the macro remediation problem is that economists can’t agree on the causes of the Great Depression. Hindsight being 20-20, how will the government know what to do to improve our current situation? And please remember that all these people in office have ever done was win a popularity contest.
What worries me is what I, personally, am going to do when things become worse than they already are.
I was laid off 3 years ago, since I have worked a variety of menial jobs. Problem is I have an MBA so I’m either over qualified for something or underqualified. Also I’m aware the reason so many jobs are available is they are menial, pay sucks (Look up minimum wage in 1970 and use the BLS CPI to find equivalent today. Now add just 1% error per year (Answer*1.01^(2020-1970)). Now figure the goal of most management is to put money in CEO’s pocket (shareholder is an excuse) with no real job training, no real advancement, and poor management. No wonder people don’t want to work. I didn’t have to work (I’ve always been frugal) until my savings and investments started to be inflated away. I worked to stay busy and have a little play money. However, it has certainly changed my views. Pay bananas and you get monkeys, or as I’ve seen elsewhere – “You’re not paying me enough to care”. One other exercise – what is the price per gallon of gas where the first hour of your day goes to pay for the privilege of going to a crappy job. Did you forget wear and tear on the car? Oil, tires?
I also suspect many who advertise for workers aren’t really hiring. Corona allowed the suspension of services that cost too much to return, but blame a worker shortage.
What is causing our current depression (not recession) is the historical buildup of bad financial decisions. 1)US moving to a Financial Capitalist system as opposed to actually making stuff-i.e. Executives are now accounts who play games with numbers as opposed to people who came up through the ranks understanding how their products and services made customers happy. The financial sector along takes 20% of profits of the economy 2) Low Fed Prime rate for years making easy money for companies like Black Rock possible to drive up prices beyond middle class abilities 3)Printing 80% of all dollars ever in the last 2 years – inflation is an oversupply of money. Other more recent events are icing on the cake.
Remember, the bigger the politician the more they hate you.
Actual inflation is 17.3%. It causes a domino effect. I keep having to rearrange my monthly budget. Even if I had the money, I’d be going out less, driving less because I don’t know when it will settle down. And, yeah, my property taxes went up.
In Canada Trudeau increased senior’s pensions 2.1% this year and now inflation is 8+%. Interestingly Trudeau’s cost of living increase this year along with his elected cohorts is confidential. Last year senior’s got 1.0% and Trudeau and buddies got 2.1%.
according to the local tax assessor, my house has DOUBLED in value in just 4 years!
I’m getting ready to sue all of the people working in that office for fraud and anything else I can think of. Because that’s just BS.
All- Thanks for the comments, and all good points! RHT- Had that happen a couple of years ago. However, car WAS in the garage. Thankfully, no shrapnel hit it, but I couldn’t go to work for two days, until Overhead Door was able to get a tech out to replace the spring. Two of us couldn’t lift the security garage doors by ourselves!!! And I have to do some work on the other bathroom, which is going to run me about $3000 I don’t have, so will have to hit the 401K at the worst possible time… Grrr…
Hey Old NFO;
I am rightfully concerned and I don’t know if we can survive 2.5 more years of “the Peter Principle” administration. Its going to get ugly and many people are not mentally capable of what is to come and it going to get bad. I’m hoping some sanity can be restored after the midterms but I think the donks will double down after the midterms and their media hacks and other institutions that have been subverted will cover for them.
Biden is right. It isn’t a recession. It’s a full downright depression, albeit a minor one so far.
Businesses shuttering because nobody can afford their stuff. Food shortages. Energy shortages. Mortgages going unpaid (Wells Fargo is forgoing half their quarterly profit to shareholders in order to build a warchest to cover actual and potential defaults.)
All in, what, 2 years? And the thing is, the American people selected wisely, only to have, what, 10 million to 20 million votes stolen and an equal number invalidated.
Depression.
Maybe precious metal’s becoming a thing at this point?
Good luck.
Just replaced the roof. Danny (local Good Ol’ Boy) said “Do it now while there are still shingles.” As a petroleum based product shingle prices will soon skyrocket. Some colors are already unavailable due to “aggregate shortages.” Have also added another 12″ of insulation to the attic.
Smarter Half makes full use of her Adult Language whenever she opens our 401K or Investment envelopes.
Thank heaven we both listened to our Depression Era parents. We know what’s coming. We don’t like it but at least we know.
When we have wars and rumors of wars , be not dismayed . When everyone cries Peace Peace the end will come . I sure haven’t heard the world crying peace , peace yet . We have a ways to go . Be not dismayed .
“When the Devil says, ‘You can’t stand against the storm,’ smile back at him and whisper, ‘I am the storm.'”