Double dip economy
Bensblurb # 552 June 10, 2010
Recession double dipping? And lots of targets for ass kicking:
The 2009-2010 rally that ended in April...may actually be the start of a great new bull market, one that will shake off the current "correction" and roar back to the market's old highs. On the other hand, it may yet also be another version of what happened in 1930 -- the start of another bear market that will take the market down for years... Henry Blodget, CEO, Business Insider
And here’s Robert Reich, in Huffington Post, saying we’re in for a double-dip recession:
“Why are we having such a hard time getting free of the Great Recession? Because consumers, who constitute 70 percent of the economy, don't have the dough. They can't any longer treat their homes as ATMs, as they did before the Great Recession.
Businesses won't rehire if there's not enough demand for their goods and services.
The only reason the economy isn't in a double-dip recession already is because of three temporary boosts: the federal stimulus (of which 75 percent has been spent), near-zero interest rates (which can't continue much longer without igniting speculative bubbles), and replacements (consumers have had to replace worn-out cars and appliances, and businesses had to replace worn-down inventories). Oh, and, yes, all those Census workers (who will be out on their ears in a month or so). But all these boosts will end soon. Then we're in the dip. Retail sales are already down.”
--If Reich is right, rather than his customary left, Dem representatives may as well begin packing their bags before next fall’s elections. They’re history, let's hope.
Recession note: In Denver weeks ago for my grand-daughter’s wedding, we stayed at a really nice big hotel. The place was virtually deserted.
Now, according to the news, Obama has many candidates for his planned ass kicking:
Here’s Byron York, in the Examiner:
“The Obama administration is at first slow to see the seriousness of the accident. Then, as the crisis becomes clear, the federal bureaucracy becomes entangled in itself trying to deal with the [oil spill]. ...For example, it took the Department of Homeland Security more than a week to classify the spill as an event calling for the highest level of federal action. And when state officials in Louisiana tried over and over to win federal permission to build sand barriers to protect fragile coastal wetlands from the oil, they got nowhere. ‘For three weeks, as the giant slick crept closer to shore,’ the Times reports, ‘officials from the White House, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environmental Protection Agency debated the best approach.’ The bureaucracy wasn't bending to anyone's will. The direction from the top was not clear. And accountability? So far, the only head that has rolled during the Gulf crisis has been that of Minerals Management Service chief Elizabeth Birnbaum.
--Ben Blankenship
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Recession double dipping? And lots of targets for ass kicking:
The 2009-2010 rally that ended in April...may actually be the start of a great new bull market, one that will shake off the current "correction" and roar back to the market's old highs. On the other hand, it may yet also be another version of what happened in 1930 -- the start of another bear market that will take the market down for years... Henry Blodget, CEO, Business Insider
And here’s Robert Reich, in Huffington Post, saying we’re in for a double-dip recession:
“Why are we having such a hard time getting free of the Great Recession? Because consumers, who constitute 70 percent of the economy, don't have the dough. They can't any longer treat their homes as ATMs, as they did before the Great Recession.
Businesses won't rehire if there's not enough demand for their goods and services.
The only reason the economy isn't in a double-dip recession already is because of three temporary boosts: the federal stimulus (of which 75 percent has been spent), near-zero interest rates (which can't continue much longer without igniting speculative bubbles), and replacements (consumers have had to replace worn-out cars and appliances, and businesses had to replace worn-down inventories). Oh, and, yes, all those Census workers (who will be out on their ears in a month or so). But all these boosts will end soon. Then we're in the dip. Retail sales are already down.”
--If Reich is right, rather than his customary left, Dem representatives may as well begin packing their bags before next fall’s elections. They’re history, let's hope.
Recession note: In Denver weeks ago for my grand-daughter’s wedding, we stayed at a really nice big hotel. The place was virtually deserted.
Now, according to the news, Obama has many candidates for his planned ass kicking:
Here’s Byron York, in the Examiner:
“The Obama administration is at first slow to see the seriousness of the accident. Then, as the crisis becomes clear, the federal bureaucracy becomes entangled in itself trying to deal with the [oil spill]. ...For example, it took the Department of Homeland Security more than a week to classify the spill as an event calling for the highest level of federal action. And when state officials in Louisiana tried over and over to win federal permission to build sand barriers to protect fragile coastal wetlands from the oil, they got nowhere. ‘For three weeks, as the giant slick crept closer to shore,’ the Times reports, ‘officials from the White House, Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environmental Protection Agency debated the best approach.’ The bureaucracy wasn't bending to anyone's will. The direction from the top was not clear. And accountability? So far, the only head that has rolled during the Gulf crisis has been that of Minerals Management Service chief Elizabeth Birnbaum.
--Ben Blankenship
###############
posted by Ben Blankenship at
7:53 AM
