It's official: US slips back into recession

**NotMyBro** · 01-30-2013, 01:31 PM

Well, we're officially in another recession

The US economy unexpectedly took its biggest plunge in more than three years last quarter, contracting at an annual rate of 0.1 percent and indicating a new level of vulnerability for the economy.
The plummet marks the first time the economy contracted since the Great Recession ended and is causing concern that the US could be headed further downhill. The economy shrank from October through December, which economists attribute to a large cut in spending, fewer exports and lagging growth in company stockpiles.
Defense spending contracted at a 22 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter and saw its biggest cut in 40 years, while business inventories sharply declined, indicating that businesses will need to buy more goods in the next quarter to restock their shelves. The Hurricane Sandy recovery effort also cut about 0.5 percentage points off of fourth-quarter growth.
Gross domestic product fell at a 0.1 percent annual rate, which is a dramatic decrease from the economy’s 3.1 percent growth rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department reported. The US economy had not plummeted this deeply since the second quarter of 2009, when the Great Recession was in its final stages.
Alan Krueger, head of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, attributes the deep decline to the upcoming sequestration deadline.
“A likely explanation for the sharp decline in federal defense spending is uncertainty concerning the automatic spending cuts that were scheduled to take effect in January, and are currently scheduled to take effect on March 1st,”Krueger wrote in a White House blog post.

And Obongo is again blaming republicans

Obama blames -- Republicans!

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 01:34 PM

I just read this - it is absolutely insane. His ability to deflect is masterful.

**isabella** · 01-30-2013, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by Kamie

I just read this - it is absolutely insane. His ability to deflect is masterful.

we never left the recession.... obama and his minions in the press were full of shit and more idiots believed him than believed romney.
we're never going to come out of it. obama owns it now.

**racerx** · 01-30-2013, 02:28 PM

Originally Posted by isabella

we never left the recession.... obama and his minions in the press were full of shit and more idiots believed him than believed romney.
we're never going to come out of it. obama owns it now.

i think it was the same number of idiots.
mit had no magic bill to fix everything. and even ryan voted for the bam tax increase

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by racerx

i think it was the same number of idiots.
mit had no magic bill to fix everything. and even ryan voted for the bam tax increase

Ryan has said a few things lately that really disappointed me.

**NotMyBro** · 01-30-2013, 03:02 PM

Originally Posted by isabella

we never left the recession.... obama and his minions in the press were full of shit and more idiots believed him than believed romney.
we're never going to come out of it. obama owns it now.

That's correct. We never left the recession. It was masked by Quantitative Easing 2 & 3.... aka "pumping".

Bernanke just keeps on pumping....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90T0TF20130130

Just wait when this balloon pops... it will be bigger than Great Depression. You can't pump forever. We've seen what hyperinflation does and it's not pretty.

**Snotty** · 01-30-2013, 01:51 PM

And that was just on the knowledge that tax hikes were coming...........Wait till they take full effect

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by Snotty

And that was just on the knowledge that tax hikes were coming...........Wait till they take full effect

Hold onto your hats, folks. We're in for a rough 4 years. The economy will not improve. Hmmmmm.....maybe it's time to spend another $trillion on a stimulus, since that worked so well the first time. And for the progressives out there who will attack me, I was against TARP as well, and that was all Bush.

**Jake Dog** · 01-30-2013, 02:10 PM

**racerx** · 01-30-2013, 02:12 PM

its all the [insert other party here] faults.

they suck

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 02:15 PM

Originally Posted by racerx

its all the [insert other party here] faults.

they suck

Nope - it's both of them. And we lose.

**Dick Gozinya** · 01-30-2013, 02:17 PM

Originally Posted by Kamie

Nope - it's both of them. And we lose.

Exactly.

**racerx** · 01-30-2013, 02:21 PM

Originally Posted by Kamie

Nope - it's both of them. And we lose.

yea i was being facetious.

usually its 1 side or the other trying to screw us.
it seems like now they are teaming up against us
look for the bipartisan bs immigration bill soon.
i wrote my congress person last time they tried it, this time i know its no use.

**Dick Gozinya** · 01-30-2013, 02:17 PM

The GDP fractionally contracts and suddenly we're in a recession?

Buncha sheep afraid to spend cause of the

fiscal cliff

Just watch this quarter's results.

Check the unemployment stats while you're hiding under your bed.

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by Dick Gozinya

The GDP fractionally contracts and suddenly we're in a recession?

Buncha sheep afraid to spend cause of the

fiscal cliff

Just watch this quarter's results.

Check the unemployment stats while you're hiding under your bed.

The real unemployment rate is on the U6 line. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.....

Measure	Not seasonally adjusted			Seasonally adjusted
Dec. 2011	Nov. 2012	Dec. 2012	Dec. 2011	Aug. 2012	Sept. 2012	Oct. 2012	Nov. 2012	Dec. 2012
U-1 Persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force	4.8	4.2	4.2	4.9	4.4	4.3	4.4	4.3	4.3
U-2 Job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force	5.0	3.9	4.3	4.9	4.5	4.2	4.2	4.1	4.1
U-3 Total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate)	8.3	7.4	7.6	8.5	8.1	7.8	7.9	7.8	7.8
U-4 Total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers	8.8	7.9	8.3	9.0	8.6	8.3	8.4	8.3	8.5
U-5 Total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other persons marginally attached to the labor force, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force	9.8	8.8	9.2	10.0	9.6	9.3	9.3	9.2	9.4
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force	15.2	13.9	14.4	15.2	14.7	14.7	14.5	14.4	14.4
NOTE: Persons marginally attached to the labor force are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not currently looking for work. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.

**racerx** · 01-30-2013, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by Kamie

The real unemployment rate is on the U6 line. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics.....

i'm sympathetic to anyone who truly can't get a job.

but i think most people aren't willing to work for less, or get retrained, or relocate.
and why should they if they goina get unemployment comp. forever.
even the supposed tea party ppl keeps voting for it

**Kamie** · 01-30-2013, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by racerx

i'm sympathetic to anyone who truly can't get a job.

but i think most people aren't willing to work for less, or get retrained, or relocate.
and why should they if they goina get unemployment comp. forever.
even the supposed tea party ppl keeps voting for it

I wish I could find the study that I read, but it was from one of those Scandinavian countries that username lives in...I think it actually was Denmark. They had provided unemployment benefits to people forever, and the rate continued to be high. As soon as unemployment benefits were cut off to people who were on long-term unemployment, the rate plummeted. And while I do feel badly for those people who are unemployed and struggling, how long do we provide unemployment benefits?

**KillVampires** · 01-30-2013, 02:40 PM

Originally Posted by racerx

i'm sympathetic to anyone who truly can't get a job.

The problem is that there are lots of people who are college educated or who have over three decades of work experience who are looking for work. And the only work that they can get are entry level jobs or retail jobs that pay barely above the line. You have people with high levels of education and work experience literally watching their entire industries rapidly erode with no chance of ever being able to land a comparable job again.

When you were working for a manufacturing company and that company, plus the next ten competitors, have all been bankrupted, then you'll never get that same job again. You are stuck for the rest of your life earning far less pay despite having an outstanding education or years of workforce experience. This is what we've done to our country. We don't produce or manufacture anything. Everything is outsourced.

Government also destroys the middle class with taxes. So even if you become a success you are now paying over 50% of your money to the government between property, state, federal, local, and sales taxes. And we have record amounts of people on welfare. So now more people are sliding into welfare, taxes go up on the middle class to pay for that, causing more middle class people to go on welfare....

The amount of overqualified workers right now is staggering. People who are working jobs that they'd never work in a healthy economy. They don't count towards unemployment when really they are almost worse off than people who are unemployed. Because the people who have settled for low end jobs despite having high end educations have given up on America.

I'd say we are another decade away from having a stable economy. Pretty pathetic what the politicians have done.

**Dick Gozinya** · 01-30-2013, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by KillVampires

I'd say we are another decade away from having a stable economy. Pretty pathetic what the politicians have done.

Nah. Few more years. If these idiots can stop pointing fingers long enough and actually make some logical decisions, life will be good. Hell, man... things are much better today than they were five short years ago. But I won't point out who's watch that started under.