They say we are exiting the Great Recession?

[Farbin Kaiber]

I'm not seeing it in these charts, what do you guys see?

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/03/economic-reality-check.html

[McGyver]

upside down man.

[mrsleeve]

I think "they" are full of shit

But for once I am working this time of year and look to be for the foreseeable future, so its gonna be a good year for me.

[LBJefferies]

Jobs are starting to turnaround which is a good sign.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011232135_jobs03.html

[Farbin Kaiber]

^ Yeah, but they just passed another 10b to cover extra unemployment benefits. Things really are not getting better.

[rwh11385]

I'm not sure how the economy is churning, but I am positive that the chart sucks at trying to be informative at all. And posting it to make a point is useless. It only has the change on the y-axis, yet no information to tell you the significance or meaningful scale. 400 billion may seem HUGE, but in reality is simply 3.3% or there abouts.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NICUR

Given that many Americans were spending the majority of their income, if not over 100% of it, you have to expect some curbing back of spending: http://www.billshrink.com/blog/5667/...-savings-rate/ Which should be a positive in the long run. If we save to consume rather than going into debt, there will be less crisis in the future as when people lived on a thin line, and then had to stop their spending to survive. Once people adjust their salary expectations, businesses regain confidence, and people get back to buying responsibly... hopefully the income will re-strengthen.

But I'm not having my jaw drop or not believing recover is possibly because of a 3% decrease of income if savings has gone up 5% in the recent few years.

[StereoInstaller1]

I'm not seeing it in these charts, what do you guys see?

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2010/03/economic-reality-check.html

Haitian seismograph chart got mixed up

[leland21]

^ Yeah, but they just passed another 10b to cover extra unemployment benefits. Things really are not getting better.

That comes from a lot of things though. They changed some laws regarding unemployment and are allowing more and longer benefits. Good for a lot people I know, but allows others to really abuse it. Also has to do with the fact that so many people lost good paying jobs, hence they are racking in max amounts of benefits, and this doesn't usually happen. Another big part of it is you don't have to go look for a job as much since they are so busy at the unemployment office. Now anyone going to school full time can collect full benefits as well and a lot of people are doing this, my school is over capacity and people are having to park on the school lawn. Luckily I'm taking higher level classes now and have not had problems getting into the ones I need, but my younger friends are having to wait up all night and try to enroll at 12am on the first day of registration just to get in. Actual levels of unemployment have gone down in my area recently, but I haven't looked at stats as a country for a while.

[VacMan]

I'm not sure how the economy is churning, but I am positive that the chart sucks at trying to be informative at all. And posting it to make a point is useless. It only has the change on the y-axis, yet no information to tell you the significance or meaningful scale. 400 billion may seem HUGE, but in reality is simply 3.3% or there abouts.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NICUR

Given that many Americans were spending the majority of their income, if not over 100% of it, you have to expect some curbing back of spending: http://www.billshrink.com/blog/5667/...-savings-rate/ Which should be a positive in the long run. If we save to consume rather than going into debt, there will be less crisis in the future as when people lived on a thin line, and then had to stop their spending to survive. Once people adjust their salary expectations, businesses regain confidence, and people get back to buying responsibly... hopefully the income will re-strengthen.

But I'm not having my jaw drop or not believing recover is possibly because of a 3% decrease of income if savings has gone up 5% in the recent few years.

Ahh, the voice of reason. Graphing 'change versus LY' is deceiving to say the least. The second graph is much more meaningful; unfortunately it doesn't give too much ammo for the average Chicken Little Economist. OP excluded, of course. ;)

[Ryan Stewart]

A recession is two quarters of negative GPD. So since we have hit bottom and we are entering a growth period (only about 3% though) we are actually in an economic expansion right now.

Problem is we fell a lot from where we before the fall so it appears that we are still in a recession, but only if you dont understand what it really is.

[Stephen]

Yeah, technically the recession is over, but the economy is still kinda shitty in the big scheme of things.

[Jean]

That comes from a lot of things though. They changed some laws regarding unemployment and are allowing more and longer benefits. Good for a lot people I know, but allows others to really abuse it. Also has to do with the fact that so many people lost good paying jobs, hence they are racking in max amounts of benefits, and this doesn't usually happen. Another big part of it is you don't have to go look for a job as much since they are so busy at the unemployment office. Now anyone going to school full time can collect full benefits as well and a lot of people are doing this, my school is over capacity and people are having to park on the school lawn. Luckily I'm taking higher level classes now and have not had problems getting into the ones I need, but my younger friends are having to wait up all night and try to enroll at 12am on the first day of registration just to get in. Actual levels of unemployment have gone down in my area recently, but I haven't looked at stats as a country for a while.

I wonder if it's different from one state to another, here in CA you can't be on unemployment and attend school at the same time from what I've been told by the EDD office. They "might" approve it, or might just take the benefits away completely. Retarded.

[leland21]

Yeah it probably is different from one state to another. It used to be like that here until last year. I think Oregon changing it had something to do with such a large portion of unemployed people here being college age. Here you can even get financial aide and receive unemployment, my sister does and rakes in more than I do during the school year.

[Farbin Kaiber]

I'm gonna quote a lot of you later this year.

[leland21]

me? why is that?