Where’s the Outrage?

The Bush administration has managed to disconnect the economy from the lives of everyday people for some time. While Wall Street was booming for years, the income of average Americans was stuck in neutral.
Now we see the effects. Jobs are down. Wages are falling. I will not even go into the housing market because we are all familiar with that. Although the GDP hasn’t fallen, it isn’t going up either. So, while the Fox guys are sort of correct about the definition of a recession, they are, of course, shading the truth. The old definition of a recession was twp quarters of a negative GDP, but it has been changed.

The NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee defines a recession as

a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.

Paul Krugman said it very well a couple of months ago. The point is that the official definition of recession has become disenfranchised from peoples’ actual experience. Right now, we’re in an economy with deteriorating employment and incomes, collapsing home prices, and business retrenchment. Is it also an economy in recession? Who cares?

 

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Tags: Economy by ecthompson
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My laptop computer told me that I needed to install Vista Service Pack 1 on my computer. How hard can that be? Well the answer is pretty hard. I have now been on the phone with technical support for more than eight hours over the course of three days, and we aren’t done yet. We have deleted anti-virus programs. We have disabled services. We have de-fragmented the hard drive. And we are no closer to installing this service pack than we were before.

This can’t happen to Bill Gates. What does he do?

Tags: Blogging issues, General by ecthompson
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• Nothing is safe: Tomatoes, lettuce, and now, Jalapeños have salmonella. What’s next - Air? Oh, right, most of the air that we breathe in our major cities is already toxic. I forgot.
• Obama is kicking butt and talking the talk in Iraq. I hope that all of those folks that were whining about Obama’s commitment to withdrawal are now eating crow. Please notice the silence from the Right as they try to formulate a plan to stay in Iraq for several more months, years, or even decades.
• In NFL news, all-World defensive end Jason Taylor gets traded to the Washington Redskins for two draft picks. The Redskins must now be thought of as a playoff contender. He will make their defense, which was already good, much better. This is a great trade for both teams. In the category of Sir Pouts-A-Lot, there is Jeremy Shockey who was traded from the Giants to the New Orleans Saints. This can not be a good career move.
• Back to politics, former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic has been captured. He has been on the run for 13 years. He is now going to be tried for war crimes.
• Remote Afghan district over-run by the Taliban. I’m truly looking for any good news from this part of the World. I’m still looking.
• Attorney General Michael Mukasey has asked Congress to grant him and the administration new powers with regard to the Guantanamo prisoners. I don’t see any way that Congress will even look at his proposal before recess for campaigning.
• Finally, the press doesn’t always follow Drudge’s lead and that’s a good thing.

Tags: Afghanistan, Domestic Issues, Election 2008, Iraq, Sports by ecthompson
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