Recession Worries Continue

Posted: 31 Jul 2008 04:32 AM CDT
Something’s in the air…news of recession everywhere. Or so it seems this evening.
First, readers Michael and Scott sent us Jeremy Grantham’s latest newsletter. Grantham is known as a perma-bear, and his call that a major bank would fail in the next five years (this about two years ago) was [...]

Could U.S. Become Japan In The 90’s?

(From NakedCapitalism.com)
Posted: 11 Jul 2008 03:28 AM CDT
Blomberg columnist William Pesek plays out a line of thought that may have occurred to some readers: what if the resolution of the credit crisis and global imbalances isn’t a nasty recession or punishing inflation but Japan-like protracted low growth, with stagnant to deteriorating living standards?
This idea may [...]

The Not So Good…The Bad…and The Ugly

BAD NEWS: The forgettable first half of 2008 is stumbling to a close. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that American employers axed 49,000 jobs in May, the fifth straight month of job losses—an event that signals a recession sure as the glittery ball dropping on Times Square augurs a New Year. The report, which [...]

Job Losses and Surge in Oil Spread Gloom on Economy

June 7, 2008
By PETER S. GOODMAN, The New York Times 

The unemployment rate surged to 5.5 percent in May from 5 percent — the sharpest monthly spike in 22 years — as the economy lost 49,000 jobs, registering a fifth consecutive month of decline, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The weak jobs report, coupled with a staggering [...]

Why This Recession/Slowdown Might Last 5 or More Years…Keeping Rates and Home Prices Down

Whether the national economy is technically in a recession  is a subject of ongoing debate — businessman and billionaire Warren Buffett, for example, recently said he believes the U.S. is already in a recession. The National Conference of State Legislatures recently concluded that some states’ fiscal situations have deteriorated so much that they appear to [...]