During the worst economic downturn in a generation, some people in the United States are beginning to catch glimpses of an unfamiliar sight: causes for hope.
The banking system is still fraught, the U.S. economy is contracting sharply, and 600,000 jobs are vanishing every month. But other economic barometers have stabilized a bit and stock markets have surged about 20 percent during the past two weeks, kindling hopes among investors that the long-suffering economy might finally be searching for a bottom.
Two new reports from the housing market and manufacturing sector underscored those fragile wisps of optimism Wednesday.
Once again, what utter nonsense. The US economy is not “feeble.” Unemployment across most of the Midwest remains under 5%. House prices remain largely stable to ever so slightly down. Most businesses are looking at sales numbers within 5% either side of even with last year.
That is not “feeble,” it’s a reasonably normal recession in most places. It hasn’t even come close to 1980-82 yet, and I know, because I was running a business back then.
What’s worthy of note is that because 1991-92 and 2000-02 were such unbelievably mild recessions, most people under the age of about 45 have no idea what a [i]normal[/i] recession looks like.
Heck, I remember 1958. Car sales dropped by well over 30%. Nobody asked for a bailout. My father lost his job, and we all pulled together as a family to scrape by [i]on our savings[/i] until he found another one. General Motors didn’t ask for a bail-out. Ike didn’t demagogue the “crisis,” and our family scrimped all over the place to make sure the mortgage payment was made every single month.
The real problem is: we’ve become a nation of candy-ass crybabies who look to the government (instead of God) for both comfort and salvation.