10 January 2008
Recession, there I’ve said it. Washington D.C. seems to be tip toeing around the big “R” word. The employment report sent shares down worldwide, and economists say that the U.S. is in the first month of a recession. This fact has been ignored by the U.S. media and we get better reports from the British news media to get the facts about our economy.
There seems to be two different economies — one for the rich and one for everyone else. The republicans still want to make tax breaks for the rich permanent. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke plans to slash interest rates again “to prevent housing and credit problems from plunging the country into a recession”, a recession that we are already in. It is believed the Fed will slice the key interest rate by a half percentage point when they meet next on Jan. 29 and 30. They could go more modest with a 1/4% point reduction for fear of inflation. The key rate was lowered three times last year to 4.25 percent, a two-year low.
The country’s economic health has worried voters and prompted presidential candidates to put the war on the back burner and zone in on the economy. The president’s promised economic stimulus package will come too late to do much good.
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