So, commenting on another thread in the General forums about AMA Racing, there was an article quoted that, according to the author, states we're out of the recession. When I asked if we indeed were, someone replied that "Without diverting this to the Dungeon, yes. Stock market is back above pre-recession levels." So is that all it takes? The stock market to be above pre-recession levels? Never mind the value of the dollar, the poor real estate, the high unemployment rate, etc etc? Just curious.
Depends on who you talk to. If you talk to an Big O nut swinger then yes...all is well in the world. If you talk to anyone who is looking around and paying attention than no... Is it getting better in localized areas? I'd say yes it probably is.
Depends on who you are and what you do. The wealthy recover first, as always. Those with the least resources recover the slowest. As far as the actual definition of a recession, I believe we met that bar several years ago. While all recessions have similar characteristics, this one had its roots in a fleecing of the economy. Many will never recover on this one and many grew rich beyond their wildest dreams.
some hard numbers from a UC Berkeley Study. During the Great Recession, from 2007 to 2009, average real income per family declined dramatically by 17.4%, the largest two year drop since the Great Depression. Average real income for the top percentile fell even faster (36.3 percent decline), which lead to a decrease in the top percentile income share from 23.5 to 18.1 percent. Average real income for the bottom 99% also fell sharply by 11.6%, also by far the largest two year decline since the Great Depression. From 2009 to 2011, average real income per family grew modestly by 1.7% but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.2% while bottom 99% incomes shrunk by 0.4%. Hence, the top 1% captured 121% of the income gains in the first two years of the recovery.
This post should be prefaced with the facts that I live in Seattle and work in Software, an area and an industry that has by-and-large not slowed down much, especially compared to the Midwest and other less tech-centric regions. I look around and I say, "what recession?" A lot of it to me sounds like people who weren't actually as rich as they were acting trying to figure out why they still aren't as rich as they thought. I look at the housing market and I see what sounds like normal prices to me. The house I grew up in was a 3300sqft five-bed that my dad bought for $185k in 1988. In 2005, our neighbor sold theirs (same size, style, etc) for over $700k. That's absurd. In 2011, he sold it for around $450k. That's normal. I don't know much about the job market beyond software, but inside software, we literally can't hire people fast enough. My group alone has had two open reqs for almost a year. From what else I see.. all of my friends who really want jobs, have them. The dollar vs the pound is about what I ever can remember it being. When I was younger I remember thinking it was $2 = £1. When I traveled Europe out of high school, it was about $1.60 = £1. Now, it's $1.53 = £1 this morning, according to Google - hell, I don't think I've ever seen it that good! The Euro, same - it's at $1.30, as good as I've ever seen it. I've never paid attention to the Yen or Yuan but if we're falling against Asia, I think that's got more to do with shifts of production power than our economy alone.
1) Value of the dollar. http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/Dollar_Value.htm and here http://useconomy.about.com/od/inflationfaq/f/value_of_a_dollar_today.htm Pretty sure the value has been in a steady decline for several decades. And with our debt growing, it's just going to get worse.
I believe that you just need GDP to remain flat to not be in recession (which is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth). I think.
I think Flex's first post was pretty spot on. The rich got a helluva lot richer while everyone else is either struggling or just getting along. What I personally see is a lot of us working a whole HELLUVA lot harder, doing more with less. My job duties have doubled while our team is constantly denied new hires. That's what I'm seeing from this, companies are back to making profits, but it's with less people doing more work.
It stands to reason that people whose income depends more heavily on investments would bounce back faster as the stock market rebounds. And I would say we're still in a recession and will be for a long time yet.
I know we're still in a major recession up here. Unemployment rate in this and 2 surrounding counties is 12 % which means it's really about 20.
There's a recession, then there's a recession. Yes, the economy is very slowly growing but a ton of the population is still sucking water off the bottom of the barrel. To add to our woes, Obama is once again strongly suggesting that banks resume loaning money to the less blessed folks that can't afford to mortgage a house in the first place. We didn't seem to learn much about that practice the last time did we? Oh well, we've slept since then and forgotten all about it so it must be ok this time. :up:
Yes. Basically what happened is that all of the working investors (middle class) lost their asses and the wealthy snapped up all of those stocks/funds/etc in what amounted to a fire sale. Once the panic subsided, the market bounced back and, you guessed it, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Venom, is an Obama Nut swinger anyone who disagrees with you? I need to know because while I disagree with you most of the time, I am far from an ONS.
Statistically and textbook definition wise, we are supposed to be in a (weak) recovery. If so, my wallet is most definitely a lagging indicator.
At least, the ones who don't care to do any more involved research. There are a number of indicators involved.
Aside from home values being under their overinflated levels....I'd say its business as usual in se michigan.
Investors are buying everything here in Florida. Every house I have put a bid for has been taken by cash investors. I have even bid asking price and paying closing costs. 4 houses the realtors told me they were bought above asking price. Local news did a story here on how a woman had over 150 bids and not one go through. I honestly believe we aren't out of a recession , but I could be wrong.
