There's no doubt any more that this is the Great Recession we've been dreading since the last one. And now there's no doubt that we haven't seen the worst of it.
From the AP: The number of people receiving jobless benefits exceeded 6 million for the first time, the government reported Thursday, and housing construction unexpectedly plunged to its second-lowest level on record — fresh evidence that the recession is far from over.
Analysts expect the labor market to remain weak for the most of this year with companies reluctant to hire new workers until an economic recovery is well under way. And the latest housing data show the slump in that market, a major factor in triggering the recession, has yet to hit bottom.
The longer this thing goes on and the deeper it gets, the more people are going to figure out how to live and get an income of some sort pursuing activities that involve work, but not necessarily "a job." In the long run, that might be a good thing for everybody.
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Update: Paul Krugman agrees with me. Among other things, his NYT column of 4/17/09 tells us that the big banks' announcements of large profits last quarter are part of the banksters' ongoing propaganda campaigns, that which seek to avoid and deny rather than reflect reality.
1 comment:
Doing things that matter may matter once again. I am disappointed that monetary whizzbangers are back to profitability while blue collar people who do useful things are losing jobs fast.
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