The face of the river, in time, became a wonderful book . . . which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice. -- Mark Twain

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Recovery

Posted: September 24th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Bogus recovery is…

1)  When unemployment is worse today than it was at the lowest dip of the recession you are supposedly recovering from.

2)  When housing sales just fell 27% at the same time foreclosures rose 25%, yet you need to be amongst the top 25% of earners in order to afford a median priced house in many areas of the country.

3)  When unlisted foreclosure inventory is twice as big as actual “for sale” listings, and actual listings are at record highs.

4)  When you hear the recession has been over for almost a year and a half but you still haven’t gotten back those hours that were cut from your work schedule even after it had already ended.

5)  When you are entitled to use the prefix “Doctor” before your name, but your address is the same as your parent’s.

6)  When the party tent that once doubled as a garage for the vacant house around the block has corroded to the point where all that remains is a cracking white plastic frame surrounded by strewn scraps of discolored canvas, yet there is still no “for sale” sign out front.

7)  When the government’s best plan for creating jobs means your grandchildren will be paying for infrastructure improvements to bridges and roads designed for cars they will no longer have the fuel to power.

8)  When the whole banking system is floating on top of a vast pool of rotting mortgage related assets but is still using property values based on peak bubble prices to balance it’s books.

9)  When you just graduated last spring with $150K in student loan debt, but your best strategy for actually getting a job is to lie on the application at the seasonal Halloween costume outlet and pretend you never went to college.

10)  A jobless recovery.

Market Watch
Believe It or Not
Irwin Kellner
September 21, 2010
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/recessions-end-means-relapse-2010-09-21

Fox News
US Homes Lost to Foreclosure Up 25 Percent
September 16, 2010
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/16/homes-lost-foreclosure-percent/