At a press conference outside the White House today, President George W. Bush finally admitted what he’s been loathe to admit since our nation’s economy started a downward slide – that our economy has entered a recession. President Bush’s admission we’ve entered a recession isn’t necessarily newsworthy, considering recent announcements that our nation has been in a recession since December 2007, but what I’m left to wonder is if we’re already past the point of a recession and have entered a mini-depression. After all, if George W. Bush isn’t willing to admit we’re in a recession until the recession is already a year old, then how long must we wait to hear him admit we’re in a depression?
I know I’ve been rather pessimistic about the state of our nation’s economy over the past year or so, and while I’d like to paint a rosier picture of our economy in the short term, I just don’t see things getting significantly better in the short term. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that 533,000 jobs were lost nationally in the month of November, exceeding the government’s own projections by roughly 180,000 jobs, and as bad as those numbers are, some economists think things
could still get worse (emphasis mine):
“The economy is now deteriorating with frightening speed and ferocity – it’s truly horrific,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group. “We’ll see significant declines going forward.”
Baumohl expects December’s job loss total to exceed November’s 533,000 announced by the government Friday, but remain in the 550,000 to 600,000 range. He predicts the economy will have lost 3 million to 4 million jobs for the two years ending Dec. 31, 2009.
Keeping in mind this grim news and dire predictions, ponder the notion that our nation’s “Big Three” automakers are teetering on the brink of failure, which would undoubtedly leave millions of American workers without jobs and would only exacerbate our current economic downturn.
Scary stuff, folks….scary stuff!
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