I thought reportage of the recession could no longer surprise me. I was wrong. The cover story in Newsweek, declaring that the recession has ended, THAT surprised me.
By now I’m used to Wall Streeters, government types, economists and financial journalists exclaiming that economic reports that show things are getting worse more slowly really show they are getting better; that awful profit reports that beat the expectations of a few invariably wrong analysts are good profit reports; that improved bank statements that are improved because the banks are borrowing for nothing from the Fed and then not lending to the public are signs of a healthy banking system; that huge new public indebtedness is nothing to worry about; and that numbers that don’t look good at all can be ignored, while those that can be interpreted in a vaguely positive way cause markets to soar—as they are doing today. To this sort of jabbawocky I’ve now become fully accustomed.
But actually saying the recession is over—THAT surprised me.
Then I heard the Newsweek writer of this story interviewed on Public Radio yesterday and learned why his publication felt it was appropriate to publish its recession over view. It seems that this longest post-World War II recession was actually a “new” kind of recession. With new causes. That needed to be addressed in new ways. Thus its end, too, is also new.
And what is this new end to the now ended new recession? More unemployment than we have now. More foreclosures than we have now. More wage trimmings. More reductions in government services at the same time government debt is soaring. For most Americans a standard of living that will still get progressively worse or not noticeably better. In other words, this new recession ending is pretty much indistinguishable from the middle of all past recessions that were nowhere near ending.
But what the heck. I’m an American. The experts, the economists, the Wall Streeters, the government types, the financial journalists, they can tell me anything and I’ll believe it. So what if it contradicts what I see all around me or am personally experiencing. Less if more. Worse is better. The guy behind the curtain is a repairman and we should just ignore him. What’s the problem?
So now I await the next big proclamation from these knowing insiders. The one that announces that the meek have finally inherited the earth. When it comes I plan to travel to Palm Beach where I will take my own share of this inheritance in the form of beach front property. This announcement had best come soon, however. While I still have bus fare to get to my new home.