Breaking on CNN.com: AP: President Bush's top economic adviser says economic growth may be negative

[sinkingfeeling]

Astute, aren't they?


http://www.cnn.com/

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, you pretty much need to clock them between the eyes

with a 2x4 to get their attention. Now that the Dow is starting to feel the effects of the hedge fund collapse, they've finally noticed the whole ridiculously flimsy economic edifice erected by thieves enabled by gutting regulations is nothing but a lot of hot air representing a huge amount of paper profit.

The media have become even more reactive than the government has.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bdamomma]

3. no shit

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/08f4c918-ebbb-11dc-9493-0000779fd2ac.html

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Growth may be negative

Peace may be war.

Shit may be Shinola.



This and other top stories ahead on CNN May Be a Box of Spoons.

[Supersedeas]

10. a new definition of Growth--still calling it growth....only the negative variety

[leftofthedial]

5. if they weren't such liars,

they would have had lots of practice saying that over the last 7 years.

[NightWatcher]

6. more than two quarters of negative economic growth...

that is the definition of a recession. But what is a Depression?
A depression is a severe economic downturn that lasts several years. Fortunately, the U.S. economy has not experienced a depression since The Great Depression of 1929, which lasted ten years.

We are IN a recession and quickly heading for a Depression

http://www.domain-b.com/economy/general/20080307_us_economic.html

The US economy grew at an annual rate of just 0.6 per cent in the October-December quarter, slower than the IMF projection of 0.8 per cent for the whole of the current year.

For the whole of 2007 the US economy is estimated to have grown at an overall 2.2 per cent – already the weakest since 2002.

During the July-September quarter, the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.9 per cent.

US economic growth fell sharply in the last three months of 2007, triggered by a slump in building activity, which fell by 16.9 per cent, the biggest fall in 25 years, as housing prices collapsed.

The slowdown is even bigger than the 1.2 per cent annual growth rate predicted by analysts.

The US economy lost 63,000 jobs in February against 22,000 jobs lost in January. The slowdown could cause a further rise in US unemployment as the economy weakens.

The biggest employment declines were seen in the manufacturing, construction and retail sectors, raising fears that the world's biggest economy is sliding into a recession.

The dollar also weakened against the euro to hit a new record low of 1.540 against the euro and to 2.01 against the British pound.

The US currency also fell below to 102 yen for the first time in three years.

[chat_noir]

7. View on current quarter’s growth is most downbeat from White House

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s top economic adviser said Friday the nation’s economic growth could dip into negative territory for the current quarter, an assessment that tracks with many outside experts but is the most pessimistic to come so far from the White House.

“We don’t really know whether it will be negative or not,” Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters at the White House. “We have definitely downgraded our forecast for this quarter.”

He would not discuss whether the White House is predicting the economy will actually fall into a recession. Some economists think it already has.

“I’m still not saying that there’s a recession,” Lazear said. “We are going to have a weak growth quarter, and whether you call that a recession or not is something that we won’t know for many months.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23522068/


DJIA 11911.44 -128.95 -1.07%
NASDAQ 2209.49 -11.01 -0.50%
S&P 500 1293.48 -10.86 -0.83%

[durablend]

11. They'll figure it out in about 8 months

“I’m still not saying that there’s a recession,” Lazear said. “We are going to have a weak growth quarter, and whether you call that a recession or not is something that we won’t know for many months.”

Not to worry--they'll figure out it's a recession right after election day (assuming McCain doesn't win)

[LSK]

8. are in a recession yet?

:dunce:

[Turbineguy]

9. Negative growth

I guess that means my pension will show a positive contraction.

Where do they find these people?