CNN Trying to Scare the Bejezus out of Americans

I was watching Wolf on CNN yesterday and he made the OUTLANDISH statement that 70% of Americans believe that the USA is already in a recession!

Now WHY exactly should anyone give a fiddler's fig about what the general population thinks about the economic condition of America. Exactly how many of them read the Dailies from Bureau of Economic Analysis?.005% - maybe. So why the eff does their opinion matter and why would it be a Wolf Headline? (Could it be because it's good politics if you're trying to elect Democrats...)

Here's the definition of a recession (for those who don't know)

First off the US economy has grown every quarter for the last year and is forecast to grow every quarter this year (especially because governments are unlikely to take action that will reduce the GDP during an election year). A recession as defined simply will not occur - the economy will just not grow as fast as it has.

Second of all, the USA has rebounded remarkably since 911. Here are a couple of charts - Unemployment and GDP:



Certainly the housing and new "thrift" crisis has hurt public opinion by giving the Lib Media something to moan about but face it - it was simply fools lending money to idiots, it's only about $100 Billion (which is peanuts in the US wealth pool), and a lot of it was absorbed by non-US financial institutions.

The War? again - $100 billion a year or so. About the same about that the USA used to spend in military bases in Europe during the Cold War. Peanuts.

And unemployment? 0% is not zero unemployment. 5% is zero unemployment - there are ALWAYS people in between jobs, newly retired, or taking time off.

America has never been so wealthy and healthy and powerful. Do not believe anything that CNN says.