Saturday, August 8, 2009

Receding Recession?

Despite the "less bad" jobs report yesterday, I remain dubious that we are actually witnessing the end of this mess. Yes, banks and the rest of the financial sector are doing better... "better at what?" should be the question. Better at doing what they did to initiate the great recession in the first place? It's not clear whether the number of unemployed actually went down, or whether the discouraged- those who no longer even look for work- increased enough to offset the newly unemployed. However, when the most pessimistic economist alive starts saying positive things, I do need to keep an open mind.
...even Nouriel Roubini, the prophetically pessimistic economist who saw the
crisis coming (and doesn’t think the recession has yet ended), is now praising
policy makers. He recently urged that Mr. Bernanke be reappointed as Federal
Reserve chairman, saying he helped avert a “near depression that seemed highly
likely after the financial collapse last fall.”

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