MUST RECESSION/DEPRESSION = DEPRESSION?

So...we are in a recession.

So says the government.

And we have been in one for a long time.

As usual, the government is a bit slow on the up-take.

Mostly 'cause they want you to believe that everything is hunky-dory and they are handling their power well.

That and other lies they're embroiled in.

Economists have long postulated that: "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours."

A recession is defined by some economists as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, or a decline in real gross domestic product.

Using that definition, we have, indeed been in recession for quite a while.

The sad thing, though, is the government's response to recession.

Presidents, Congresspersons, Senators, and judges seem to think they know how to control the economy and bring us out of recessions and keep us from depressions.

Presidents don't have a very good track record.

Raising tariffs is one of the reasons blamed for the Great Depression of 1929.

Herbert Hoover energetically tried to combat the oncoming depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term.

(Does the idea of volunteer efforts and government action resonate with anyone out there today? Think: Barack Obama)

In 1932, the Revenue Act increased the top tax rate from 25% to 63% and was Herbert Hoover's idea of how to get it together economically. Economists and I agree that this is one of the dumbest things HH did.

(Now we seem primed to repeat that experience).

During Jimmy Carter's administration, the economy suffered double-digit inflation, coupled with very high interest rates, oil shortages, high unemployment and slow economic growth.

On November 15, 2007, Economist.com had this to say: "In 1929, days after the stockmarket crash, the Harvard Economic Society reassured its subscribers: “A severe depression is outside the range of probability”. In a survey in March 2001, 95% of American economists said there would not be a recession, even though one had already started. Today, most economists do not forecast a recession in America, but the profession's pitiful forecasting record offers little comfort." (Underlineing is mine-JS)

Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate, have an even more dismal record.

In addition to going along with Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, et. al., they now are themselves proposing the very actions that led to previous deep recessions and even the Great Depression!

What on earth is their problem?

Pseudo-psychiatrists say, "Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results is the very definition of insanity."

So why can't lawmakers understand that doing the same things that led to recession and depression before will lead to recession and depression again?

Is brain-deadness a pre-requisite for congressional or senatorial service?

OK...I've vented enough.

I will now tell you (and all of the Senators and Congresspersons who regularly avoid reading this blog) exactly how to get out of this recession and how to prevent one in the future.

Are you ready?

Here goes:

President Bush, President Elect Obama, "honorable" Congresspersons and Senators, get your cotton-pickin' hands off of our economy!

It is above your pay-scale!

You are nothing but a bunch of lilly-livered, yellow-bellied, sap-suckers. You are beslubbering, beef-witted barnacles. To call you mammering, beetle-headed clotpoles would be elevating you beyond reason.

Get your hands off of our banks, our insurance companies, our auto-makers, our schools and any other entity you can think of.

Spend your time uniting this country, maintaining the justice system, keeping us peaceful, defending us against enemies without and within, promoting (not providing) our welfare, and ensuring that we are a free people...free from the unreasonable restraints of the federal government.

THEN STAND BACK AND WATCH US SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE!