This "double dip recession" meme needs killing.

[Robb]

Oh noes, screamed the talking heads this week, we might have a double dip recession!!11elevens.

Which is a surprise to no one. "Double dip." Is that what we're calling a bump on the road now? Obama gets to have TWO recessions instead of one?

Pushing the problem back a few months...

Temporarily propping up the inevitable so the wealthy have time to get out...

What should we call it? :argh:

[ixion]

1. Call it the Bush Depression

because the BFEE owns it, IMO.

[mdmc]

2. the first bump

followed by a Trump bump and dump slump..

[fishcreek]

3. I wish Obama had not used that phase. I do hear it a lot the last few days.

[Laelth]

12. Welcome to DU. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. The First Recession Started On Bush*'s Watch

If there is a second one it will be the residue of the first. That's the reality but perception trumps reality and President Obama and the Democratic party will be blamed.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. I've only heard that phrase from the President's own mouth

[NightWatcher]

6. it's also (and better) known as a "W" recession

I say we go with that

[Robb]

9. This idea I like! nt

[tekisui]

19. Perfect. It should only be referred to as the "W" Recession.

[tekisui]

7. The 'Dead Cat Bounce'?

[jpak]

8. It's a recession only if GDP is negative for two consecutive months

GDP grew at +3.4% in the third quarter - it would have to go negative for 4Q-09 and 1Q-10 for that to happen.

All the long term leading economic indicators suggest recovery - not back sliding,

[earthside]

10. Bull Hockey

Says who?

My searching the internet reveals that there are no hard and fast 'rules' as to what constitutes an official 'recession' or 'recovery'.

The idea that the Great Recession is over because GDP spiked last quarter -- mostly because of Cash for Clunkers -- seems perilous to me. I suspect that in retrospect this slump is not going to be considered 'over' in 2009.

So, examining the sad state of the real economy, we're not in for any 'double dip' because we aren't out of the first dip yet.

Consider that unemployment continues to worsen ... and consider that tax revenues for the federal, states, and local governments continue to decline: the recession is not over and has not even 'bottomed-out'.

If there was any real recovery, sales tax revenues would show signs of stabilizing: they don't. If consumers aren't buying, if they are still holding back, that is exactly what you would expect. Furthermore, as state and local governments then have to make more and more cuts, the cycle down gets worse ... and that is what is happening in the real world, too.

Pres. Obama makes a mistake in talking much optimism right now -- better to keep blaming the 'Bush depression' and lowering expectations. Of course, he needs to fire Geithner, hire Robert Reich and start helping Main Street instead of Wall Street -- he's got a lot to do to get himself out of the economic/political ditch he has dug for himself.

[jpak]

11. Yes - and spreading DOOM and GLOOM will bolster consumer confidence

deafeatist horseshit loses every time

a self-fulfilling prophesy

[Robb]

13. What next

...are you going to accuse everyone who looks realistically at the economy of voting for McCain? :eyes:

[earthside]

16. George H. W. Bush

Remember what happened to him when he tried to talk-up the economy when folks were still losing their jobs?

'Doom and gloom' or 'pollyanna' perspectives are one thing for people at DU to debate ... but not being forthright as President is another thing altogether.

The state of the economy is what it is -- no matter how much we may want to propagandize a 'recovering economy', if folks don't have money to spend or jobs to go to, then the recession isn't over.

I'd rather know that things are still tough than have false hope.

Read Robert Reich's blog post today ... posted in a thread earlier today on DU.

[anigbrowl]

21. Says Julius Shiskin and NBER

My searching the internet reveals that there are no hard and fast 'rules' as to what constitutes an official 'recession' or 'recovery'.

Your searching of the internet can't have been very thorough then, because the '2 quarters of GDP shrinkage' has been the normal yardstick for many years now and is what most economists and business people use to gauge the health of the economy.

[Robb]

14. Not quite

2.9%, actually: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9139787

[anigbrowl]

22. two consecutive quarters, not two months. But otherwise, yeah.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I call it the "Let's put a band aid on Wall Street's booboo" recession.

We don't need no stinkin' jobs ....... just bail out the Too Big To Fails.

::::yawn::::

[notesdev]

17. It's hardly a double dip

since the rise out of the first dip was entirely artificial and manufactured.

We're still in the first dip and it won't be ending anytime soon.

[Robb]

18. My point exactly. nt

[ddeclue]

20. +1 because the "recovery" is based on "trickle down" instead of "trickle UP" economics.

:P