Two big threats to the economy shrink a bit

[Peacetrain]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy may have a long way to go, but at least two big threats are fading.

Economists are less worried that the U.S. will experience another round of mass layoffs and its first bout of deflation since the 1930s after the release of two government reports Thursday.

The third drop in jobless claims in four weeks and a mild uptick in wholesale prices in August add to evidence that a second recession is unlikely.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Two-big-threats-to-the-apf-1154060038.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

[Marsala]

1. Hooray, we're still stagnant!

We are so totally 1990s Japan.

[DCBob]

2. beats 1930s America.

[Exilednight]

3. I'm not so convinced. Have you seen the foreclosure rate?

U.S. Home Seizures Reach Record for Third Time in Five Months

U.S. home seizures reached a record for the third time in five months in August as lenders completed the foreclosure process for thousands of delinquent owners, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Bank repossessions climbed 25 percent from a year earlier to 95,364, the most since the Irvine, California-based data provider began keeping records in 2005. Foreclosure filings, including default and auction notices, fell 5 percent to 338,836. One out of every 381 U.S. households received a filing, RealtyTrac said today in a statement.

“We’re on track for a record year for homes in foreclosure and repossessions,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in a telephone interview. “There is no improvement in the underlying economic conditions.”

Foreclosures are contributing to a growing housing supply that may add as many as 12 million homes to the U.S. market. Demand is crumbling amid high unemployment and following the expiration of a federal homebuyer tax credit in April. Sales of new and existing homes fell in July to the lowest level on record. Home prices have fallen 28 percent since 2006, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of values in 20 U.S. cities.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-16/bank-seizures-of-u-s-homes-reach-record-for-the-third-time-in-five-months.html

[DCBob]

4. What we are going through now is no comparison to the GD..

The unemployment rate was about 25 percent. GDP fell by about one-third. About a third of all of the banks failed. The stock market fell about 90 percent. We are nowhere near those numbers.

[Exilednight]

5. we're not as far off as you think. The unemployment number that is reported ................

is not the same as how many people are actually unemployed. Economists will tell you to take the reported unemployment number and multiply it by 1.5 for a conservative estimate of the true unemployment number.

[DCBob]

6. What makes you think the rate reported for the GD is the number "actually unemployed"?

read this: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/unemployment-today-vs-the-great-depression/

and this: http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/u3-and-u6-unemployment-during-great-depression

[Imagevision]

7. The only prices I've noticed staying up are the gas prices...

[Phx_Dem]

8. The GOP shrank?!

Oh, you were talking about other threats to the economy. Well, that's good news too.

:P