And They Said the Recession Was Over…

I remember hearing reports in 2010 that the recession was officially over in 2009. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), an independent group of economists, reported that the recession started in December of 2007 and ended in June of 2009.  Well, I didn’t buy it.  Things still looked pretty bad to me.  My gas cost more, my food cost more, many friends and acquaintances were losing jobs and homes.  And it hasn’t seemed to get any better.  In fact, since 2009, my food bill has gone up for staples like milk, eggs, sugar, and fresh produce.

A May 25th article in Bloomberg by Alan Bjerga and Leslie Patton explain that U.S food-price inflation may top the government’s forecast because higher prices for meat, dairy and energy hit large corporations like Nestle, the largest food company in the world, McDonald'’s and Whole Foods (the world’s largest natural foods grocer).

Another Bloomberg article on June 8, 2011 by Sungwoo Park said “Gold May Gain as Rallies in Corn, Oil Fan Concern Inflation May Accelerate.”

The Daily Caller posted an article by Neil Munro (June 8, 2011) with the headline, “Federal Data Shows Troubling Unemployment, Underemployment Trends.”  That article states that, “Less than half of African-American men now have full-time jobs, and less than half of all white men will have full-time jobs in 2018…”

A recent CNN poll was written about in the left-wing site Huffington Post (June 6, 2011) by James Sunshine, stating that nearly half of all Americans believe we are nearing a great depression.

Time Magazine’s June 8th cover story: “What Recovery? The Five Myths About the U.S. Economy.” 

• Myth 1: This is a temporary blip, and then it’s full steam ahead
• Myth 2: WE can buy our way out of all this (Kat’s note: QE/stimulus packages don’t work)
• Myth 3: The private sector will make it all better
• Myth 4: We’ll pack up and move for new jobs
• Myth 5: Entrepreneurs are the foundation of the economy (Kat’s note: our current Administration’s policies have made entrepreneurship a complicated and difficult.  This suppresses that inherent entrepreneurial spirit that has long been the back-bone of the U.S. economy.)

So are you better off now than you were 2 years ago in 2009 when the recession ended?