Why you won't like the economic recovery

[Better Believe It]

Why you won't like the recovery
Many Americans have felt the pain of recession -- and have pay cuts or fruitless job searches to prove it. Evidence of the recovery, unfortunately, likely won’t be as tangible
By Catherine Holahan
MSN Money
July 23, 2009

Wall Street is already celebrating the coming recovery and the return of high pay and big bonuses, but on Main Street the economic recovery could be all but invisible.

That's because the recovery that's on the horizon, perhaps arriving by September, could have little to offer most Americans. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that "we have a very long haul here" and that "it's not going to feel like a strong economy." Not much to cheer about.

The U.S. gross domestic product, the value of all the goods and services produced in the country, is expected to grow 1% before the end of the year. But that's not enough to change some of the most daunting problems of this recession: high unemployment, stagnant wages and depressed asset prices.

"The bottom line for the typical consumer is: Just because Wall Street is having a party doesn't mean you are going to get your job back," said Christian E. Weller, a senior fellow and economist with the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy research institution.

In fact, unemployment is likely to remain high long after the recession ends. The economy will need to show sustained annual growth of 2.5%, or more, for businesses to truly feel comfortable adding employees. That could take months or years, depending on the success of the federal government's efforts to stimulate the economy.

Please read the complete article at:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/why-you-wont-like-the-recovery.aspx

[mike_c]

1. this leads to the question: "What is recovery...?"

I mean, economic recovery that only the top social classes even notice is hard to call "recovery" in any meaningful sense.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. It will be called a "recoveryless recovery"..

[leeroysphitz]

9. People like us are likely to be "recovered" right out of a job...

[Lasher]

2. I agree with this assessment.

And even when businesses do feel it's time to add more employees, what makes anyone think they will be added in the US?

[orwell]

3. Eventually...

...a slow growth scenario will affect Wall Street as well. It is very hard to rally to new highs with anemic corporate profits.

What you are seeing now is a rebound from absurd levels of pessimism. Much of the "better than expected" profit picture (or in many cases reduced loss picture) came from aggressive cost cutting, primarily from layoffs and capacity destruction (plant closings).

This is the natural state of affairs when you are working off a string of titanic bubbles, primarily enabled by "Sir" Alan Greenspan.

[glowing]

4. So, how is Wallstreet making money? What kind of tricks are they playing now?

Its not a recovery if only the top % is enjoying the fruits. AND when did the Wallstreet idiots not take a bonus.. It seems to me that they were taking their bonuses and hiding in "contracts" to continue receiving their pay and perks.

[jwirr]

5. And prices will continue to go up. Caught between a rock and a hard

place.

[theophilus]

7. It's no recovery, it is a total changing of "things". We won't go back to how it was.

New jobs will come but they will be in health care, infrastructure rebuilding, green energy, etc. This is a retooling of America and it will be painful on many levels. If Mr. Obama is thwarted on health care and energy, etc. then times will get harder and harder. Too many mouths chasing to little goods. Oh well. Change will come....planned or not.

[OHdem10]

8. To have real job creation, I remember during the Clinton Adm the

growth rate had to be over 3%.

[gorfle]

10. In other words...

In other words, the corporate profits are back, but they aren't being put back into America.

[gorfle]

11. In other words...

In other words, the corporate profits are back, but they aren't being put back into America.

[Wednesdays]

12. K&R

:kick: