Recession? What recession?

[Cujo]

Over the last year or so I've heard much talk about a recession in the U.S.
In fact I've heard it described as a financial meltdown. The thing is, it doesn't seem to be reported in the news except for how it affects the banks, financial institutions etc.
Where is the reporting on the bread lines, the tent cities, the hordes of starving unemployed?
Do they not exist? Was it all just another hoax?

[larvidchr]

I think (without knowing it for a fact) that it reflects the very strong focus on the financial markets in the US, and I equally think that it is a mistake, just because the trading of some paper-money picks up, do not mean that the unemployed have gotten jobs or that the defaults on homes have stopped, equally it doesn't reflect consumer confidence.

But as I just said focus are much more on the swindling bastards on wall street than on the people actually creating real tangible wealth/goods.

[Cujo]

I think (without knowing it for a fact) that it reflects the very strong focus on the financial markets in the US, and I equally think that it is a mistake, just because the trading of some paper-money picks up, do not mean that the unemployed have gotten jobs or that the defaults on homes have stopped, equally it doesn't reflect consumer confidence.

But as I just said focus are much more on the swindling bastards on wall street than on the people actually creating real tangible wealth/goods.

I agree. The question is, where is the reporting on the effects of the recession?

[AntRobertson]

I think (without knowing it for a fact) that it reflects the very strong focus on the financial markets in the US, and I equally think that it is a mistake, just because the trading of some paper-money picks up, do not mean that the unemployed have gotten jobs or that the defaults on homes have stopped, equally it doesn't reflect consumer confidence.

That's a very good / interesting point I think. Similar to what I have been thinking (but I wasn't able to articulate it quite as well / clearly ).

There are the occasional stories that I have seen focusing on the 'real' effects of the downturn but as Dug's already alluded to these seem to be mere sideline, 'human interest', type stories rather than the actual focus.

[StrontiumDog]

It also seems to be interesting at how fast things are returning to normal...already there are stories of big bonuses reappearing, profits being made...it's almost as if the "recession" was a mere inconvenience to some, now in the past...and many are trying to return to the behaviour of the pre-recession world.

For me, the fundamental problems of the pre-recession days are still there. There was lots of talk about how it was going to change people...but I've yet to see any evidence. However, if the credit bubble begins to rise again, as it invariably does and the banks start lending silly money again, as they usually do, another crisis wont be so easily dealt with. The US and other countries governments are in colossal amounts of debt and I can't see anymore bail outs occurring like this for a long time.

Inflation is a looming threat. A potential Dollar collapse another. Spiraling resources costs one more to add in. All the while, tax revenue is down, unemployment is likely to be high for some time and the consumer driven economies, such as the US, should logically be a trouble for a long time to come.

It's interesting for me to see how much the stocks have soared, with all the above still in the mix. I'm not an economist, as I'm sure my above post proves, but things do seem to be rather odd at the moment.

[wefearourdespot]

There was lots of talk about how it was going to change people.....

It did.
It made everybody more greedy.

[Cujo]

It also seems to be interesting at how fast things are returning to normal...already there are stories of big bonuses reappearing,

precisely, we're hearing about big bonuses and profits (on what?). But are we hearing about factories re opening, are we hearing about the drop in unemployment? no. just hearing about how it affects the bankers. What about Joe Blogs and family. Did he get his job back? What's he doing now?
The really interesting thing is there must be some stories behind this but we're hearing nothing.
In such a financial meltdown there must be something going on. Tent cities were in the news for a while. Did they disappear or did the media decide they were too sad to report on.
Why isn't there more news?