August 24, 2010

Just wonderful - double-dip recession

People like Roubini have been talking about it since 2008 or so. Now people at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank are talking about it. From Reuters:
Fed's Evans says double-dip risk has risen
The risks of a double-dip U.S. recession have risen in the last six months, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans said on Tuesday.

While a new contraction in the economy is still not the most likely scenario, high unemployment and a fractured housing sector make this recovery a fragile one, he said.

"A double dip is not the most likely outcome but I am concerned about how strong the recovery will be," Evans said at a housing event in Indianapolis.

Against that backdrop, Evans said the Fed's ultra-easy monetary policy is appropriate.

In response to the financial crisis of 2007-2009, the U.S. central bank cut short term interest rates to near zero, and also undertook a host of emergency measures such as U.S. Treasury bond and mortgage debt purchases to keep borrowing costs down.

The Fed announced earlier this month it would add to this stimulus by investing proceeds from maturing mortgages securities in its portfolio into Treasury debt.

Evans said unemployment, currently at 9.5 percent, is likely to remain uncomfortably high for the foreseeable future.

His comments came just before a report on existing home sales showed a record monthly drop in existing home sales to their lowest level in 15 years.
I wonder at what point, they will realize the error of their ways and try to correct. Keynes was brilliant but there is a big gulf between brilliant and wrong and brilliant and right and Keynes simply is not right. Cut taxes, reduce Federal and State meddling and the economy will take off like a rocket. Any economic growth we are seeing in 2010 is because the Bush tax cuts expire at the end and people are maximizing their profits. The economy is going to tank in 2011. Posted by DaveH at August 24, 2010 9:26 PM