Will we have a double dip recession in 2010?

There are many who refuse to believe that we have had a recession, but considering that many companies have figured out how to make a profit without hiring and the true extent of unemployment (estimated at >22%) and the fact that over 60% of Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck (assuming they even have a paycheck), I think it’s a moot point.

I have heard it said that, at least in WA state, every dollar of unemployment generates $1.90 in the economy since those dollars are immediately spent as opposed to sitting offshore somewhere collecting interest, It is also said that consumer spending is what really drives the economy, but the upward flow of wealth means that the majority of us have less to spend.

My take on it is that a double-dip requires an actual upswing in the middle. WE have been sliding downwards for a while, and any apparent upswing is an illusion, so it won’t be a double-dip; it’ll be a continuation of the downwards spiral that wil loccasionally slow but still tend to head downwards.

But as long as the CEOs are collecting record bonuses, who cares?

To me, it’s all words anyway. If you’re working, you have a different perspective than if you’re not. I’m fortunate to live in a city where unemployment has stayed less than the national average, but other places, certainly other people, have it much worse than “average.” As for the market, it’s only one indicator of how good or bad the economy is, it’s historically cyclical, and it’s vulnerable to not only national but international events (not to mention how loudly Bernanke sneezes).

Well, at the end of the year, taxes will increase by 3% if Congress does not act. Slim chance that will happen. About their only agenda is arguing with each other. If they do not hold taxes down, very well could be a double dip.

@BoBo1946 What do you think the odds are on another tax credit like last years “Make America work” $800 credit are?

@jerv well, that might be an option to counteract the tax increases. But, really think President Obama and Congress have to do something…soon.

@BoBo1946 You mean aside from bickering like schoolgirls?
Of course, any attempt to raise taxes on the rich will meet enough opposition to be doomed to fail. ~The only path to recovery is to let them have all of the money so they can invest and create jobs.

@jerv the tax increases at the end of year will be on everyone, as you know. The Bush tax cuts in 2002 will end. Talking about a 3% increase. If Congress and the President want to keep this economy moving in the right direction, those increases have to be stopped. I’m going to write my Congressman @jerv !

Well, 47% of Americans paid no taxes last year, and with incomes down due to unemployment, I see that number growing for 2010 which means that the only solution that even has a chance of working has almost no chance of getting through Congress. I fail to see how a 3% increase on zero will raise revenue unless they are going to try getting blood from stones and put millions of people on the streets or force them onto government assistance.
Or am I too cynical?

Click on this URL to see how difference the tax change will make.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704719104575389540592147682.html

Sadly, many Americans are willing to cut their own throats because it’s easier to listen to sound-bites and rhetoric than to do the math, research, or otherwise think for themselves.

IF there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation’s public debt — if honestly reckoned to include municipal bonds and the $7 trillion of new deficits baked into the cake through 2015 — will soon reach $18 trillion. That’s a Greece-scale 120 percent of gross domestic product, and fairly screams out for austerity and sacrifice. It is therefore unseemly for the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, to insist that the nation’s wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01stockman.html?_r=3

Look up “Fema Coffins” on your computer.