News roundup: Chilly morning commute

Posted by Philip Anselmo on September 19, 2008 - 7:05am
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It's that time of year, folks. Time to switch on the heat in the car for the morning commute. Time to dust off the coats and scarves. As chilly as it may have been in Genesee and Monroe counties this morning, it was much more so down in Wyoming, Cattaraugus and Allegany. Those three counties were under a freeze warning issued by the National Weather Service out of Buffalo this morning, according to WBTA's Wayne Fuller. That could be dire news for some vegetable growers. We'll have to wait and see.

In contrast to the cautious words of calm issued by an Oxford-educated economist who stopped by Batavia earlier this week to tell folks that it just "doesn't feel like an honest-to-goodness recession," unemployment numbers were reported as ever on the rise statewide. Genesee County is up more than a percentage point over this time last year: from 3.7 percent last August to 4.7 percent this year. Orleans County climbed from 5.1 to 7.1 percent. So, when does it start to feel like a recession? Is it when Orleans County can say that one in ten of its residents doesn't have a job?

In addition to the increase in unemployment, Fuller reports that job growth is either stagnant or shrinking. ...Maybe recession just isn't the right word, then. Can anyone else think up some words to describe what this feels like? Anyone?

Also (reported again on WBTA), the state looks to fare far worse than was initially suspected following the recent bankruptcies and bailouts on Wall Street. Gov. David Paterson envisaged a worst-case scenario of 30,000 jobs lost and a loss of $1 billion in revenue for the state. State officials now expect to lose 40,000 jobs and $3 billion in revenue over the next two years.

Oh. Almost forgot to mention... the price for a bus or train ride on the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is going up a quarter.

Posted by Gabor Deutsch on September 19, 2008 - 1:57pm
"In addition to the increase in unemployment, Fuller reports that job growth is either stagnant or shrinking. ...Maybe recession just isn't the right word, then. Can anyone else think up some words to describe what this feels like?" Mr. Anselmo wrote.

I guess it depends on "what is in YOUR wallet".
Try getting a room full of economic advisors to agree on what is going on and they will have the same facts and stats, still not many of them will agree on whats going on and how to fix it.

When the President gets on Television and explains what he wants to do to help stabilize the recent problems in the private sector of loans you can bet somebody has been feeling something. when you have to have the government step in and keep the stock market from crashing and people foreclosing you can skip recession and move to the prevention of a depression.

Thank goodness we are not on the gold and silver standard because recession would have been a few years ago.

Mr. Greenspan predicted this as a possibility of happening before things were in a decline. But they were careful not to use terms like stagflation or recession because sometimes just predicting it sends people into a panic. That will crush an economy just by speculation, just check up on our American history.

The power of the Dollar started falling a long time ago, prices rose, hmmmm inflation ? Never say it.

I bet they are going to have to update and revise all the economic text books they use in schools on this one.

Kinsiean Theory or what ever you believe, when you FEEL it then you know its true.