Why can't the media call it like they see it?

[HappySqurriel]

akuma587 said:

Well frankly I've never heard a major media outlet ever even talk about Deutsche Bank, good or bad.

We also haven't even mentioned that the stock market has been on a 15% rally in the last month. I don't see how you can spin that as a bad thing.

Not to mention unemployment numbers are typically the last thing to come around in terms of recovery. Stocks and GDP have historically bounced back quicker. It is entirely normal that GDP growth can be positive while unemployment can rise (see the U.S. economy in the early 80's). The mere fact that the labor market is stabilizing is GREAT news from a short and long-run perspective.

I don't doubt that there is still some bad blood to be beaten out of the economy. But does even a prosperously growing economy never have any problems?  I've yet to see one that does.  That's just not how economies work.

The value of the stock market is not representitive of the state of the economy good or bad, and movement within the markets in the short to medium term are much more related to emotional speculation than the fundimentals of the economy.

The spin that "Unemployment is the last thing to improve" so any signs of stabilization of unemployment are automatically a sign that things are getting better is 100% bullshit. When you're facing a longer term and deeper economic slowdown there are always plateaus and local mamimums in most economic indicators before something changes (for the worse) and then the indicators all become negative for awhile again. The reason for this is simple, and is (basically) the same reason why people claim unemployment is the last thing to improve ... no one knows what the economy will look like a year from now, and most companies and individuals are likely going to maintain their spending level at their new adjusted level until they see a sign that the recession is truely behind them unless they need to change it. Companies tend to only increase their workforce after they have seen dramatic improvement in their bottom line.

Generally speaking, the massive consumer orgy that drive the American economy is not going to recover until people have access to the extremely moronic levels of credit that were available prior to the beginning of the recession and consumer confidence returns. Right now consumer confidence does not show signs of returning to its previous high levels, and as long as more and more mortgages are underwater it is unlikely that consumers will have access to the credit levels they used to.

In other words ...

The recession is not over, we could easily be in the eye of the storm and after people evaluate the back-to-school shopping season and adjust expectations for the holiday shopping season we could see reduced orders from companies, higher unemployment, and lower profits for companies.