CHESSNOID

When I stepped out to run a few errands, I glanced at the price of gas and it really didn’t shock me at $4.49 a gallon for the cheap stuff. I have blogged about the recession now for about 6-8 months and have read about the housing boom-bust for about 12-18 months. I always laugh when the President Bush, the White House, the Federal Reserve and other government agencies refuse to utter the dreadful “R” word. Recession is basically at this point the best way to describe the current crisis our economy is in. As far fetched as it sounds, I wouldn’t be surprised if this deepening recession become a full blown depression. Forget about the technical economic definitions. You can’t deny it is what it is.

At this point, most of us will not be surprised when a gallon of gas hits $5, $6, or $7 all this year. We have become impervious to the financial pain or we just figure out a way to get along without our petroleum driven products. Seriously, if gasoline hits $8, $9 or even $10 a gallon I don’t think any of us will be shocked. We are more numb at this point. LOL.

I read we have over one million foreclosures. The latest celebrities who have taken a hit are Jose Conseco, Ed McMahon, and now the great boxer Evander Holyfield. Is that more shocking than Mike Tyson biting his ear off? Many real estate sales that are taking place now are just repos that the bank owns or short sales where the bank will own it soon. As far as qualifying for a home loan, I think the banks will require a minimum 20% down payment regardless of your long term job history, high credit score, and overall asset/liability statement. I don’t think we have ever had a president responsible for 2 separate recessions one in each term like President Bush. We were in a recession 2001-2003 and we are in one now “unofficially”. His job performance is worse than pitiful and he is lucky he can’t be fired.

The stock market was shaken up a bit yesterday when oil spiked up 2 days in a row. I think the stock market has rebounded well in the last month or so, even though there was no real reason to support the run up. The technicals did turn back up then and indicated the market signs were bullish. The fundamentals gave the opposite signal saying this was possibly a bear trap. Of course, you can only know which one was right by looking in the rear view mirror.

There are positives in a recession. None of them being the reasons I mentioned above. I notice when we are in a recession, the businesses out there competing for your hard earned dollars are more aggressive. Fast foods have bigger dollar menus, Walmarts and Targets have more stuff on sale, and the price of most other luxury goods and services go down. Also, tons of coupons for stuff you already buy make stuff cheaper. In the last month, I have received some free hotel offers to stay at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas for certain weekends or a string of weekdays with food and chip comps. I could literally take a vacation for free. The only thing is Las Vegas is super hot in the summer and I just don’t like the +100 degree desert heat. The only real expense would be the gasoline to drive back and forth from there. I am sure sooner or later they will make me an offer I can’t refuse.

Now tonight there is a UFC but the fight card looks weak. I know I will not be spending money on that PPV. Funny thing is they had a PPV less than 2 weeks ago. That shows me the effect the free MMA on HDNET and CBS is having on them. You know they must be hurting to put these PPVs so close together. Like I said, the recession is affecting everyone and everything. However there is a great fight on HBO that is free tonight. KELLY PAVLIK vs GARY LOCKETT. I really like this Pavlik guy and I think after his two wins against Jermaine Taylor, he will continue to do well.