CHESSNOID

What a difference a year makes.  Do you remember when both the US Treasury Paulson and Federal Reserve Bernanke testified in Congress the US economy was fine and that there would be no recession.  Both of these financial wizards refused to utter the R word.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) —

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson both acknowledged problems in the U.S. economy Thursday, but both said they believe the nation will avoid falling into recession.

The two made their comments at a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee about the economy. Their testimony comes in the wake of troubling economic readings that have raised recession fears on Wall Street.

A year later we are in the most severe recession since the Great Depression. Unemployment is over 8% nationally and over 10% in 7 states.

March 29 (Bloomberg) —

The U.S. jobless rate climbed in March to the highest level since 1983 and manufacturing shrank, putting the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in seven decades, economists said before reports this week.

Unemployment jumped to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Labor Department’s April 3 report. The figures may also show payrolls fell by 660,000 workers, bringing total job losses since the contraction began to 5 million.

Of course, the other problem that is not being dealt with by the Obama administration is the housing crisis. Foreclosures are still increasing even though there are moratoriums by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and all the major banks. They simply can not keep up with the pace of houses they are taking back. The homeless population is growing at an alarming rate with people living in tent cities, in their cars, or out in the streets.

LA Times:

Despite various foreclosure prevention efforts and moratoriums, national foreclosure filings increased 6% in February from January, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. The 290,631 default and auction sale notices and bank repossessions last month represented a nearly 30% increase from February 2008.

One in every 440 U.S. housing units saw a foreclosure filing in February. The numbers in states with the top foreclosure rates were Nevada, 1 in 70; Arizona, 1 in 147; and California, 1 in 165.

Based on total number, foreclosure filings were the highest in California in February at 80,775 — up 5% from January and up 51% from the previous February.

The bailouts and stimulus packages have been a waste of money. Most of us either knew or suspected that when you talk about trillions of tax dollars trickling down into the economy was a farce. Most of the money went to failed bankrupt companies CEOs, executives and counter parties.

The government promised transparency and accountability, but when the public wanted to know where the money went the Federal Reserve and the bailed out companies refused to disclose the information. That is not transparency. When Senator Dodd was found out he put in a clause to allow the bonuses he pointed the finger at Obama’s administration. US Treasury’s Geithner said he was responsible for requesting it. So where is the accountability. He should have been terminated for losing billions. The American public doesn’t really know where or how the trillions of tax dollars have been spent.
There will definitely be more bailouts and stimulus packages on the horizon. The democratic controlled House and Senate will approve them against the will of the American people.  I think if we are to spend this type of money, then we might as well just give it back to the American taxpayer directly.  Currently, the money already spent would have equaled about $80,000 per every household. Why give that to corrupt and bankrupt companies?