30 April 2008 - 22:33So I shouldn’t hoard money under my mattress?

The Florida Frontier is clearly doing something wrong. All the newspapers and cable news networks that I’ve seen in the past few days keep telling me that the United States is in a recession and this has caused a lot of people to get really pissed and/or worried. The evidence, however, shows that we aren’t in a recession. The Economist declared “The Great American Slowdown.” I think this might be more in line with reality than those in the media looking to get a profit on fear mongering. The Bureau of Economic Analysis released their findings here. Turns out our 4^th quarter 2007 growth was 0.6%. The same is expected for the first quarter (now) of 2008. This isn’t good by any stretch of the imagination but it’s nowhere near as catastrophic as I’ve seen it painted by some. It’s not too far off from what many European countries have come to expect in GDP growth.  Germany is looking at a 1.8% increase and France a 2.1% increase. Again, we should be growing at a much higher rate, above 3.5% or so, but there’s no need to make a run on the banks.

GDP is the output of a nation’s goods and services, so industry plays a large part in that. Take a look at this graph:

It shows that we are actually increasing our production. While these numbers aren’t fantastic, we haven’t hit a recession yet.

I wonder, do those who keep lamenting that our economy is in ruins not know any better? Or is it election year politicking? Any thoughts on that?

Lastly, I think there is real concern over the increasing cost of gas and food. Most have come to realize that the “green” fad and subsequent subsidies have lead to farmers not producing other food staples. As for gas, that takes someone far more intelligent that I to figure out. Maybe friend of the Frontier Ben Stein has some ideas.