The worst credit crisis since the Great Depression sent the U.S. economy into a tailspin at the end of 2008 as consumers and businesses retrenched, reports this week may show.
Gross domestic product contracted at a 5.5 percent annual rate from October through December, the biggest drop since 1982, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of Commerce Department figures due Jan. 30.
President Barack Obama and Congress are working to pass an economic stimulus plan worth $825 billion by mid-February to stem what may be the worst recession in the postwar era. Federal Reserve policy makers, under Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, also meet this week amid growing expectations they’ll unveil more tools to unclog lending after having cut interest rates to as low as zero.
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The recession “entered a more negative and pernicious phase in the fourth quarter,” said Brian Bethune, director of financial economics at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. It’s “potentially the worst recession that we’ve seen in terms of the severity and the depth.”
The projected contraction last quarter would follow a drop of 0.5 percent at an annual pace in the prior three months.
The economic downturn helped Obama win the election in November as his message of change resonated with voters. The legislation being hammered out with Congress includes tax cuts and new federal spending for infrastructure projects that the administration hopes will create or save 4 million jobs.
January 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
But thank goodness Goldman, BOA, Merrill Lynch and the rest are at least getting their bonuses paid. I was really worried about that since my brother owns a Ferrari dealership and I don’t want his ass moving in with me!
January 25th, 2009 at 8:47 am
ahh yes credit,another area where the lemmings of america have been led down the road to ruin.does anyone remember the phrase”live within your means”?
sadly the people in this country are to much into “keepin up with the jones’”.
hey,i got this card here and i can get that $7,000 plasma TV,front load washers and driers that cost 4 times the amount of those”old” style ones,we really need a 6 bedroom 4 bath house for me,you and jr. honey,lets get this one i really love the GREAT room.
dont worry that the motgage is $4,000 a month in 5 years we’ll have all this equity and we can finance a new SUV.
ohh we’ll need more cards to furnish this grand home,plus we need to eat,ain’t all americans buying weekly groceries on credit these days?
well thanks to all you lemmings,you’ve driven up property values on even the most modest of homes,along with their taxes,making it all the more difficult for responsible citizens to fullfill their “dream”,now you got a bunch of junk you cannot even make minimum payments on as you will probably be laid off this year.
i hope the plasma leaks out of your stupid TV and gas goes quickly back up to 4 bucks a gallon,i have no sympathy for your kind.
Alex (not Jones) Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Amen to that brother! I also hope these asshole developers all go into liquidation and end up working at Home Depot. Where I live the s---s bulldozed thousands of acres lovely woods, drove wild animals into the roads to get hit by the yuppie assholes’ Volvos.
It’s coming. I was at the grocery store earlier to day some yuppie bitch was ahead of me paying for $12 worth of food with a credit card! She had a Rolex and designer clothes but no money for groceries.
Here they have entire neighborhoods that are half developed empty and rotting away. It makes me want to puke to know what they destroyed for nothing.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Im gonna have to lay off some illegal workers if this continues.
January 25th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
No white male construction workers need apply, racist words heat up the internet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4
January 26th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Dont You see that this whole crisis is manufactured by Zionist scum in US and Israel
January 26th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
FCUK O”baaa”MA BIN LADEN & HIS ZIO-NEO-SCUM CRIMINAL OWNERS !!!
WE NEED TO UNITE & FIGHT 4 OUR RIGHTS FOLKS !!!
INFO-WARRIORS ………………………………ENGAGE THE INFORMATION WAR !!!
IT’S AN EDUCATION REVOLUTION , POWER TO THE PEOPLE
………………………………… ALEX is KING ………………………………………..