If there’s any question left that the nation is in a recession, today’s news about a net loss of 63,000 jobs should provide the painful answer. That’s the worst showing in five years and marks back-to-back monthly job losses. Foreclosures have hit a record high. The credit crunch is worsening, hurting everything from well-capitalized companies to municipalities. Home equity has fallen to levels not seen since 1945. Oil prices have hit records and will keep rising, whatever small dips come along the way. The Fed is pumping liquidity into the market as fast as it can, but, as Alan Greenspan once said, "You can’t push a string."
Meanwhile, big mortgage executives are on Capitol Hill, defending the huge pay packages they gave themselves despite their catastrophic misjudgment in helping bring on the calamity. Oh, and get ready for $200 a barrel oil — enjoy suburbia.
And what are the presidential candidates talking about? John McCain wants more tax cuts and deregulation. In other words, more of the policies that brought us here. Clinton and Obama now seem in a race to see who can slime the other more, doing the job of the Republicans.