Is America through the worst of the recession?

Washington Post,August 13, 2009 on page A17:

Douglas Holtz-Eakin,former CBO director: "If America were populated only by economic statisticians then the worst would be over... Unfortunately, the labor market remains very weak.

Comment: Statistics has a time lag and there is discrepancy at best. Prof. John K. Galbraith has doubts about data as per his book entitled "Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics." cited in my prior blog with my review published by the Atlantic Economic Journal,Sept.1979 issue.

RE: Training and retraining would be desiderata for workers to upgrade skills to supply the changing demand of a society. Cf. "Keys for Economic Understanding" for details. www.Amazon.com book catalog for reference.

Alice Rivlin, former director of CBO and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution:-

"The main reason for optimism is that the rapid deterioration of the economy has slowed down but scared consumers are hanging on to their cash."

Comment: Since consumption sector occupies around 2/3 of GDP,the behavior of consumers would have an impact on the overall economy.

Rudelph G. Penner: Fellow at the Urban Institute: The rate of economic decline has slowed. Folks tend to be more subdued and are likely to remain unhappy for a long time due to jobs.

Comment: If the first stimulus was not very effective,the second one may be on the way in the winter?

Mark Zandi, Chief economist at Moody's economy.com:

"The foreclosure crisis shows no letup. Billions of dollars in commercial mortgage defaults are in the pipeline. The economy may need another boost."

Comment: Another stimulus package may occur in the spring of 2010?

If we are aware of global context of economics by virtue of the thoughts of economists above, it would be clearly evident that Sino-American economics is totally significant for the future of US economy. I sent my past blogs in the similar veins for reference.

Francis Shieh a.k.a. Xie Shihao on August 13, 2009 at 2.46 p.m.