The Fed Says Recession is Ending!!

Well, if you click the title of this blog, you will find a freshly-written article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about how the recession is coming to an end.

According to a survey but on by the Federal Reserve, "five of the Fed's 12 regions said the downward trend is showing signs of moderating," (StarTribune.com).

But what does that language even mean?

It means that according to our (non-transparent, monopolized) money and banking supply, the recession might be not falling quite as fast in a little less than half of the country. And this is making news.

People are of course going to attribute this to the bail-outs and our current government's savvy economics, but let me take a minute to compare our nation to a family of four:

Lets say that the Johnson family is having hard times. Mr. Johnson just had his paycheck slashed in half and his wife has lost her job, so things are pretty hard on their small family. But their family isn't the only family on the block (much like how the United States is not the only nation).
Now the Johnsons, hypothetically speaking, might have two options. One, they can borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars from their neighbors while they are having tough times, or they can do some penny pinching.
Realistically, the Johnsons don't need three cars, or a membership to the local country club, or 675 channels on satellite TV. (much like our government doesn't need so many of its programs, or unreasonable benefits to employees -such as private jets, etc-)

But the Johnsons don't want to give up their cushy lifestyle, so instead of admitting defeat, saying that perhaps they were a bit unruly with their spending, they borrow the money. Well, after they borrow the money, they aren't going to notice the hard times they had just been having, are they? They are going to be able to make their payments with the money that isn't theirs. They can still go to the country club, even if it is on the dime of a neighbor, who they will eventually have to pay back. With interest.

This is more or less the situation our nation is in. We have printed up money, tried to get China and other countries to back it, and decided we were going to take the easy way out of this recession.
Of course things seem to be easing up. But we should be warned that we aren't preventing a decline in our economy, we are post-poning it, and probably making it worse.
(This is what happened to Germany in between the World Wars; they borrowed money from the U.S., but when the U.S. hit the great depression, they called in those loans and the German economy went to hell.)

However, with the gaining momentum of HR1207 (Thats the bill to audit the Fed, if you weren't aware) the Fed has gone so far as to hire a publicist. Thats right, our Federal Reserve is worried about its public image, and rightfully so.

So, the Fed says the recession is getting better. As a skeptic, I don't know if they are saying this because signs point to yes, and the bailout money is keeping us afloat; or if its because their new publicist is helping them try to clear their name and get some weight off their shoulders (and attention away from HR1207).

My guess? Both.