JohnsBlog (articles, news, thoughts, advice)

nope, thats not a drum roll, that's those brilliant folks in charge just these past couple days coming to discover the fact that we're officially in a Recession!  TADA, the economists have finally released the news that everyone has known for months.

Sorry Pres. Bush, you're "Id say we're in a slowdown, not a recession" was slightly off base my friend.  The GDP was reported as a negatory for the 2nd straight quarter, the official definition of a recession.  The bad news?  We'll probably see a lousy 4th quarter, and horrible 1st quarter 2009 as well. 

With the economic stuggles occurring, some good has risen though in the form of lowered interest rates...the Fed injected some money (and by some I mean billions upon billions of dollars of course--have the money making machines at the mint been shut off for 5 minutes since the bailout was proposed?) directly into mortgage backed securities, which has resulted in the longest period of rates in the low-mid 5% range we've seen in 3 years or so.  B-E-A-UTIFUL for someone who missed the gravy train on a refinance the last time rates came down this low (that time they stayed there for about a day).

Maybe it's the holidays...refinances for cash out to buy presents, lower rates to free up some monthly cash to buy presents, that'll sure stimulate the economy.  Estimates were black friday would be a joke this year due to the credit crisis and financial troubles many are experiencing.  The guy who got trampled at WalMart clearly missed the punchline of that one (please note the sarcastic tone hiding a bitterness and resentment towards the tenacity and pathetic nature of the human race to kill a man to be first in line for a new digicam)--clearly there will still be some holiday madness which will likely give the economy a slight boost for the holiday season, and with gas prices down we should see plenty of travel (good luck in traffic everyone!) so that'll help as well, but the overall picture of the economy is a dreary one, and we likely wont see a break in the clouds anytime soon.

nope, thats not a drum roll, that's those brilliant folks in charge just these past couple days coming to discover the fact that we're officially in a Recession!  TADA, the economists have finally released the news that everyone has known for months.

Sorry Pres. Bush, you're "Id say we're in a slowdown, not a recession" was slightly off base my friend.  The GDP was reported as a negatory for the 2nd straight quarter, the official definition of a recession.  The bad news?  We'll probably see a lousy 4th quarter, and horrible 1st quarter 2009 as well. 

With the economic stuggles occurring, some good has risen though in the form of lowered interest rates...the Fed injected some money (and by some I mean billions upon billions of dollars of course--have the money making machines at the mint been shut off for 5 minutes since the bailout was proposed?) directly into mortgage backed securities, which has resulted in the longest period of rates in the low-mid 5% range we've seen in 3 years or so.  B-E-A-UTIFUL for someone who missed the gravy train on a refinance the last time rates came down this low (that time they stayed there for about a day).

Maybe it's the holidays...refinances for cash out to buy presents, lower rates to free up some monthly cash to buy presents, that'll sure stimulate the economy.  Estimates were black friday would be a joke this year due to the credit crisis and financial troubles many are experiencing.  The guy who got trampled at WalMart clearly missed the punchline of that one (please note the sarcastic tone hiding a bitterness and resentment towards the tenacity and pathetic nature of the human race to kill a man to be first in line for a new digicam)--clearly there will still be some holiday madness which will likely give the economy a slight boost for the holiday season, and with gas prices down we should see plenty of travel (good luck in traffic everyone!) so that'll help as well, but the overall picture of the economy is a dreary one, and we likely wont see a break in the clouds anytime soon.