September 21, 2010-Headline in the WSJ, “Slump Over, Pain Persists.” Headline the Seattle Times, “Officially, Recession Ended in June, 2009; Public reaction harsh.”
Is there any wonder why people have such little faith in government? The unemployment rate is high, the effective rate is much higher (counting underemployed, part-time who want full-time and those who have given up on getting a job), demand is sluggish and, in my transaction world, deals are hard to come by and even harder to get financed and closed.
I have degrees in Economics and I understand their measuring of peaks and troughs. But to tell people with low confidence something so blatantly off-track is amazing. It seems to me the government could use a good PR firm. People who can craft a message that makes sense. No matter what you thought of his policies or him, Ronald Reagan was a master at conveying a positive attitude. And we could sure use some of that now.
Perhaps the announcement should have been that we’ve bottomed out (and still have a long way to go as the picture in the WSJ of job applicants shows).