Can someone tell me how the Republicans managed to hide a recession for a year?

[NNN0LHI]

I have no idea how this can be done done. I know that figures don't lie but liars figure but I still don't get it? Does anyone that stays on top of this stuff understand how this could be concealed for a year?

Is this a normal occurrence? Do they keep two sets of books? One for themselves and one for the public?

How was this scam pulled off?

Anyone know?

Don

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Because we are occultists as well as fascists. Smirk." - Republicon Homelander Occultists

"Just wait till da Jebster gets his Shadow Gubermint up and slinking. Bwaa ha ha ha ha."

- Republicon Homelander Occultists

[Phred42]

2. They All Knew

So, just a reminder.... Eliot Spitzer was investigated and brought down BECAUSE he tried to warn us ( the People) about the impending Financial Meltdown. The people receiving the $700 billion and the people giving it to them - They ALL KNEW.

Try not to kid yourself - the Democratic leadership (at least) have been the Silent Partners of the Reich. Don't tell me Dodd and Franks didn't know for years.

Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021302783.html

How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers

By Eliot Spitzer

Washington Post
Thursday, February 14, 2008; Page A25

Several years ago, state attorneys general and others involved in consumer protection began to notice a marked increase in a range of predatory lending practices by mortgage lenders. Some were misrepresenting the terms of loans, making loans without regard to consumers' ability to repay, making loans with deceptive "teaser" rates that later ballooned astronomically, packing loans with undisclosed charges and fees, or even paying illegal kickbacks. These and other practices, we noticed, were having a devastating effect on home buyers. In addition, the widespread nature of these practices, if left unchecked, threatened our financial markets.

Even though predatory lending was becoming a national problem, the Bush administration looked the other way and did nothing to protect American homeowners. In fact, the government chose instead to align itself with the banks that were victimizing consumers.

Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices. ....more

[SoFlaJet]

3. I believe it takes 3 consecutive quarters of negative growth

to be considered in recession...also this crew is real good at lying and spinning

[Mike Daniels]

17. I think it's two consecutive quarters and by that definition no, we weren't in a recession

Of course, what growth there was was minimal but it was enough to not qualify for the officical definition of a recession.

[indepat]

20. There are lies, damned lie, and then there's statistics: the inflation numbers reported during

junior's rule are likely only about one-third of the actual inflation and I suspect the distortion in other government statistics is about as great. :P

[arcadian]

4. Compliant media

n/t

[ogneopasno]

5. Um, I don't think it was hidden at all.

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Denial, don't you remember?

Every time it was said, they insisted that it wasn't a recession by the technical definition. But the technical definition is only known AFTERWARDS.

When the first million people were in foreclosure last year, THAT WAS THE ALARM BELL. And guess what? Still nothing has been done to stop that. Now it's a million more. With another million in the pipeline.

Hello? It might be time for a foreclosure moratorium? Ya think???

Ohio, Michigan, Florida, California, Nevada, everywhere... anybody home? The lights are on, but it just doesn't sink in, does it?

[EFerrari]

7. They hid the recession like they're winning the war. n/t

[blm]

8. Who owns and controls most broadcast media?

.

[sharp_stick]

9. They didn't hide it

A recession isn't something that can automatically be seen and there isn't anyone "officially" in charge of telling us when we're in one, I think most people trust the National Bureau of Economic Research the most. The short (and somewhat accepted) version is that a recession occurs when there is a decline in the GDP for at least two consecutive quarters (6 months). Until that happens nobody is going to call it a recession.

After the 6 months it takes time to look at and calculate true GDP. The numbers we see every couple of weeks for inflation, job gains (I wish)/loses and everything else are simply estimates.

Recessions are always called retroactively or like the one we're in now in the middle of it.

[NNN0LHI]

16. I haven't trusted the National Bureau of Economic Research since they fudged the numbers in 2000

They tried to make it look like Bush started his presidency during a recession which we weren't in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2000s_recession

United States

The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which is the private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization charged with determining economic recessions, the U.S. economy was in recession from March 2001 to November 2001, a period of eight months. However, economic conditions did not satisfy the common shorthand definition of recession, which is "a fall of a country's real gross domestic product in two or more successive quarters," and has led to some confusion about the procedure for determining the starting and ending dates of a recession.

The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee (BCDC) uses monthly, rather than quarterly, indicators to determine peaks and troughs in business activity, as can be seen by noting that starting and ending dates are given by month and year, not quarters. However, controversy over the precise dates of the recession led to the characterization of the recession as the "Clinton Recession" by Republicans, if it could be traced to the final term of President Bill Clinton. A move in the recession date in a 2004 report by the Council of Economic Advisors to several months before the one given by the NBER was seen as politically motivated. BCDC members suggested they would be open to revisiting the dates of the recession as newer and more definitive data became available. In early 2004, NBER President Martin Feldstein said:

"It is clear that the revised data have made our original March date for the start of the recession much too late. We are still waiting for additional monthly data before making a final judgment. Until we have the additional data, we cannot make a decision."

Nonetheless, as of early 2008, no further revision to the dates has been made.

[JackRiddler]

10. They didn't.

Did you think it wasn't a recession? I don't know anyone involved anywhere in the economy who hasn't thought business was in decline for the last seven years or more, and who didn't notice that things really started getting bad from around the middle of 2007 forward (with the beginning of the financial crash).

The government and the corporate "analysts" presented the bogus statistics and called it good times as usual. Just as war is peace, ignorance is strength, love is hate, etc.

[rurallib]

11. The media covered for them in incredible ways

there were many reports about a weakening economy. Reports of a recession started back around March. Chimpy and Perino started denying it in Feb or March. But the good old M$M simply refused to report on it.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did it make a sound.
Here's to the M$M, Hannity, O'Liely, much of MSNBC and CNN and of course FUX which seems to set the tone for the M$M. They were able to hide the truth for quite a while and let their beloved republicans off the hook.
Been saying for years that the economy was set to collapse @ March of next year so it could be hung around President Democrat. The boys on Wall Street just got greedy.

[Dangerously Amused]

12. Easy. They lied about it. And half the country believed them.

The same half who believed all their other lies:


"There are WMD in Iraq."

"I'll fire anyone who outs an undercover agent."

"The economy is strong."

Blah blah blah...

[marketcrazy1]

22. THEY LIED

and lied, and lied!! I cant count the number of times the MSM pundits (assholes) announced that we would avoid a recession or this MIGHT be a weak recession!! and the financial "gurus" calling a market bottoms every month!! how many investors went BROKE on their bullshit turnaround calls! BUY,BUY,BUY! they said! stocks are under valued they said! the only ones who made money on their calls to buy were the traders who sold SHORT their recommendations!! the pity of it all is that people LISTEN to these IDIOTS! they have been CONSISTENTLY WRONG for nearly 2 YEARS!! but suddenly people are shocked to hear how bad it is! it`s your own fault! ALL the info is out there, turn off "dancing with the stars" and start paying attention! you are sitting in front of the most powerful information tool ever conceived by man! YOUR COMPUTER! USE IT!!! there is so mutch information available to you, if only you care to look! GOOGLE is your friend!! they ( MSM/government ) can try to hide the truth but the reality is it`s only a mouse click away!

[MarjorieG]

13. Media had an election, on Wright, the bradley Effect, on many of GOP mistake concealing topics.

[SoCalDem]

14. Bernanke's gobbledygook speechifying & the fact that the toxic boxes o' shit "investments"

hadn't been "opened" yet.. I think they all hoped the housing bubble would float a little longer, until they were out of office, but alas, it was not to be.. and the Bushies got stuck with the whole mess..

[bunny planet]

15. Two words

The media

[Historic NY]

18. It was hidden in plain sight.........nobody seems to realize that.

The numbers were not adding up, to the reality being expressed. In other words other economic conditions & meltdowns distracted the obvious.

[screembloodymurder]

19. But ... their figures were lies.

Inflation, unemployment, earnings ... all were manipulated. The banks knew where this sub-prime crisis was headed (they had graphs), but they refused to accept a rational scenario for home prices until the handwriting turned to hand wringing. It wasn't that they didn't recognize the risk, they just chose to double-down and ignore the old adage: what goes up, must come down. It was a classic gambler's addiction and it always results in disaster. Bush, McCain, all the Republicans kept repeating how our economy was "fundamentally sound" even after it became apparent that we were falling off a cliff. It reminds me of a rafting t-shirt with the raft going over the falls and the guide is yelling "back paddle". A good leader knows when to take out.

[tom_paine]

21. Easily. Very easily. n/t

[snake in the grass]

23. 2 reasons:

1) Corporate media kept quiet about it because they prefer a Republican in control who has their interests at heart.

2) Democratic invertebrates who refuse to call the Republicans out on anything. If a Democrat had been guilty of half of the crimes W. committed you can be sure the Republicans would not have given up until his impeachment.

[Quantess]

24. All the signs were there. All the red flags and warnings. But they were downplayed.

Kind of like climate change.

[FarCenter]

25. Remember those check mailed out last spring? That delayed the shit hitting the fan.

Although, there was much whining about taxpayers saving, rather than spending them, the savings probably helped keep bank assets a little higher than they would have been otherwise. This delayed the day of reckoning for the banks until the October timeframe.

They miscalculated, though, since if they had added a few hundred more, they could have gotten past the election.