The Recession Never Ended

Remember that $600 billion fiscal cliff you have been hearing about for a month now? President Obama and the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, have been tossing words back and forth about the coming fiscal cliff to occur on 1 January 2013 and have gotten "nowhere." That fiscal cliff is the beginning of tax hikes and the end of spending cut extensions from the Bush era.

This fiscal cliff is said to take the United States "back into a recession." Excuse me, but first off the housing market is still in a nose dive and the only reason Wall Street says it has hit rock bottom is because things are "improving." For who? The banks have helped exactly half of 1 percent of the $5 trillion market they screwed up leading to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. This is in addition to the growing number of foreclosures that the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) and the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) were created by Congress in order to stave off the millions of homeowners in troubled waters the banks caused in the first place.

Second, unemployment continues to grow by the several thousands because businesses are going overseas, deciding on massive layoffs, or ceasing operations altogether. Perhaps the Federal Reserve wants to call it a "second recession," but I don't see anybody from their neck of the woods getting in line at the unemployment or social service offices. Last time I checked they get million-dollar severance packages AFTER getting bailed out on the taxpayer dime for being "too big to fail."