Are we headed for a recession?

[Michael]

A recession defined is 2 or more quarters in a row of declining GDP. In real terms it's what AD said.

[KyCardinalFan]

Thx, I kept waiting for these economic news stories to follow up with what it means to the avg joe.

[maddash]

Bump.

With the recent report on inflation - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsan ... AD8U72AQ80 - I thought it would be a good time to bump this and see where we're at economy wise.

What's the feeling on the street? Things are still going well in my industry, and I don't have any majors worries at this point about job lose... but the value of the dollar and the inflation news certainly don't make me optimistic for the near future.

[Leroy]

I just read an article in CFO (no, I'm not one) that said that a high percentage of CEOs are gloomy on their outlook for 2008. One of the biggest problems they see is fuel costs.

Out in my neck of the woods, we take a look at commodity prices. Corn, wheat, soybeans ect. are higher than a lot of people have ever seen. Ethanol is taking a lot of the corn and beans, and leaving less for other consumption. People worry that if we don't have bumper crops, there just won't be enough. Food prices will have to go up. I don't understand how the price of pork is very low and feed prices are very high. Pork farmers are getting squeezed pretty hard. The 'wisdom' is that if this lasts 90 days, many will go down (we are about halfway to that).

[lukethedrifter]

^unfortunately, your neck of the woods has the most unrealistic pricing of just about anything, Leroy. It's all a matter of what is subsidized, including all that oil that is required to farm the way we do in this country.

[BigDCardlvr]

Keep in mind the fact that many of the reporters writing stories about this understand economics almost as well as cats and deer understand the concept of traffic.

best analogy ever.

[clement]

Keep in mind the fact that many of the reporters writing stories about this understand economics almost as well as cats and deer understand the concept of traffic.

best analogy ever.

This might be true, but it's not like reporters aren't talking to economists and other people who do understand economics before they write these stories.

[lukethedrifter]

Media bashing is fun. What's even more fun is that most of what is wrong with todays media is that it caters to what today's public wants.

[TimeForGuinness]

Keep in mind the fact that many of the reporters writing stories about this understand economics almost as well as cats and deer understand the concept of traffic.

best analogy ever.

wow...that is hilarious.

[Radio_Bugtussle]

Keep in mind the fact that many of the reporters writing stories about this understand economics almost as well as cats and deer understand the concept of traffic.

best analogy ever.

This might be true, but it's not like reporters aren't talking to economists and other people who do understand economics before they write these stories.

A significant percentage of reporters aren't sharp enough for that to matter.