So Many Disasters, So Little Time

For our friends who cling to the "no 2 quarters of negative GDP growth, so no recession" meme:

Commercial Bankruptcy filings for the first half of 2008 are up 45 percent from last year
No problems here - plenty of room in the life boats.....

Unemployment Rate Rises to 5.7%
Latest word from California is they are seeing 6.9%

GM: $15.5 Billion Loss
Yes, if we can leverage the synergies of producing huge trucks and SUVs, lending money to people to buy them, and aggressive home mortgage loans.....oh, uh, never mind.

FT: Fears Growing Concerning CMBS Defaults
Subprime Residential is "Contained" - NOT!

CA Governor Orders Layoffs, Pay Cuts
"Ya, I vill go bach in time und fix everything...." - oh, that was just a movie

The Coming Hotel Bust
Yeah, these all seemed like a great idea in 2005, like, where's my cashflow, dude?

Quelle Surprise! Growth Revised to Negative in 4Q, Jobless Claims Rise
Luckily, we can *always* trust those government numbers. Once they've had 6 months to get it at least approximately right. Sort of. Maybe.

Continuing Job Claims and the "L" Shaped Recession
Check out that graph. "L" shaped trecession means we'll all be scaling back permanently. Except the pigmen bailed out by Paulson and Bernanke and Bush and Congress.


GOOD THING WE'RE NOT IN A RECESSION!

For all the real graphs of M3, GDP, etc, see here.

For real CPI numbers, see ShadowStats. It seems Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter all "tweaked" these measures a bit.

The news is in and it's all bad.