This so-called “recession” of ours began in December 2007. That’s the official government line anyway, and most Americans buy it – just as they still buy into the gibberish about those 19 Moslems from Saudi Arabia who supposedly crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Those 9-11 events somehow justified the shameful destruction of Iraq. And besides, according to U.S. warmongers, Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction”.

It has since been proven that those 19 Saudis are still alive; that those airliners weren’t “commercial” aircraft; that something other than an airliner hit the Pentagon; and that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.

So why should anyone believe what the government says about the “recession” beginning back in December of 2007? Didn’t Fed Chairman Bernanke himself admit, back on June 23rd, 2006, that the U.S. economy was already “in a period of recession”?

• In our Vol. VII, Art. 9 (April 21, 2006), we wrote, “The ‘cost-conscious buyer’ will soon be a thing of the past, and with present levels of unemployment … many more of our citizens will soon be in that category.”

• In our Vol. IX, Art. 4 (October 9, 2006), we wrote, “We need security and we need to create jobs, and the revitalization of our shipyards will guarantee those two goals.”

• In our Vol. IX, Art. 34 (December 18, 2006) we wrote, “Demand, of course, is the driving force behind international trade, and without the strong demand on the part of the U.S. consumer, cargo inducement would gradually but surely dissipate. How much longer can the buying power of the U.S. consumer be sustained, do you suppose, when we’re seeing record numbers of foreclosures and bankruptcies taking place?”

Webster’s Dictionary says that a recession is “a slowing down of commercial and industrial activity marked by decrease in employment, profits, production, prices and sales but less severe than a depression”. A depression on the other hand, according to Webster’s, is “a phase of the business cycle marked by industrial and commercial stagnation, scarcity of goods and money, low prices, and mass unemployment”.

So do we have a “slowing down of commercial and industrial activity” or “industrial and commercial stagnation”? Take your pick.

And do we have a “decrease in employment” or “mass unemployment”? Take your pick.

Is Mr. Bernanke being forthright when he and other government officials insist that our recession began in December of 2007 – and is now “bottoming out”– or was he being forthright back in June of 2006 when he admitted that the economy was already “in a period of recession” ? Take your pick.