ECONOMY MADE PERFECTER: What is wrong with the Federal Reserve?! Today they cut the fed funds rate another .25%, bringing it down to 2%. Don't they know that we have already achieved perfection and our economy is growing licketysplit? Meh, whatever. Let's run with it and REFI REFI REFI! [NYT]
That 0.6% bit of economic growth in the first quarter of 2008 was just the pathetic result of $3.50-a-gallon gasoline, but there is one sector of the U.S. economy that's truly booming: Desperate Americans are selling off their last possessions on Craigslist and other online flea-market sites, just so they can buy a little food and gas.
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The big news today shows that we are not — as every politician says — in a recession after all! A "recession," of course, is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. And in Q1 2008, the American economy grew by 0.6%, just as it did in Q4 2007. Take that you Liberals; you and your wretched Doomsday scenarios! Sure, the actual Great New Depression may only be starting right now and lasting another 50 years. But for right now, George Bush 'n' Tax Cuts have saved the economy again! [AP/Breitbart]
Dorkus W. Dildo had a press conference today, in his garden. He is very rich and has an entire hospital to attend to him and bombs anything that makes him confused and no matter what crime he does, he never gets sent to prison, so he is exactly like ordinary poor Americans like you. Bush Junior has heard about how maybe the "economic" is a problem, so he told those losers who still have to act like he's important — you know, the White House correspondents — that he "figured out" what was wrong and guess what, it's Congress, which has Democrats.
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Here are some cheery housing numbers, as the bankrupt truckers impotently beep their horns at Congress and the food is rationed and "consumer expectations" hit lows not seen since the early 1970s: More than 6 million homes will go into foreclosure before this housing collapse is finished, and the number of houses now sitting empty in America has reached a staggering 18.6 million — including 2.3 million currently on the market.
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Marketwatch wants you to cheer up. Well, not all of you, just the ones with investments and money who are freaking out because poor people are rioting over scarce food supplies, millions of foreclosed homes are sitting empty and unsold, and local governments are no longer able to afford police and firefighters to protect rich people from the hordes. What to do? Laugh, that's what!
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Today the Bush administration offered its brave response to the current financial crisis, as delivered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The administration has faced overwhelming pressure to give the government more oversight and regulation within the financial markets, since every major player (investment banks, hedge funds) keeps dying and then asks the government for money. And who better to ramp up regulation on investment banks than Henry Paulson, the former C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs! So what's in his funny new oversight package, and how will it 
The Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate — its "big deal" interest rate — by another 3/4 of a percentage point this afternoon, bringing the number down to 2.25%. This is the second 3/4-point cut in recent months, meaning Ben Bernanke is probably on speed since that is a lot to cut.
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This weekend, as our frozen credit markets and subprime space aliens took investment bank Bear Stearns — the fifth largest in the country — down, down, down into the ground, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan wrote an article that saved the American economy. Hurrah! Regarding the moral hazard of huge companies taking inappropriate risks because the Fed will rescue their broke asses when it hits the fan ("they're too big to fall!"), kindly old hobbit-sage Alan Greenspan offers these soothing words: who knew!?
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Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified about our flourishing American economy to Congress again today, and the economy’s just not good at all! He signaled more rate cuts would come to stave off the growing credit crisis, but balanced it with fears of inflation. As the Federal Reserve noted in its semi-annual policy report today, it foresees “a negative combination of below-trend growth and inflation rates topping 2% this year, though conditions are expected to start improving in 2009.” So we’ll have horrible stagflation for all of 2008, but Ben Bernanke will make 2009 wondrous!
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Acting President George Walker Bush revealed his new budget today for FY2009, and it’s the first to top $3 trillion! To put “$3 trillion” in perspective: that’s $30 billion times infinity, plus several billion more dollars.
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The Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate — “the” rate — by half of a percentage point today to 3%, a week after they freaked out and cut it by three-quarters of a point. Ben Bernanke and his minions indicated there may be more rate cuts on the way, too. Hooray! Eventually they can get that bitch down to 1%, then we can all buy mansions with $5 down payments and deal with the damn adjustable interest later. Because we’re all getting mansions! [AP/Breitbart]
This morning, Demrats and Republicans in Congress came to a tentative agreement on an economic stimulus package. Hosanna in the highest, everyone gets free jobs!
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The economy is crumbling and very soon we will all be dead. For example, Apple expects sales to grow by 29% in its second fiscal quarter, and Wall Street is calling this a “disappointment” (Mr. Wall Street, he said it himself). But White House demon ice queen Dana Perino tells us “the long-term fundamental health of our economy is very strong,” which should ease the fears of the growing mortgage-default hobo brigade. [AP/Yahoo]
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