Thursday announcement that GDP grew at a 1.9% pace in the second quarter was largely discredited today as job losses continue to mount with non-farm payrolls dropping by 51,000 jobs. First time unemployment applications were up over 400K and the unemployment rate shot up to a 4 year high of 5.7% in July. This underlines the fact that economic conditions continue to worsen despite the GDP ‘growth’, much of which was derived by virtue of people taking their economic stimulus checks and spending them on goods and services. Unfortunately, for the most part, the checks are now spent and consumers are no better off than they were before. Their debt is still there, their home prices are still falling and their cost of living keeps increasing. Those are the drivers of this recession. When these conditions improve, then it will warrant a step back and a new look. Until then, the song remains the same.
Our contraryinvestorscafe.com ‘Soap Box’ interview on bailouts has been posted – Click the link below to listen to this thought-provoking monologue:

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