The administration is proclaiming that the recession is over because they are reporting a tiny increase (maybe?) in GNP for the third quarter. But other facts tell a different story.
In the third quarter, 39,800,000 people were living below the poverty line ($22,025 for a family of four). This is the highest level of poverty in eleven years. These folks cannot be expected to drive up consumer spending which accounts for two-thirds of all the economy.
In 2008, 46,300,000 Americans had no health insurance, up from 31,000,000 in 1987. A substantial number of these people will have no choice but to use hospital emergency rooms for medical care, further driving up health care costs.
And 15 million people remain unemployed and another 15 million, or so, are either underemployed working shorter hours or have simply given up looking. Five of the 15 million will run out of unemployment benefits in the next few months.
End of the recession? Hardly!
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