The U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007, a committee of economists at the private National Bureau of Economic Research said.  I chuckled as I read it.  Chuckled more as I reviewed the housing data!  I remember GW saying "Who says gas is going to hit $3 a gallon?" last year.   How information gets offloaded to us via the media is truly laughable.  All economic data and analysis is "rear view mirror" oriented.  They do a great job commenting on what happened, but haven't a clue as to how to describe where we currently are and what is five feet in front of us. 

Imagine if a sports team's PR department issued data on there team based on last seasons results.  It's official, after reviewing our 0-10 record last season, we are definitely in a rebuilding mode.  BUT...while we haven't played any games for the upcoming season, we are likely to have 10 opportunities to win, and could possibly improve upon our record because it's impossible to have a worse record than we had last year.

Brilliant.  I love the "data" that is trickling in on the big shopping weekend of late.  The poor dead Walmart worker who was trampled was used by one news agency as evidence that there is "pent up consumer demand" and "numbers should be better than expected."

Hey, let's get real for a moment.  We are in the first innings of an economic cluster screw.  Deny reality all you want, but it is going to take some years to plow through this mess!  If you sit down at a poker game, and you can't identify the sucker...grab a mirror!