Are We In A Recession?

A Car-Sales Indicator Suggests a Recession Is Near or Already Here - New York Times:

If a recession is under way, this economic recovery will have been the least beneficial one ever for the new-car dealers. The best inflation-adjusted year-over-year increase in their revenue during the recovery was 6.9 percent, far below the peaks of other recoveries.

There is, of course, no mystery now as to what the problems are for car dealers. They are pinched by the slumping real estate market because people can take less money out of home equity to buy cars. And soaring gasoline prices have made driving much more expensive and new-car payments more burdensome. In July, sales at gasoline stations accounted for 10 percent of all retail sales, the highest figure in decades.

Dealers are hurting. The rest of us may soon share their pain.

So it would seem. I can tell you that in my neck of the woods recession has been evident for some time (we never got out of the last one here in upstate New York).

Ironically, I happen to be in the market for a new car and have ordered a Honda Fit to arrive sometime in October. That doesn't mean much for the local area since I've returned to work for the state and no longer sink or swim with the local economy. It was while in the private sector that I became unemployed despite (because of?) a technical background and two decades of experience.

The lack of media coverage on the economy is directly proportional to the same lack of media coverage of everything else that points to the dismal record of the current administration in everything it touches. When the damn bursts, the overflow of bad news will be astonishing. That's my prediction. And the damn will break. The cracks are leaking all ready.