The recession is really over. The only reason you don’t notice is that IT’S OVER FOR EVERYBODY ELSE EXCEPT YOU. Let’s go out and celebrate! Better still, let’s move to where these alleged better conditions exist.

Isn’t this just wonderful reporting? What a concept — something is true because it’s outside your area of direct observation so you can’t personally refute it!

I post it here because there is a better worded version. The better telling (from the second “Adam Smith” — George G.W. Goodman whose writings of 40+ years ago are the only things I’ve read about the market that have any end-to-end ring of truth about them at all — and thus are all out of print):

“Three men are stranded on a desert island and all they have is a can of tuna, but the tuna is inside the can and the men are starving. The first man, a physicist, suggests a way to make a fire hot enough to melt the can. The second is an engineer, who is thinking up a complicated slingshot that will hurl the can against a rock with enough force to puncture it. The third is an economist. He has the answer. He says, “assume a can opener.”

Economists find this funny — “I” wonder how this one-meal’s-worth-of-tuna is going to improve their situation.

Open that damn can of tuna and happy days are here again! No more recession (except in CA — see next post).

Snacks and Refreshments will be served, a fun time should be had by all..”

as an aside:
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/morgan/2009/0904.html

I was wondering when he was going to announce the good news to all the naysayers. People like me have known for a long time now that we had come out of the recession. P/E ratios are nearly back to pre-crash levels and healthy leverage is being encouraged again. I have also noticed that the boys are out early filling up the tee off slots nearly each morning again at the club and all my friends and relatives have begun to look for extra staff at their vacation homes before the holiday benefit cycle begins this fall.

Perhaps the financial media and you doomsters on this blog are failing to see that the data is indicating that we have safely passed a minor recessionary dip as our Fed chief states, just like many others we have faced and avoided in the recent past thanks to the wisdom and altruism of selfless, unappreciated patriots like Bernanke, Geithner, Snow, Summers, Paulson, Greenspan, and many others (the list goes on.)

I really can’t see just what all the fuss has been about regarding the employment numbers and consumer spending and debt. After all, I’ve been collecting bonuses for my investment banking gig without interruption since the start of this so-called crisis. Never once was I afraid for my job or my coworkers’ jobs or my career’s future. In the end, no one in my division was fired even though we had some very substantial losses and had to ask Uncle Sam for a little help along the way last year. You never certainly never heard any of us complaining about the extra workload we had to take on after the government’s nosy bureaucrats got involved.

Life has taught me that for nearly all industries – mine included – in the end, the deserving winners are duly rewarded from the proceeds of their hard work and skill, while management takes advantage of the down market to get rid of the dead wood. Perhaps overall, despite a fairly robust economy we still have to strip out a bit more of the dead wood before we get back to where we should be. Of course this process is going to be uncomfortable for a few, but if you’re like me you will do just fine.

The lesson to be gained from all this for the dead wood employee is the following: Upgrade your skills and get working. The global economy or the government doesn’t owe you an education or a living.