An indication of coming inflation has always been the gold, if it raises quickly it is not a good sign.

It's just a numbers cruch as far as I can see right now. I see a lot of sectors pointing to the positive aspects of the economy while ignoring the negatives.

Gold is rising, Oil is rising, income flat, housing tanking, consumer confidence low, manufacturing low; all this is a good indication of a recession, but with the meddling by the government it will be avoided. I am not sure that I aqgree with the free market thing.

There is no free market if there is intervention by the government.IMO.

True that, then it becomes state capitalism, markets controlled by the state.

The latest report calmed some investor's nerves. But it seems that the round the jobs off to the nearst 100,000. That seems to be a popular number, it appears a lot in the stats.


Did the Federal Reserve really need to cut rates a hefty 50 basis points on Sept. 18? Policymakers' case for a jumbo easing was diminished by the September U.S. employment report released on Oct. 5. While the gain in headline nonfarm payrolls of 110,000 on the month was right in line with market expectations, the real shocker came in the revision to August's figure. Recall that the decline of 4,000 jobs originally reported for August was seen as the catalyst for the central bank's big rate cut. Well, that figure was revised by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to a gain of 89,000 in the September report.


LINK

Investor's are manipulating the government into giving them more favorable interest rates. IMO.

IMO, the last rate cut was more trying to curb a possible recession in about 12 months than anything. The Fed has another meeting on 26 Oct and will be interesting to see what they will do.

Here is how they determine the free market.


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Major banks including Citigroup Inc are looking at setting up a roughly $80 billion fund to buy ailing mortgage securities and other assets, in a bid to prevent the credit crunch from further hurting the global economy, sources familiar with the matter said.

Representatives from the U.S. Treasury have organized conversations among top global banks, sources said, as financial institutions grow increasingly concerned that a certain type of investment fund linked to banks may have to dump billions of dollars of repackaged loans onto financial markets.


LINK

Something is up. Nobody seemed to want to comment.

Because of thye way this system is worked, a recession is ALWAYS lurking and the govt enacts several different tactics to control the impact. Ask a normal person if there is a recession and they will say YES. Everything is more expensive and their wages are flat. Pretty much sounds like it to me. The investors are the only ones that see a clear future.

Failed loans are a loss to any lending institution, so the cost will be passed to the consumer, only they won't realize it.

This is one of the problems I have. The govt is bailing out the industry, why should the ppl be forced to pay higher rates. we are already paying for it throught our taxes.

I can say I'm not too happy about the government considering any type of bailout. The people who signed on the dotted line are responsible for their actions. IMO.

Without the buy out the market would tanlk and Bush would be seen as the resurrection of Coolidge. In the past they tried to make bankruptcy all but impossible and they are so afraid that the mortgage thing will push millions to declare. Did you now that foreclosures were up 99% over 2006?