24 April 2008 - 15:59We’re not in a recession. Providing you’re a millionaire.

Sales of new homes in the US fell more than expected in March to their lowest level since late-1991.
The median price of a home was down 13.3% from March 2007, which is the biggest fall since July 1970.

In other economic news, the Commerce Department said that orders for manufactured items such as fridges and washing machines from US factories fell 0.3% in March.
It means that so-called durable goods orders have fallen for three months in a row, which has not happened since 2001.

Groceries cost more. Up by 15 - 20% where I shop.
Gas prices increase on a daily basis.
We’re bailing out Bears Stern because they made bad investments that they should have known were bad.
The banks were deregulated, and now the multi-billion dollar funds are whining about the results of their own greed.

Anyone who thinks that home buyers who got in on a short term low interest, or nothing down loan, or took a contract with interest only payments, could afford a doubled mortgage payment is either stupid or too greedy for their own good.

Somehow I don’t believe investment bankers and fund managers are stupid.
Not that it matters. They have all those friends in high places to bail them out.

Now who’s going to bail out those of us who are caught in the aftereffects of the rich trying to get richer?

The good news is that the Labor Department announced that the number of newly laid-off workers claiming unemployment benefit fell 33,000 last week to 342,000.
– Only 342,000 jobs lost. This certainly sounds like good news to me.