And in today's economic news...

• SF Bay area housing prices to continue to fall until at least June 2010
• The so-called "housing glut" isn't, because banks and individuals are holding homes off the market "until prices go back up again".
• Car dealerships are closing their doors nationwide.
• GM sales down 16%. Honda sales down 24%. Toyota sales down 32%. Chrysler sales down 33%. Ford sales down 34%. Nissan sales down 37%.
• Manufacturing tumbles.
• Jobless claims at 7 year high.

Part of the problem is that banks aren't lending because they're in a liquidity trap, having to hang on to their cash in order to cover losses from the housing meltdown in order to keep their reserves above the point where the FDIC swoops in and takes them over. Thus the part of the bailout legislation that temporarily lowers reserve requirements to 0%. Without access to cheap loans, people aren't buying cars, or homes, or much of anything that's a big ticket item. The other part of the problem is that over 700,000 Americans have lost their jobs over the last calendar year and they simply can't afford to buy anything...

Can we all agree, now, that something's bad wrong? I'm with Paul Krugman, who, I might add, has been right about pretty much, well, everything these past eight years. The bailout bill currently in Congress is ugly, nasty, and not the best that could be done, but the economy is on fire and adults need to do something and this is something. The national conversation sounds like some kind of pathetic encounter group, "well I am angry about this, well I am angry about that, well you did this to me, well you did that to me," yada yada yada. Grow up people. We need action. You don’t have time for all this blaming and ideological one-upmanship.

-- Badtux the Economy Penguin