Is it really that bad? Nope...

Comment by Maureen Sharib on February 9, 2009 at 12:12pm: Look at that 30 year mortgage figure of 18.5% You think we have problems? As bad as that was, I was starting my own real estate brokerage in those years and I hardly remember the pain...I was first licensed in the mid-seventies and hardly remember any barriers. So, like Steve seems to be saying - this too shall pass.

Comment by Jim Durbin on February 9, 2009 at 1:35pm: Nope. end of the world. Massive catastrophe. 500 million jobs lost a month.

We need to DO something.

I know we've spent the last eight years overspending, overconsuming, running up massive government and household deficits, while making it more difficult to run a business

My solution, is to do even more of that. More regulation, more spending, more borrowing, and definitely more doom and gloom reporting. What could possibly go wrong?

Comment by Maureen Sharib on February 9, 2009 at 2:06pm: "500 million jobs a month"? Isn't that Pelosi-speak?

Comment by Jeff Newman on February 9, 2009 at 2:17pm: Hey-- "This to shall pass" is my line. Second, what is the misery index? I can add to that!

Comment by Steve Levy on February 9, 2009 at 2:23pm: Thanks for pointing this out Jeff - Misery Index

Comment by Jim Durbin on February 9, 2009 at 2:34pm: Compare the unemployment in past recessions:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDJhYTZmMDRmNWNkMTI4MGE4YTMxOWVkNWQwZjQzNmY=

Note the difference in the graph Pelosi is using to push the stimulus and the one that compares apples to apples with past recessions.

Comment by Jeff Newman on February 9, 2009 at 2:38pm: I am the master of the obvious! Plus, again, I say Misery Index? I haven't had a cigarette in 64 days, I am on a diet and I couldn't get Tickets for Phish!

Comment by Steve Levy on February 9, 2009 at 2:52pm: JD - great link and great job with the data. As always, words are cheap - show me the numbers.

Sad how some can never see this...

Comment by Maureen Sharib on February 10, 2009 at 9:53am: OBAMA: "We also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression."

THE FACTS: This could turn out to be the case. But as bad as the economic numbers are, the unemployment figures have not reached the levels of the early 1980s, let alone the 1930s — yet. A total of 598,000 payroll jobs vanished in January — the most in nearly 35 years — and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 from 7.2 percent the month before. The most recent high was 7.8 percent in June 1992.

And the jobless rate was 10.8 percent in November and December 1982. Unemployment in the Great Depression ranged for several years from 25 percent to close to 30 percent.