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Comment by Volundr | Hacker News Reader

I have a number of home improvement projects that I had planned on tackling this year, but I've decided I prefer those funds liquid. Same with getting a newer car. While nothings harmed my economic situation yet my confidence in pretty much everything, the stability of the job market, the economy, the country itself it at an all time low.

Even here in red state territory that seems to be the general vibe.

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^ This * millions of people = recession

100%, and yet I don't think I can rationally act differently. It's not like if I just keep on like everything is normal that'll save the economy. It'll just put me in a worse spot if what I'm expecting does indeed come to pass.

This is exactly right. If you’re old enough, you might recall George W. Bush insisting people should go shopping; the point was to encourage people to spend their way out of his recession. Didn’t work!

The encouragement was mostly post-9/11 and the recession ended in November, so if it wasn't effective, it sure at least coincided with recovery.

(The recession started in March, well before 9/11, but the attempt to encourage shopping to deal with the perceived problem was a post-9/11 thing.)

The Bush recession is often perceived as longer and deeper than it was because of the poor distribution of gains (in part due to the tax burden shift of the Bush tax cuts) of the expansion that started in late 2001 and ended with the Great Recession.

I think it's a fair assessment that we're in some sort of recession now. Things have been shaky for a while now, but it's getting hard to ignore the cracks, especially with the drops in the most inflated housing markets.

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