Explaining Away the Recession

The Recession is Here has some good points to confirm a recession, but some can also be explained. 1. Decline in tax receipts. That is mostly from the decline of home values and may not extend into the general economy. 2. A weak transportation industry. Summer is usually the lows for transportation stocks and the US recently opened the border to Mexico trucks. 3. Apple cut the price of their iPod by 30 percent because inventory was building up. Apple does extensive price and customer research. With Christmas coming up they determined what parents would pay. An initial profit margin of over 50% was not sustainable in such a competitive market. 4. Auto manufacturers who are offering 0 percent financing, again, for 60 months. Auto manufacturers have been struggling for a long time. 5. Over 150 mortgage companies have either shut down or filed for bankruptcy. Yes this is a lot of people out of work. 6. Real estate agents could really begin to feel the effects of a downturn. And these workers can not seek unemployment along with the many undocumented construction workers. 7. The Bureau of Labor Statistics ("BLS") household survey showed a drop of 360,000 jobs in the September report for August. Not a lot of jobs available for the mortgage brokers or real estate agents. These workers could weigh on the economy but are not enough to confirm a recession.