I was told that by Bloomberg.com:

In another sign the worst of the U.S. recession is over, a gauge of current conditions showed the economy steadied last month.The Conference Board’s coincident index was unchanged in July after falling in 17 of the 19 months since the contraction started in December 2007, figures from the New York-based private research group showed yesterday. The more closely watched gauge of leading indicators, which shows the outlook for the next three to six months, climbed for a fourth month.

The coincident index tracks payrolls, incomes, sales and production, which — combined with gross domestic product –are the same measures used by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based National Bureau of Economic Research to determine when contractions begin and end. The NBER announced the current recession, the deepest since the 1930s, had started one year after the fact.

Do any of you buy this crap?  I mean does you life seem to be getting better?  We keep getting good economic indicators and all the pundits want to call the recession over….but I have a problem with the so called experts and their opinions.

To me we have a statistical recovery at best……but there is no recovery inreality.  By reality I am talking about the indicators like forclosures, unemployment and consumer confidence these are no where near recovery levels.

Unfortunately for us on Main Street…we are forced to live in reality and reality is telling me that our short term future still sucks!

In case no one is paying attention:

When 2008 census data is released next month, it is expected to show a dramatic increase in the number of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance, according to Rebecca Blank, undersecretary of economic affairs for the Commerce Department.

The number living below the official poverty threshold increased in 2008 by 1.5 million people to 38.8 million, a number equivalent to 12.7 percent of the population, the census is expected to show.

The poverty rate is telling, but it is far from the only measure of the impoverishment of broad sections of the population. According to the Center for American Progress, between June 2007 and December 2008, personal wealth declined in the US by nearly 23 percent, the sharpest decline on record—far more than the 12 percent decline triggered by the oil crisis of 1973-1974. Family wealth declined by a similar proportion, wiping out some $15 trillion.

Just another indication of how bad reality is on Main Street…….thanx to Tom Eley of wsws.org.