whidbey

How Bad Will the Recession Get?

very enjoyable. I do economic consulting and I have attempted to help my national clients to understand that recessions are never uniform in a market, however defined. They do "roll around slowly". The governmental entities are disbelieving of the impacts of real estate on tax revenues, and they marvel what happens to sales tax revenues (both are falling in most jurisdictions), but they are not interested in cutting spending before they are "sure" the slow down will "really effect" them. I have lost hope that public and private executives will ever be interested in forecasts based on current trends. This recession will take a while to educate the decision makers - who are making things worse by refusing to adjust spending to the falling revenues. Corporate clients are more sensitive to sales and earnings, but worry over market share losses. I think the US Treasury and Fed are little more rational.