To Call It Recession Or Not

It was reported today that oil had reached 100.88 a barrel by the news on line. The president of Excel Futures Inc stated: "The weak dollar seems to be the biggest catalyst for this boost." Yet I do not recall any mention of it by the, so called political experts today on the television news. Nope, not one single word was mentioned on CNN or MSNBC about the price of oil barrel jumped. Nor did anyone say anything about the weak American dollar being the biggest catalyst, as if it were the cause.

While browsing the Internet news I found more information on the home sales declining even as the price of homes have dramatically dropped. In fact it was mentioned that across the nation home prices did drop significantly in most metro areas. J.W. ELPHINSTONE AP Business Writer wrote in her article: "A government report Tuesday said U.S. home prices posted their first annual decline in 16 years."

ABC on line money news: NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosures for January increased 57 percent from a year earlier, ... "January's foreclosure numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states," James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, said in a statement.

Also in the news stores like Home Depot are reporting a decline in their profits with a drop in their annual sales. While stores that are not usually effected since the people who shop there are better well off like Nordstrom had to admit that their profit drops and sales declined at the year end of 2007. Nordstrom is expected to brace for a tough 2008 sales report as people are now holding back on spending.

David J. Lynch of Waterloo, Ontario wrote an article of how the slump in the American Housing is starting to effect Canada. Since we are not buying as much lumber as we normally do from the Canadians, they are starting to experience the cold chill of the economic slow down reality. "More than three-quarters of Canada's exports — including oil, minerals, lumber and passenger vehicles — are sold to Americans. The U.S. housing collapse already has slashed sales of Canadian lumber."

So after seven years of Bush and Republican policies with drops in profits and sales with Up and down swings in the Stock Market can we say this is a recession, or are we still waiting?