Welcome to the recession

The National Bureau of Economic Research is generally accepted as the authority for determining the periods of recessions within the United States. Today, it announced what most individuals have already suspected, which is that the US economy has been in a recession since December 2007. So now the question is, how long will the economy remain in the doldrums?

The US Government is trying to spend its way out of the recession, and has been throwing US taxpayer money at almost everyone who is holding their hands out. The spending frenzy is going to get worse, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promising today to have a $500 billion dollar stimulus package ready for incoming President Obama to sign in January. When you combine that with the $800 billion TARP bill, the $180 billion stimulus package from earlier this year, and other irresponsible spending by Congress, it is likely that the total increase to the national debt will be on the order of fifteen to twenty percent over a two year period. The US is spending way beyond its means, and sadly, the US taxpayers are on the hook for every cent of it.