Well, they've been hinting at it for some time now. You know, "experts" in business and government have been telling us they've been seeing signs that the recession was coming to an end. Now I read that Benjamin Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has declared the recession is "very likely over." What a relief! Of course, I do wonder what indicators Bernanke was using to make his pronouncement that "happy days are here again," so to speak?

Last time I checked, which was just a few minutes ago actually, the U.S. unemployment figures for August 2009 showed nearly a 1/4 of a million Americans lost their jobs, and that nearly 1 out of every 10 American workers is, well, out of work. I hope Mr. Bernanke drops a note to those 216,000 families telling them to cheer up--the recession's over!

Actually, Bernanke better get real busy writing notes to encourage a lot more Americans about his declaration of the end of the recession. By the end of 2009 it is expected 3.4 million households will be in the process of losing their homes due to foreclosures. In August of 2009 alone the rate of foreclosures had jumped 18% compared to the same month last year. Yes sir, this end of the recession is really swell.

I'll tell you what would really worry me--if Bernanke went to work for the CDC and declared an end to the Swine Flu threat. That would be scary!

I suppose what Mr. Bernanke meant when he said the recession was at an end was that the Chinese firms high rolling American tycoons have invested in are doing well (see my blog from 9/15). That makes sense, because U.S. retailers, who mostly sell goods from China these days, reported an upturn in sales in August.

Not that I know very much, but I think a sign that the recession is over would look something like what Jesus described in Matthew 20.1-16. There a landowner (Think "wealthy businessman") could not hire enough people to get all the work done, and went out into the streets and had what amounted to a job fair four times in one day. THAT's an end to recession!
Unfortunately, there appear to be very few job fairs out there for the 10% of Americans out of work. I wonder if Mr. Bernanke, or anyone else in Washington, might do something about that?