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Utah economy slows; recession is possible

The State thought it is immune from the recession but alas, the reality is hitting them in their jam covered faces. Consumers already know the recession is here, they are debt bloated, can't afford more debt, and can't repay the debt they have. The only thing that will boost the economy is restruchering of the US credit and debt system. Stop loan sharking by banks and financial intutuions should be the first step. When consumers have no disposable income then the economy gets hurt along with investors. The disposable income of consumers has been nicely and subertly stolen from them with loan sharks to the point they can't repay. Giving them more loans and credit cards only worsens the economy as debts increase and defaulting also increases. Business does not make the economy work, consumers make the economy work, and its long overdue that the consumers need to be heard and listened to. Consumer fraud has reached its peak and limits and now its time to help the consumer, not the banks.

3.6% job GROWTH and 3.2 unemployment are pretty good numbers. Yes they're trending in the wrong direction, but to mention those numbers in the same sentence as recesion is misleading.

Recession is 0% growth, so for the economy (as judged here by year over year job growth) to slow down from 3.6% to 0% anytime soon would be very unusual. Even if things continued to slow down quickly, it will take about 5 months for us to to hit a recession (in Utah).

The economy has slowed so that means we are staring at recession?

52,500 Jobs were created last year in the state of Utah. Wages have been growing from 5-10%

Utah's unemployement has averaged 2.6%. Twice as good as the National average of 4.6

Mortgage Interest rates are hovering arount 6%.

Utah home appreciation continues to out perform any other state. 12.9% in Utah compared to National average of 1.8%

Life is good folks. But there will always be those who insist on crying. Enjoy the Jam

maybe Bush and his buddies ought to start another war somewhere to pull us out of the pending recession? Oh, aaaa....I guess we already tried that in Iraq.

Everything goes in cycles. We have ups, we have downs. So we are trending down right now in all areas; housing, jobs, etc. Not a big deal.

The DMN is no different than the rest of the media in trying to convince us that recession is at the door, as in this article, which mentioned recession in the last (and presumably least important-the one that could be cut for space reasons) paragraph. Yet the headline trumpets "Recession Possible"!

Good thing we have an economic turnaround guy in Romney, who will be elected on the promise of saving the economy.

Bob G,
So, the banks are at fault for making loans to people who are asking for them? They are the "loan sharks"? Nice use of wording in an attempt to reduce personal responsibility of the individual. It is always someone else's fault. Remind me who applied for the loan again?

CJ:

Utah LAGS the country in almost every possible measure - from employment to real estate values. All Utah has to do is look at how things are in California, and that will be Utah in a year or two. THere woul dbe no real estae boom in Utah if California hadn't had its boom first.

Only good news is bad news. Why? Because it sells papers! (or ads for those of us who read online)

I like how a slight decrease in growth become "PENDING RECESSION!!!!"
How long do you suppose we could have supported double-digit growth?

Just a technical point: two quarters of GDP decline is just a rule of thumb for a recession; a recession is actually determined by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research. They declare the month the U.S. economy enters recession, and the month the U.S. economy resumes growth. For example, the 2001 recession began in March 2001 and ended in November 2001. GDP is a quarterly series, therefore can't be used to describe something that has a monthly frequency.