Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference

Across the U.S., Long Recovery Looks Like Recession

Excerpt:

In Atlanta, the Bank of America tower, the tallest in the Southeast, is nearly a fifth vacant, and bank officials just wrestled a rent cut from the developer. In Cherry Hill, N.J., 10 percent of the houses on the market are so-called short sales, in which sellers ask for less than they owe lenders. And in Arizona, in sun-blasted desert subdivisions, owners speak of hours cut, jobs lost and meals at soup kitchens.

Less than a month before November elections, the United States is mired in a grim New Normal that could last for years. That has policy makers, particularly the Federal Reserve, considering a range of ever more extreme measures, as noted in the minutes of its last meeting, released Tuesday. Call it recession or recovery, for tens of millions of Americans, there’s little difference.

Born of a record financial collapse, this recession has been more severe than any since the Great Depression and has left an enormous oversupply of houses and office buildings and crippling debt. The decision last week by leading mortgage lenders to freeze foreclosures, and calls for a national moratorium, could cast a long shadow of uncertainty over banks and the housing market. Put simply, the national economy has fallen so far that it could take years to climb back.

Comment: NYTimes graphic associated with the article.

Remember the James Carville quote?

You can file this one either in the, "Just Too Rich for Words," or the, "How Do You Spell Irony?"categories. James Carville, who famously created the Bill Clinton campaign catch phrase, "It's the economy stupid," is quoted today at Politico:

"It's gotta feel good to get out of the fetal position," said former Bill Clinton adviser James Carville. "You have to try something, right? You can't just talk about the economy.