A FEW DAYS AGO THE GOVERNMENT HEADS AND THEIR STRATEGICALLY PLACED VOICES(IN THE MEDIA) WERE GLEEMING WITH LIES AS THEY TRIED TO CONVINCE THEIR POPULACE AND FOREIGN CREDITORS THAT AMERICA HAD ESCAPED A SEVERE RECESSION AND WAS ON THE REBOUND.
ANYONE WITH EVEN A DECENT UNDERSTANDING OF ECONOMIC EVENTS KNEW THE GOVERNMENT AND THEIR ASSOCIATES WE LYING OUTRIGHT.AMERICA WILL NOT TELL YOU THE REAL SIGNIFIGANCE OF HER LOSSES UNTIL HER COMPLETE FALL.ONE LIE AFTER ANOTHER.EACH LIE TOLD IS TO COVER THE ONE TOLD RIGHT BEFORE.
I WANT YOU TO SEE JUST HOW GOOD HER ECONOMY IS DOING.PLEASE VIEW THESE ARTICLES BELOW.—1.)”Consumer fears smack stocks
Worries about consumer spending and the global economy send Wall Streeters to the exits after stocks rallied 50% in five months.
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See all CNNMoney.com RSS FEEDS (close) By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: August 17, 2009: 10:51 AM ET

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks slumped Monday on fears that nervous consumers will limit the strength of any economic recovery, giving investors a reason to retreat after a five-month rally.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 180 points, or 1.9% nearly 90 minutes into the session. The S&P 500 (SPX) index fell 22 points, or 2.2%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 48 points, or 2.4%.

Stock declines were broad based, with 27 of 30 Dow stocks sliding, led by IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil (XOM, Fortune 500) and 3M (MMM, Fortune 500).

The CBOE Volatility (VIX) index, also known as the Vix, Wall Street’s so-called fear gauge, spiked 16% in morning trading, signaling a bigger stock pullback could be brewing.

A roughly five-month rally hit a roadblock last week after a worse-than-expected consumer sentiment report Friday. Signs that the economy is stabilizing — combined with extraordinary amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus — have more or less lifted stocks since March, with the S&P 500 gaining 50%.

“People are worried we’ve run too far, too fast and that we still have a long way to go in terms of the economy,” said Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams. “There are concerns about a double-dip recession.”

While the housing and manufacturing sectors have started to stabilize, a weak labor market and higher oil and gas prices have kept consumers on the sidelines. With consumer spending fueling roughly two-thirds of economic growth, participation is necessary for a bigger economic recovery to take hold.

On Monday, Lowe’s (LOW, Fortune 500) reported a worse-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit. The home improvement retailer also issued a second-half outlook that is short of analysts’ estimates. Shares plunged 10% and dragged down other retailers.

U.S. investors were also reacting to a plunge in global stock markets.

In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei index plunged 3.1% after a report showed the economy emerged from recession in the second quarter, but analysts said that the outlook was choppy.

China’s main index slumped almost 6% on worries about a stock market bubble.

In Europe, major markets all fell around 1.5% in afternoon trading.

Manufacturing: The hard-hit sector continues to show signs of improvement. On Monday, the Empire State Manufacturing survey, a measure of activity in the New York area, rose to 12.1 in August versus a reading of negative 0.6 in July, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Any reading that is positive shows expansion in the sector.

Bonds: Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.50% from 3.56% Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

0:00 /01:49’My personal recession isn’t over’
Other markets: U.S. light crude oil for September delivery fell $2.06 to $65.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $15.40 to $933.30 an ounce.

In currency trading, the dollar gained versus the euro and fell against the Japanese yen.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners by two to one on volume of 350 million shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers six to one on volume of 590 million shares.

First Published: August 17, 2009: 9:44 AM ET”
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Colonial BancGroup and Pennsylvania thrift shut

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WASHINGTON (AP) – Regulators on Friday shut down Colonial BancGroup Inc., a big lender in real estate development that marked the biggest U.S. bank failure this year, and a small bank in Pennsylvania.

The closures boosted to 74 the number of federally insured banks that have failed in 2009.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial, with about $25 billion in assets, and Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, located in Pittsburgh. The agency approved the sale of Colonial’s $20 billion in deposits and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp., which is based in Winston-Salem, N.C. The failed bank’s 346 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas will reopen at the normal times starting on Saturday as offices of BB&T, the FDIC said.

Dwelling House had $13.4 million in assets and $13.8 million in deposits as of March 31. PNC Bank, part of Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc., has agreed to assume all of Dwelling House’s deposits and about $3 million of its assets; the FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.

Dwelling House’s lone office in Pittsburgh will reopen Monday as a branch of PNC Bank, the FDIC said.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the deposit insurance fund from the failure of Dwelling House will be $6.8 million. The failure of Colonial is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $2.8 billion.

The 74 bank failures nationwide this year compare with 25 last year and three in 2007.

As the economy has soured – with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring – bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. It now stands at its lowest level since 1993, $13 billion as of the first quarter.

While losses on home mortgages may be leveling off, delinquencies on commercial real estate loans remain a hot spot of potential trouble, FDIC officials say. If the recession deepens, defaults on the high-risk loans could spike. Many regional banks hold large numbers of them.

The number of banks on the FDIC’s list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter – the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis – from 252 in the fourth quarter. The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013.

The May closing of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the insurance fund $4.9 billion, the second-largest hit since the financial crisis began. The costliest was the July 2008 seizure of big California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion.

The largest U.S. bank failure ever also came last year: Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. fell in September, with about $307 billion in assets. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion in a deal brokered by the FDIC.

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other general financial news

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• Sears, Kmart launch Christmas Club card
• SEC extends comment period on short-selling
• Isle of Capri Casinos names Hausler senior VP
• Reader’s Digest to file for Chapter 11 protection
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• NY AG suing Charles Schwab over securities sales
• Analyst Note: August containerboard prices firm
• A look at economic developments around the globe

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3.)”Consumer prices in largest annual fall since ’50
Government’s key inflation gauge unchanged in July after a 0.7% rise the month before.
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Last Updated: August 14, 2009: 10:12 AM ET

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The government’s index of prices paid by consumers was unchanged in July from the previous month, but the closely watched inflation gauge recorded its largest over-the-year decline in 59 years.

The Labor Department said Friday that its Consumer Price Index has fallen 2.1% over the past 12 months. It was the sharpest over-the-year drop since January 1950, when CPI fell at the same rate.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast a 2% decline.

The decline was led by a sharp drop in energy prices, which are down 28.1% from July 2008, when both gasoline and oil prices were at record highs.

But if you factor out volatile energy and food prices — which is known as the Core CPI — consumer prices rose 1.5% on an annual basis.

On a monthly basis, Core CPI gained 0.1% in July while the basic CPI was unchanged. Both measures matched economists’ expectations.

“The drop in CPI is mainly due to lower gasoline prices and lower grocery store prices,” said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Economics Group.

Gas prices fell 0.4% in July after surging 17.2% the month before. The index of food prices was down 0.3% in July, and has fallen 1.8% over the last 12 months.

“Lower food prices are good news for consumers and should help free up some discretionary dollars for other purchases,” Vitner said.

Friday’s report indicates that inflation is not a threat to the economy and that the Federal Reserve will not have to raise interest rates any time soon, Vitner said.

“The fact that inflation is well behaved means the Fed has more latitude to hold rates at current levels for as long as they need to,” he said.

The U.S. central bank said Wednesday that it expects “inflation will remain subdued for some time” and said that rates will remain near zero percent “for an extended period.”

First Published: August 14, 2009: 8:44 AM ET”
4.)”Bleak sales are another reality check for economy
Retail sales bleak for July, reinforcing fears consumers won’t spend the economy to recovery
By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
On Thursday August 13, 2009, 10:10 pm EDT
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A bleak report on retail sales Thursday reinforced a nagging worry of economists: Shoppers won’t spend enough to help a recovery take hold.

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TGT 41.55 -0.48

WMT 51.67 -0.12

{“s” : “tgt,wmt”,”k” : “c10,l10,p20,t10″,”o” : “”,”j” : “”} The figures served as a reality check for an economy that lately has appeared poised to emerge from recession and grow again. Consumer spending powers about 70 percent of economic activity.

The Cash for Clunkers rebate program helped give auto sales to their biggest jump in six months in July, but sales sank elsewhere. Gas stations, department stores, electronics outlets and furniture stores all suffered.

Overall, sales fell 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department said, after two months of modest gains. Economists had expected a 0.7 percent increase. Excluding autos, sales fell 0.6 percent, also much worse than predicted.

Unemployment, flat wages, tighter credit, fear of layoffs and to urge to save more have caused many consumers to spend less. Shrinking home equity and stock portfolios have compounded the problem.

As a result, “Households are in no position to drive a decent economic recovery,” Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients.

Even Wal-Mart, which had managed to post robust sales during the recession, reported an unexpected drop in quarterly earnings. The company faulted lower prices for groceries and other products. But it warned that the economy is also still forcing customers to scale back their purchases.

The latest figures came just a day after the Federal Reserve said the economy appeared to be “leveling out.” The Fed, signaling the recession appears to be ending, said it would hold interest rates at their current record lows.

Meanwhile, the number of newly laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits for the first time rose last week, the government said, in another sign of a weak job market. And for those who still have jobs, fear of losing them can cause them to spend less.

“The dismal job situation is the dark storm cloud hanging over consumers,” said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.

In the one bright spot in the retail sales report, Cash for Clunkers pushed auto sales up 2.4 percent in July. The popular program offers drivers up to $4,500 to trade in older vehicles and buy new, more fuel-efficient models.

But some analysts people buying cars under Cash for Clunkers might be holding that money back from other sectors of the economy where they might otherwise spend it.

Some of Europe’s largest economies also benefited from government programs to support the auto industry. Germany and France returned to economic growth in the second quarter, raising hopes the recession will end throughout Europe sooner than thought.

In the United States, weak retail sales were widespread in July. One gauge that excludes autos, gas and building materials fell slightly, the fifth straight month of declines.

Department store sales fell 1.6 percent last month. And the broader category of general merchandise stores, which includes big chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., dropped 0.8 percent.

Gas station sales plunged 2.1 percent in July — more because of falling prices at the pump than shrinking demand.

A separate report Thursday showed that even as home prices and sales are stabilizing, record foreclosures are persisting. The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent in July.

Foreclosure filings were up by nearly one-third from the year before, according to RealtyTrac Inc. More than 360,000 households — one in every 355 homes — received some type of foreclosure notice.

On Wall Street, stocks rose modestly. The Dow Jones industrials finished up about 37 points at just above 9,398 — their highest close since the market lows of early March.

Employers cut the fewest number of jobs in July in nearly a year, and the unemployment rate fell for the first time in 15 months. But jobs remain scarce.

More than 6.2 million Americans are receiving jobless benefits, the government said Thursday, 140,000 fewer than the previous week. Counting people taking advantage of an unemployment benefits program enacted by Congress, 9.25 million people received unemployment compensation in the week that ended July 25, down about 100,000 from the week before.

While there were more initial claims than expected, the total number likely dropped because some recipients ran out of benefits and fell off the rolls, economists said.

The nonprofit National Employment Law Project has calculated that 540,000 people will exhaust their emergency benefits without finding work by the end of September. And by the end of the year, it predicts 1.5 million will run out.

That prospect has some in Congress calling for a further extension of benefits. Obama administration officials have said they would support an extension.

AP Business Writers Martin Crutsinger and Alan Zibel in Washington, and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.”