will the US Economy go into recession in 2008?

[opebo]

BTW: Does anyone know what President Bush's stimulus package consists of? All I know is that he was going to release one but that's all I've heard.

Yes, its just ideological crap like tax cuts.  Any sensible economist will tell you that the most stimulous is caused by increased unemployment benefits, food stamps, and other payments to the poorest.  Of course it disturbs Bush and his ilk to think that such will ever get anything.

As for the poll question, the US has been in an overall recession as many have said for at least a few months, and of course in terms of the condition of workers for 30 years.

[opebo]

The United States is already in a recession and has been since late last year in my personal opinion. However it will get even worse this year.

Slowdown yes, but the national economy must have two consecutive quarters of negative growth (a receeding, not a slowdown from prior gains) to have a recession.

That's what I say and that is correct....but that definition is generally retroactive, unless of course you have a reccesion, not a slow down for several quarters (more than 2). I, personally think that we will be in a slow down until the 4th quarter and will stay in a reccesion until the 3rd quarter of 2009. We will then have a weak economy for 2 or 3 years and then will have another reccesion or boom by 2011 or 2012.

Now, I wonder what will happen if we only have a slow down (the economy just levels out or recovers)... will this create reccession-proof economy or simply make our bubble bigger...

Recession proof?  Thats probably impossible.

You will always get a relative bust after a relative boom...the main goal is two fold, to make the relative bust not as bad as the relative boom was good, and to make the bust shorter in time than the boom...thus...over time, the economy has strong long term growth.

In a sense, busts aren't horrible because they force policy makers and economic players to revaluate the economy and fix things that don't work well.

Busts aren't horrible if you're an owner, Bullmoose - you simply loose a little, or make a little less, or put off 'playing the game' for a bit.  For the working class of course the booms merely mean they have a job, and can survive.  For these the busts can mean something rather frightful - no job.  They then face dire straights immediately, up to and including homelessness.

[opebo]

It's great to learn from mistakes, but you should really try to avoid them in the first place. Right, opebo?

Well, to all appearances, government economic policy is intended to create booms and busts, so perhaps they really don't consider this to be a mistake.

[opebo]

Real earnings have had to come down quite a bit for most people, Wakie, in order to redistribute that income to the top 1%.

[opebo]

This could actually suck quite a bit... tons of credit and a lack of raises do this type of thing.

Standard poor (right-wing) economic policy, easily solved by unionization and income redistribution.