Maybe We're Already In A Recession

The OECD, a leading economic think tank, has warned about this for some time. There's a perfect storm here between subprime mortgages, the credit crunch, stock market volatility and a complete crash in the housing sector. And now it's starting to hit people where it hurts.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Job growth came to a screeching halt in August, the Labor Department said Friday. Nonfarm payrolls contracted by 4,000 in August. This was the first decline in payrolls since August 2003. The decline was much weaker than than the 115,000 increase expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.6% in August from the previous month.

Look at the three-month trends here.



Bonddad points out that most of the losses in August were in the manufacturing sector, which translates into housing. Clearly the Fed will be cutting interest rates at their next session, but the question is will that matter?