Yahoo! Finance Article – Why This Recession Seems Worse Than ’70s and ’80s

Yahoo! Finance Article – Foreclosures fall from December to January

Yahoo! News Article – U.S. January foreclosures fall: RealtyTrac

Yahoo! Finance Article – U.S. retail sales unexpectedly up 1 percent

Turn on the news and you will hear how we are in a recession and on the verge of another Great Depression. “The current situation has nothing in common with the Great Depression,” says economist Steve Hanke of the Cato Institute and Johns Hopkins University. “The sooner they [in Washington] stop spinning the bad news story and say nothing, the sooner we’ll be more confident.”

You probably have not heard the news that foreclosure went down since last month. There actually was a drop in foreclosures from December 2008 to January 2009. We are all being bombarded with negative words and predictions daily. David Jones, CEO of DMJ Advisors, is among those who see “hints of stability.” By that he means, the rate of decline in areas like retail appear to be slowing. “We’ll see the same thing happening on the housing side in the next couple months,” says Jones.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales rose 1 percent in January, advancing for the first time in seven months.

“I’m just waiting for the shift in people’s expectations,” says Chris Rupkey of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. We have all watched the stock market rise and fall in a day, so dramatically based on fear of the unknown, have heard what the President is saying or not saying, and have kept up with the status of the stimulus plan. Yes, there has been a rise in unemployment since last year, but it is not as bad as everyone is claiming . We have heard that this is like the 70’s, but even though the sharp decline in payrolls over the past three months has been stunning, it is not as bad on a percentage basis as one period in 1974-1975, according to David Resler, chief economist at Nomura International. Resler says the economy would have to lose some 767,000 jobs a month over a three-month period from the current employment level to match that miserable performance.
Home foreclosure filings in January totaled 274,399, down 10 percent from December according to RealtyTrac’s (an online market of foreclosure properties) U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. The report depends on who you are listening to and I know for every bit of information in this article that I quoted there are other news stories saying doom and gloom things with no glimmer of hope.

Interesting thought – we can either speak good things over the economy or bad things. In Proverbs 18:21 of the New King James Version it says:

I also love the Message Bible translation of Proverbs 18:21. It says:

What are you choosing to say over the economy, your finances and your job? I am speaking good things over all of it. This goes beyond just being positive or looking on the bright side. We should speak “The Truth” in our lives. The truth comes from the Word of God!

The truth is found in Philippians 4:19 of New King James Version:

Another truth is found in Luke 6:38 in the New King James Version:

We all need to remember even in these times where the world is uncertain, when we give it will be given back to us. God’s children should still be giving and be in faith that their seed is multiplying.

The truth is that fear does not come from God. In 2 Timothy 1:7 of the New King James Version it says:

Personally, I am going to keep looking up to God who is Jehovah Jireh, My Provider ( Genesis 22:14). As the song goes I cannot be moved. Jesus is my Rock and Salvation (Psalm 62:2) and I shall not fear!

LD