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Capitol Report
Jul 5, 2009, 7:00 a.m. EST
A second half recovery is suddenly not a sure thing
An end to the green-shoot rally?
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For months, policymakers from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on down told investors that a second-half recovery was a safe bet.
Investors, optimists by nature (na, na! - A.L.), eventually bought in.
But now, even though the second half has actually arrived, the curtain on the recovery has so far remained down and questions are being raised on whether it will go up at all.
Suddenly notable economists say the whole thing might not happen. Others, including Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, predict the curtain may go up for a brief period but then go crashing back down.
What gives?
It turns out the "consensus" of a second half recovery was never very solid. (Ach was? - A.L.)
"It is worth noting that there remains a wider-than-usual variance among our panelists about the prospects for economic growth over the forecast horizon," the Blue Chip Financial Forecasts said.
What that means is that, while the consensus of a 2.8% growth rate by the second half of the year looks pretty good, it turns out that that this estimate just masks a dog-fight between economists.
One camp of optimistic economists sees growth averaging 3.8% from June through December. A pessimistic camp sees growth closer to an anemic 1.8%. [5 % Prognose-Spanne, beachtlich - A.L.]
Pessimists believe that the financial crisis is re-writing the history books.
"Unlike after the last three recessions, this time government cannot fire up the economy and a new speculative bubble, and then back off and let the bubble generate the paper wealth and credit to keep profits flowing into the business sector and the economy expanding," David Levy, chairman of The Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, wrote in his latest forecast released this week.
Consumers are simply too broke, he said.
The process of paying off debt is not simply a headwind for growth, "it is like being towed backward," Levy said.
Optimists note that historically, deep recessions have been followed by strong recoveries.[Historisch folgten auf kalte Winter auch oft warme Sommer, außer zu Beginn der Eiszeit - A.L.]
"I feel this boat changing course ever so slowly. We think there will be positive growth in the second half," said Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, in an interview.
Home sales are beginning to bottom out as consumers have been sitting on the sidelines for three years, he said.
The consumer is going to bring the economy back by buying homes and cars, he said. [Widerspruch zu oben, fett/rot]
The doom and gloom crowd received a boost on Friday when the June unemployment report arrived with no silver lining.
Almost a half a million new jobs were lost, the unemployment rate hit a 26-year high, and hours and wages were sluggish.
The job report may signal the end to the "green shoot rally," said economists at Wachovia Economics Group.
"There is only so far 'less bad' economic news can take us. A sustainable recovery will require things to actually get better," the Wachovia team said.
But other economists insist that the "eye of the storm" has passed, in the words of the economic team from HIS Global Insight.
The government will release its first estimate of second-quarter economic performance later this month.
At the moment, the best guess of economists is for a contraction at about a 1.5% annual rate.
That's not so great, but an improvement from the 5.5% decline in the first three months of the year.
Also this month, the Fed and the Obama administration will have to weigh in with their latest forecasts.
Economist Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute in New York, laughed about the concern about the recession.
Achuthan noted that an ECRI gauge of future U.S. economic growth has turned positive, putting an end of the recession in sight.
The recession will end and the expansion will begin somewhere between the second and third quarters, Achuthan said.
"The recovery is unfolding in a reasonably normal fashion, including the doubt." Achuthan said.
"Pessimism about a recovery is quite normal," he said with a smile. [Konsumieren ohne Konsumenten ist nicht normal. sagt A.L., perfide lächelnd]
www.marketwatch.com/story/story/...4873-4E88-B824-40E052DA1ED6
Der NYSE Bullish Percentage-Indikator dreht im weekly bereits in Richtung Bear Alert
( Chart is falling from above 70% to below 70% without yet generating a p&f sell )
| 60.1% | -0.3% |
Wogegen der optimistische (bullische) Prozentsatz im Nasdaq 100 sich weiterhin bzw. noch auf dem Level der Höchststände aus 2007 bewegt.
http://www.n-tv.de/politik/...fuer-Ende-der-Hilfen-article398075.html
Economic Pessimism Returns
Investor optimism about the direction of the U.S. economy over the next 12 months plunged 14 points in June, as the Economic Dimension of the Index fell to -42. Investors are now as pessimistic about the economic outlook as they were in April. Still, they remain much less pessimistic than they were in February, when this dimension was at -70.

Commentary
The sharp decline in Gallup's Index of Investor Optimism in June -- particularly the plunge in expectations for the economy -- suggests that investors may be losing some of their hopes for an immediate improvement in the U.S. economy later this year. This is consistent with the leveling off of consumers' mood over the past few weeks and the drop in the consumer sentiment index on Tuesday.
Gallup's job-market and consumer spending measures suggest that the reality on Main Street has not improved substantially over the past couple of months. Perhaps the average investor and the American consumer see the fragile nature of the current U.S. economy more clearly than do those on Wall Street.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/121319/Investor-Optimism-Tumbles-June.aspx
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