CNN askes how bad is the economy

It was interesting reading the responses to the question asked by CNN:

So is the economy going to get significantly worse over the next few months, or are we actually closer to the end than the beginning of this...slump, downturn, recession or whatever you want to call it?

What was surprising was those that felt things were not really that bad, which confirms my belief that it is not just media driven but geographically driven. There are parts of the country that are not suffering to the extent that others are. A few of the comments that were shared:

"Many of the hard times today are the fault of the people who swipe their home ATM to buy another new SUV or a house beyond their means. It is certainly a tough lesson to learn, but it has to happen," he wrote. "People who lived beyond their means now can't pay back that debt due to ballooning costs. Turns out they should have saved money while they could."

"The economic slump comprises industries that are slumping (airlines, autos, homebuilding, mortgages, real estate, etc.) and industries that are expanding (agriculture, energy, health care, mining, technology, etc.). The gains outnumber the losses, so we get slow growth. But, the growth is slower than the rate of productivity gains, so jobs are slowly shed."