From Thomas Paine’s Corner
By Joel Hirschhorn

Take a break from anguishing about an attack on Iran, the insanity of the Iraq war, and fraudulent upcoming elections to consider another piece of Republican chicanery. Right now you are being fed a load of economic propaganda by both the Bush administration and most mainstream media. The goal of the establishment is to keep American consumers happy about the economy so that they keep doing the patriotic thing “ SPENDING AND BORROWING. In reality, many sharp people see a likelihood of serious economic recession coming soon. When will you hear the truth? After the coming elections!

Slowly, the truth has emerged about the housing bubble bursting, but it has not produced headlines because of distraction or media cowardice. Ask yourself this: What happened to slow home buying and lower home prices? Something was affecting the public’s ability to keep paying high prices for new homes, despite pretty low interest rates and new types of seductive mortgages. Wage stagnation and higher living costs have finally put a serious squeeze on people, at least the ones with jobs.

Understand this about the housing bubble: The government and the financial industry created ways to make housing artificially affordable. The housing market was inflated with cheap money, only to be popped by economic reality, dumping many people into financial disaster.

Reading about the economy and economics is probably not your favorite activity, but you need to read a taste of economic reality from various sources, that the mainstream media are ignoring “ pay attention to what is said about consumer spending and housing:

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