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Today, basically, sucked.
It was one of those old fashioned, broad-based, bad news cycles kind of day. Not only was the U.S. consumer confidence number dismal, but Europe appears to be getting worse, not better, and the world's "savior" (China) posted some shockingly bad numbers.
China shouldn't be a surprise to viewers of the program and readers of this blog. As I have been saying for more than a year, I am firmly in the camp that the Chinese economy, specifically its real estate, is in an unsustainable bubble. When condos are selling for 50x income and the average Chinese worker is making dollars per day and staring up at empty luxury condos in Shenzen, it doesn't bode well on a variety of levels. The Chinese also own massive amounts of European debt, so as Europe falls so too do Chinese bank balance sheets, reducing future lending. How do you say "double-whammy" in Mandarin? For that matter, how do you say "civil unrest" in Mandarin?
Europe remains a problem and will for some time. As I wrote after returning from reporting on the European debt crisis, I came back more negative than before I left (which says something, because I was darn negative boarding the plane to Athens). I remain that way still, despite a nearly $1 trillion dollar ECB backing and plenty of jawboning by indebted politicians. Europe's austerity measures may be a positive in the long run, but it seems clear that a default by Greece or Hungary is likely to become a reality this year.
Though nervous global investors are flocking to the 'haven' of American debt and dollars en masse, our financial situation probably isn't much better than theirs. Unemployment is high, confidence is low, housing stinks. Congress is thus faced with the Hobson's choice of indebting the nation further by extending jobless benefits again (bad) or cutting people off and potentially making things worse in the short-term (also bad).
The only thing there doesn't seem to be a shortage of is talk.
Fed Chairman Bernanke met with the President this morning to discuss the situation. In the brief sound bite released to the networks, the President again tried to sell us on the the odd idea that a 2,000 financial regulation bill will help the economy recover. I'm still trying to figure that one out.
To be fair to the President, there isn't much he can do anymore. There is no magic elixir for jobs, no silver bullet of credit. Interest rates are already as low as they can go. Every form of Keynesian taxpayer cash-grab (a la cash for clunkers) has been tried. We've even spent nearly a trillion taxpayer dollars in a stimulus plan whose success will go down somewhere between that of the Studebaker and hair in a can. All that, and here we are, with a jobless rate nearly the same as it was before the Beltway Brigade blew a few trillion bucks.
The reality is that America has some serious structural issues still to get through. Too much debt, too few good jobs. We need good jobs for the middle class, and we need the middle class to not buy cars that cost more than their annual incomes. That's pretty much it.
Forget about China and Europe saving us. They probably need saving themselves. Human nature is, after all, universal.
But before I run off to the north woods of Wisconsin for a few days of swimming, manual labor and time away from any sort of electronic device, let's hit some good news as we head into the 4th of July holiday: we're better at recessions than everyone else.
So as much as today sucked (and tomorrow may too, frankly), there will be a day, probably sometime next year, when our hangover is ending and many others' are still in full force or just beginning.
Nothing says loving like a good dose of schadenfreude, after all.
Brian Sullivan joined FOX Business Network (FBN) in April 2008 as an anchor. He co-anchors the 10am-12pm ET hours of the FOX Business block. Prior to joining FBN, Sullivan served as an anchor for Bloomberg Television where he hosted the programs Morning Call and In Focus.
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