So it's the 10th of February. It would appear that Congress will pass a stimulus package. And that gives me some hope because people who are afraid to spend money might actually start spending. But I'm sure it doesn't spend enough and I'm also sure that lots of people think the same way. After all, if you didn't see a pretty massive check from the federal government coming right your way, you'd not really see the stimulus, either.

And that is the view most people have. 

I came across this chart that pretty much says it all. It was presented to Speaker Pelosi by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

It shows a really dire recession in terms of job losses if this keeps up. On the basis of this, I see a hug indictment of the past administration and the past majority in Congress.

The green line in the chart is our current state of job loss. The blue line was Bush I in 1990 that Clinton got us out of and the red line is the 2001 recession that GW Bush got us into when he took office for his first term.

I spoke with someone today in the building trades. He told me people are absolutely not doing anything. Someone asked him to do a patch job of a leaky roof. He looked at the roof to offer an estimate and found that this roof had needed to be replaced for the last several years.

People are holding on to what cash they have. And that is a real change. But because we have been such a consumer-driven society for so long, that will cause deflation of our economy. So it's time for the government to get spending because the people cannot.

I hope everyone who has a job stays in it or is hired for something better. The reality may be different than my hopes.