In case you were wondering, it’s official now: America is in a recession. The media has been throwing around the “R Word” for some time, and you and I have been feeling the space in our pockets now for years, so you have to wonder why all of a sudden, this declaration.  The National Bureau of Economic Research evidently put their stamp on it, finding that America has been in a recession since December of 2007. By the books, a recession is when the gross domestic product declines for two consecutive quarters. Around my way, the proof is easier to define: people can’t afford to drive to work, a lot of coupon clipping and cutting back all across the board are the signs of recession most of us recognize. Not to mention a dry job market paying low wages. It’s been said that when White folks sneeze, Black America gets the flu, and I think that this scenario bares that out: poor Blacks and Whites in this country have been feeling the pinch since the end of Bush’s first term. Now that stocks and bonds are crashing, and people can’t afford gas for their private jets, a group of egghead economists decide to throw a flag. They’re late. It’s insulting for many, these recent findings and this bold statement of enlightenment. It’s as if politicians haven’t been listening to the pangs of the poor.

The bigger question is, now that we know there is a recession—as if—what can be done to reverse it? Not just for the rich, but the rest of us who have been hurting for years.

Now that it’s ‘official,’ how do we reverse the recession?  Tell us here.

Images courtesy of whatpricejusticeblog.com.

(*The views contained herein are solely the views of their respective authors, and do not express the views of TV One.  TV One does not take responsibility for their content.)

President-elect Barack Obama and outgoing president George W. Bush met at the White House yesterday, and you know they didn’t talk sports. For Obama, it must be hard to come face to face with someone you have so roundly criticized but everyone’s taken shots at Bush, and my guess he’s just as happy to vacate the hot-seat as Obama is to take it. Their meeting was ‘off the record,’ meaning we don’t know exactly what they talked about, but there are no reports of headlocks or broken jaws, so we can probably guess it went as well as could be expected.

Like most people, I’m curious as to what they talked about—for Obama, the presidency is akin to taking a used car off somebody’s hands you know has all kinds of problems. There is a lot of talk afoot about Obama immediately rolling back some Bush policies. It’s hard to stop momentum, good or bad, once it’s started but God Bless him for trying, right?

We know that they did talk about what it would take to save the auto industry, and that’s all we know. I want to know if they talked about foreclosures, healthcare and practical matters about raising children in the White House. We know that Laura Bush and Michelle Obama had that conversation, but it seems like, dad to dad, Bush and Obama should have that talk, too. I think it’s a shame that we know so little of the First Meeting. What do you think?

What do you think Bush and Obama talked about?  What should they have talked about?

Images courtesy of nytimes.com

(*The views contained herein are solely the views of their respective authors, and do not express the views of TV One.  TV One does not take responsibility for their content.)