Submitted by JAMES CARLINI, Mar 11, 2008 18:57

Those that cannot figure out if there is a recession or not, simply have to get out of their offices and talk to people on the street. There are many who are underemployed due to corporate layoffs, the abuse of the H-1B program (labor-dumping) and high costs of government that does not cut back spending like the average American household has had to do. And the underemployed have a lot of degrees, certificates and skill sets so we are not talking about "lack of skills" here.

Look at the examples of high tech employees losing jobs to cheaper labor. If you had someone making $90K a year in 2001 and now is making the most he ever made ($34K a year). Multiply that by thousands and you have the answers to many of the "economic questions" that you seek.

Home foreclosures, lagging new car sales, slow consumer purchases (unless they are on credit) and the reasons for state budgets to be short by a couple billion dollars all get answered pretty quick.

The key statistic to watch is NOT unemployment - that is a meaningless number. UNDEREMPLOYMENT is what is plaguing this country in many industries and most economists are clueless.

I pointed out skyrocketing foreclosures back in December of 2006 and I am no PhD in Economics.

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