You read it here first: It is now official, we're in a recession

Economist verify what we already know

Ever wonder why economics is called the 'dismal science?' Read on and maybe you will understand.

You read it here first, or at least well before the backward looking group of economist, the National Bureau of Economic Research, officially announced today that yes Virginia, we're in a recession.

On the ground local reality economics is something of a passion for us.

We have posted several stories relating to our current economic woes and called them a recession on numerous occasions.

In July we started our own local measurement to gauge local conditions between foreclosures and local retail activity. Time will tell whether or not it will gauge when we start our local recovery.

On April 28 we posted a story about one young girl's effort to help gather food for those in need.

On March 17 we posted a prophetic story that started with the following:

For some time ElkGroveNew.net and it's predecessor, ElkGroveNews.org has warned about the impending mortgage mess brought on by the Federal Reserve and the loose-lending practices encouraged by the Bush administration in wake of the 9-11 and post internet bubble recession.

One of the first posts of this site on January 17 we queried "Has Recession arrived in Elk Grove?"

At the time we concluded that yes, we were in a recession.

The point of this post is not to blow our horn (well maybe just a little!) rather to point out that the so-called experts really don't have grasp of what is really going on in the economy.

Or to paraphrase Dylan, you don't need an National Bureau of Economic Research economist to know which way the economy is blowing!