Good Morning Middle America, your King of Simple News is on the air.

This is a tough subject for New Years Eve, but bad news doesn’t come in season and maybe you can make a New Years resolution to not get caught up in this mess.

I’m always somewhat amazed at the main stream news reports and their failure of having some semblance of connectivity with reality. I suppose jetting around the world and staying in 4 star resorts has some influence on how they think most people make a living.

On the recession question, most of these main streamers don’t want to be blatantly wrong, so they dip their toes in the water just enough, to later on say that they went swimming.

Here’s an example of a good national news report. “Is the U.S. heading for recession? In my opinion, maybe so and maybe not. If a lot of people get jobs where ever it is that people get jobs, and they start making their house, car and credit card payments, I believe recession could be avoided.”

“While the housing, banking, and auto industries are in the toilet, it may be possible that the weak dollar will bolster strong sales in export products and the manufacturing sector will keep us out of recession…or, make it a short one if we actually have one at all.”

Great reporting huh? “If” is the most powerful word in a reporter’s vocabulary. But not mine. Here’s my report, “We are going to have a recession and exports are not going to save the day.” I hope that I’m wrong, but I don’t think so.

Let’s start out with one subject at a time. “Housing is in the toilet.” That’s putting it mildly. We are only beginning to see the fallout of the housing bubble that, by the way, was created by the federal government that you all love and know so well.

Say you are a framing carpenter, concrete mason, sheet rocker, excavator, electrician, plumber, carpet layer, window installer, roofer, insulator, painter, real estate agent, developer, or one of about a thousand other professions that I could list whose work was previously supported by the housing boom.

Let’s also say that you live in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Detroit, Cleveland, or the entire states of Florida and California, where the existing housing inventory is sufficient to last for the next 27 years; what are you going to do?

Let’s make matters even worse by requiring that any future home buyers show up with decent credit, an actual job, and heaven forbid…a down payment.

It goes on. What if you were making a house payment, car payment, credit card payments and buying some occasional food on your previous wages? Let me guess, you have a FOR SALE sign in your front yard. No one notices it, due to a lawn decorating fad in your neighborhood where everyone has a for-sale sign on their front lawn.

As those who were previously involved in the home building business put their homes on the market, it strengthens the existing inventory and weakens the job market. In business, this is called the point of diminishing returns.

Under normal circumstances, one may consider relocation to an area where housing is booming to be sound personal choice. But then, these aren’t normal circumstances, because there are no areas where housing is booming. There are few areas where housing is not totally dead, but the existing builders there already have it covered.

Ask this group of people that I just described whether they think recession is coming? While you’re at it, ask them is they believe increased exports of manufactured goods is going to head off that recession? (If you are sensitive to bad language, don’t ask).

In the mean time, the main stream news reporter is off on assignment trying to find a manufacturing facility that is still open somewhere in the U.S.; in the area of their 4 star hotel.

And always remember; an official recession is when your neighbor is out of work, an official depression is when you are!

Wake up Middle America, the show’s almost over.