US housing starts down record 12.8% in April

[Americano]

Yesterday I read where Obama's budget director publicly stated the US has reached bottom in the current economic decline. Today I read April housing starts and permits were the lowest on record for the past 50-years.

I personally don't view any US industry, including housing, showing any indication of stabilization. Is the 'feel good' rhetoric out of Washington a clumsy attempt at instilling consumer confidence in a time of record unemployment and retail bankruptcies?

http://www.reuters.com/article/economicNews/idUSN1940803720090519

[Dominick]

I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that this whole 'crisis' is actually just a normalization. One can throw and keep throwing money at people, as was the case prior to the mortgage issue, but at one point there just has to be saturation. It's the same with cars. Who was going to keep purchasing the overproduction of cars anyway ? Once each 4-member family has one for each person, why would they buy a fifth ?
What if the present situation is as good as it gets without turbocharging the economy with fake money ?

[Americano]

I'm more and more coming to the conclusion that this whole 'crisis' is actually just a normalization. One can throw and keep throwing money at people, as was the case prior to the mortgage issue, but at one point there just has to be saturation. It's the same with cars. Who was going to keep purchasing the overproduction of cars anyway ? Once each 4-member family has one for each person, why would they buy a fifth ?
What if the present situation is as good as it gets without turbocharging the economy with fake money ?

GDP numbers are worshiped in Western nations as the gauge of 'success', even when they're pumped full of government spending based on debt. As to normalization, yes, IMO the US still has a ways to go (down) before it normalizes with an economy still based on debt still consuming far more than it produces.