Business

Printing presses to begin

With the presidential election now a mere 57 days away, that negates the possibility that we will officially be in a recession come November.

Still, the economy is looking to be weakening again, here and certainly abroad. So far this year, the average number of new jobs created per month is below what we saw in 2011.

In fact, the economy is behaving a lot like it did in the fall of 2000 (although off a lower level), a year when the incumbent party had a tough time closing the deal with the American people.

Looking back, although the Dow Jones industrial average was up 6 percent that millennial summer (the same gains as we’ve seen this year), many economists now say the seeds of the recession that officially began in January 2001 were already becoming apparent that fall — with advertising and consumer spending dropping off a cliff beginning that November, as the unemployment rate started edging up.

The following year, 2001, the Alan Greenspan Fed began cutting rates with ferocious aggression — first on Jan. 3, followed by another cut the next day. The Fed acted too late, in part because it didn’t want to be accused of meddling in election-year politics.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has no such qualms. The 2000 comparisons are just one of many reasons he is poised to embark on another unprecedented adventure in money-printing later this week.

Banker Ben told us as much last month. In his speech from Jackson Hole, Wyo., he announced that further monetary easing would be absolutely warranted “unless incoming information pointed to a substantial and sustainable strengthening in the pace of the economic recovery.”

The jobs numbers on Friday provide the cover needed to ease.

So this week, Bernanke & Co. will be firing up the printing presses in Washington. Look for an announcement Thursday, when the Fed finishes up a two-day meeting and the chairman holds a press conference.

Will it work? So far it hasn’t. Sure, another recession has been avoided or postponed, but with the unemployment rate above 8 percent for 43 months, Bernanke was correct when he recently called the state of joblessness in this nation “a grave concern.”

terrykkeenan@gmail.com