Major stock indexes got worked on Monday.  They fell by more than 2 percent... the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 201 points, after the World Bank estimated the global economy will shrink 2.9 percent in 2009. It previously predicted a 1.7 percent contraction.  How can you be that off on your previous prediction.  I've been saying this is going to happen the whole time.  Take a look at my Twitter from 32 days ago!  I had to take a break until the correction finally came because the market was going up for no reason.

People are blogging, writing, and talking about how this has eroded hopes that the economy was starting to emerge from recession... there was never any sign of recovery.  It was all smoke and mirrors during earnings season in the first quarter.  People were just sick of negative news, so they started to buy and pushed the market up without the performance to back it.  Things weren't improving... they were going from absolutely terrible to pretty damn bad.

New jobless claims were up more than expected last week... supposedly due to the auto industry layoffs.  However, there are layoffs everywhere.  It shouldn't be a surprise that this number increased.  If just one of these "analysts" would be realistic about the situation there would be estimates that are right on the number. 

The Labor Department said that the number of new claims rose to a seasonally adjusted 637,000, from a revised 605,000 the previous week. That's above analysts' expectations of 610,000... nice job analyst.   So much for the recession's end being near.

Read more here.

The European Union admitted that their previous forecasts were way off... the recession will be longer and deeper.  This seems to be the trend for all forecasts.  If economists would start looking at things as realists, rather than optimists, then their forecasts might actually be accurate.  So far this has not been the case... they keep pushing back the same forecast month after month.  Just say late 2011 is when we'll recover and you'll be close...

Read more here.