Just wanted to post this.I have a been an auto workers wife for years. We are headed for recession.

[Moostache]

7. Do not forget the trigger of the Great Recession...

It was NOT the housing market crash...THAT crash was built into the system through imprudent and fraudulent lending practices (NinJa loans? - No Income, No Job ...give them a variable teaser rate and set the bomb into motion), but what triggered the collapse was the rise in gas prices and oil speculation that had driven the cost of a gallon of gas above $5.00 in many places around the country...

We are lulled back to sleep by the recently stable prices for oil and gas - prices move seasonally and slightly up and down, but generally stay well below the $4 and $5 a gallon mark, and in many places it is at or even below $2 a gallon. When the price of gas spikes, it triggers the fear that drives a recession. Recessions are not based on any single factor, they are marked by a draw down in spending from consumers who lose confidence in their ability to afford things into the future. When gas jumps up, it hurts the average person a thousand times more than the rich or even the middle class. A rise from $2.10 a gallon to $3.00 a gallon on a car with a 20 gallon tank and and average MPG of 22 can mean a HUGE difference in the spending capability of someone on the lower end of the economic scale...but that has an enormous ripple effect...

When someone's disposable income feels like its being cut drastically by a 25% rise in the cost of gas, they notice the other price rises (in milk and dairy products or beef) a lot more and their emotions are frayed and fear sets in.

Back in the start of the Great Recession, gas prices when stratospheric in the months before the loans that seemed to have ensnared millions began to default. Part of that was coincidence with the reset of the interest rates and subsequent rise in monthly payments and part of it was the initial kick that started the downward spiral of many of the most vulnerable loans - the ones that never should have been granted in the first place, the most predatory of the bunch. I do not for one second discount the potential signals of trouble in the auto sector as a harbinger of trouble ahead...after all, we have experienced nearly 8 straight years of positive economic growth, even if the gains from this remain concentrated in the top 1%. I just hope that the banks have not cooked up another nasty little surprise for us all in addition to it!