Flashback: In middle of housing crisis, Blunt worries we might "talk ourselves into economic problems"

Over at The Erstwhile Conservative, Duane Graham has found a really interesting article about a Roy Blunt trip to Joplin in March 2008,  printed ten days after the collapse of the subprime mortgage market brought down the fifth-largest Wall Street investment bank, Bear Stearns, foreshadowing the broader financial crisis.

The condition of the U.S. economy is not as bad as it is being portrayed, U.S. Rep Roy Blunt said Tuesday [3/25/2008] on a tour of a Joplin-area manufacturer.

Blunt never spoke the word recession, instead citing “unemployment at historic lows” and an increase in housing starts in February.

“You won’t hear that on the 24-hour news,” he said. “All the fundamentals are strong, especially in Southwest Missouri. I’m concerned we’re going to talk ourselves into economic problems.”

Blunt made the comments while touring MSW Restaurant Furnishings near Carterville, calling attention to a part of the economic stimulus package he said should benefit businesses such as restaurant suppliers.

The stimulus package referenced in this story was the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 that passed in February 2008.  A Fox News story about the legislation said it was drafted to boost "an economy battered by a housing downturn and a credit crunch" -- making it even harder to understand what Blunt meant when he worried we might "talk ourselves into economic problems.”

The recession Blunt did not want to discuss actually began in December 2007, though that would not be officially determined until later in 2008.

To put Blunt's comment in perspective, here are excerpt from a timeline of key financial events put together by the Associated Press. 

2007

• January: Countrywide Financial, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, warns that homeowners are having trouble repaying loans. Within weeks, investment banks begin writing off millions in investments backed by risky mortgages-early signs of the global financial crisis to come.
• December: The official start of a recession according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. It won't be declared such until full year later.

2008

• March: On March 16, Bear Stearns is sold to JPMorgan Chase for a fire-sale price of $2 a share, or $236 million, as the collapse of the subprime mortgage market brings down the fifth-largest Wall Street investment bank, foreshadowing the broader financial crisis.
• July: California lender IndyMac Bank fails at an estimated cost of $10.7 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. A total of 25 banks will fail by the end of the year. Failures will skyrockets to more than 133 in 2009.
• July: Oil reaches $150 a barrel; gasoline spikes to $4.11 a gallon. Gas prices become a topic of debate on the presidential campaign trail.
• September: On Sept. 15, the subprime mortgage crisis forces Lehman Brothers to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, setting forth a worldwide financial meltdown.
• September: On Sept. 29, the House rejects the government's $700 billion financial bailout plan, triggering the largest-ever drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, 777.68 points.
• October: As part of the federal bailout of the financial system, FDIC insurance on bank deposits is increased from $100,000 per account to $250,000, until 2014.
• December: Revolving debt held by U.S. consumers, mostly on credit cards, tops out at $988.2 billion. The number of outstanding credit cards, once 425 million, will drop to 325 million by late 2009.