More recession talk

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Good morning. The chief executive of home builder Hovnanian Enterprises is joining Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo on the ‘it really looks bad out there’ bandwagon. Like Mozilo, Ara Hovnanian went on CNBC and worried aloud about a recession. Pull quote: ‘The credit market disarray is real.’

CNBC’s Bob Pisani observed that what’s really going on here is that Mozilo and Hovnanian are appealing to the Fed to cut rates.

Today’s gross domestic product number (4% annualized growth in the second quarter) is, as Joe Pesci would say, ‘a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.’ How do you go from 4% growth -- pretty darn good -- to needing a rate cut in five weeks? We know, we know: credit freeze, mortgage meltdown, etc. Still, the strong number weakens the case for a rate cut.

Thoughts? Comments?
Photo Credit: Reuters