Should we take our Medicine?

While we are enjoying the gluttonous activity that Thanksgiving has become, shoveling turkey, stuffing and anything else that finds its way in the vicinity of our mouth, here is something else to chew on. Is it time to take our medicine and owe up to the excesses we have enjoyed for some time now? One Street.com writer thinks so and I do not disagree. Pain can make us stronger and more disciplined, that I can attest to. It is good for the soul and creates a stronger foundation, of course greed and fear tend to keep us from doing that which we know we should.

Here are 17 reason why we need a recession. Remember that what does not kill you makes you stronger. The key here is you must stay alive, so proceed with caution.

1. Purge the excesses of the housing boom
2. U.S. dollar wake-up call
3. Write-offs
4. Budgeting
5. Overconfidence
6. Ratings
7. China
8. Oil
9. Inflation

10. Moral hazard

11. War costs

12. CEO pay

13. Privatization

14. Entitlements

15. Consumers

16. Regulation

17. Sacrifice

PAUL B. FARRELL

17 reasons America needs a recession

Think positive, this 'slow motion train wreck' is good for the U.S.

But the truth is, not only is a recession coming, America needs a recession. So think positive: Let's focus on 17 benefits from this recession.

To begin with, recession may be an understatement. Jeremy Grantham's GMO firm manages $150 billion. In his midyear report before the credit crisis hit he predicted: "In 5 years I expect that at least one major 'bank' (broadly defined) will have failed and that up to half the hedge funds and a substantial percentage of the private-equity firms in existence today will have simply ceased to exist."

He was "watching a very slow motion train wreck." By October, it was accelerating: "Train hits end of track at full speed."

Also back in August, The Economist took a hard look at the then emerging subprime/credit crisis: "The policy dilemma facing the Fed may not be a choice of recession or no recession. It may be between a mild recession now, and a nastier one later."

However, the publication did admit that "even if a recession were in America's long-term economic interest, it would be political suicide" for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to suggest it.

Then The Economist posed the big question: Yes, "central banks must stop recessions from turning into deep depressions. But it may be wrong to prevent them altogether."