Poised between a Japan-like depression and inflation and stagnation, a careful course is necessary to correct the economy.

The good news is that the U.S. economy is growing — with the exception of the housing market — but the bad news is we’ve encountered the worst recession since the Great Depression, says Eugenio Aleman, director and senior economist at Wells Fargo.

“We went from -9 percent to almost 3 percent in almost three quarters,” Aleman explained during his “Construction Industry Economic Analysis & Outlook” presentation at the Construction Writers Association in San Antonio, which was attended by Aggregates Manager editors. “The only reason it [the economy] recovered is because the U.S. government intervened. During the Great Depression, the government didn’t intervene.”

Back then, the debt was 145 percent, and it’s rapidly approaching 100 percent now, Aleman says, noting it’s going to be very expensive coming out of this recession. “What we have done during the last three years, good or bad, left us very close to another depression.”

And though the recession is technically over, Aleman says the majority of Americans don’t consider the nation as on the way to recovery, particularly because jobs aren’t being created at a rapid pace. “We lost 9 million jobs in two years,” he says. “If you take 9 million jobs times the per capita income, you can see how bad this has been.”

It will take nearly five years to recover 9 million jobs — even though the economy is growing. Typically, the economy can grow at about $200,000 per month. Then the question of underemployment is raised. Is it really underemployment, Aleman asks, or is it just the new economy? “If you extract how many workers are being laid off by the public sector, you have to add 60,000 more jobs.”

The duration of unemployment shows a struggling labor market, and the biggest issue is that employment isn’t growing at as fast of a pace as necessary to get the country moving. However, consumer prices are beginning to increase, so there are higher prices but less work.

The Humpty-Dumpty Economy

The country has grown into what Aleman calls a “Humpty-Dumpty Economy.” Using a twist on the popular nursery rhyme, Aleman quips:

The U.S. economy sat on a wall,

The U.S economy had a great fall,

All the king’s treasury men,

And all the King’s Federal Reserve men,

Couldn’t put the U.S. economy together again.

“We have been on a brick wall for 11 years trying not to fall,” Aleman says. “On one side of the wall, there is a 1930s/Japan-like depression. On the other side of the wall, there is inflation and stagnation, which equals stagflation. It’s going to be tough to pull out of it, but the other side could go on for 20 years.”

It’s a shock because, for the last 11 years, the United States has been “throwing money out of a helicopter,” Aleman jokes as he shows a “Helicopter Ben” Ben Bernanke action figure in a helicopter with the slogan, “Now YOU can drop money out of a helicopter.”

“Cash is king” will remain the economic mantra, Aleman notes. “It’s very difficult to get a loan now,” he says. “You have to have a job, you have to have 20 percent down…banks are turning away customers. They don’t want their money…because lending is no longer a business.”

Aleman refers to the Federal Reserve balance sheet as a “monetary tsunami.” During economic times like this, the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates to reflate the economy. It did this during the last recession, Aleman says, and only one sector reflated: housing. “That bubble burst, and we went into a recession,” he says. “That’s where we are now.”

Although new home sales are very depressed, interest rates are at an all-time low, and credit-card lending “is non-existent,” there are some signs of stabilization, Aleman says. “The good news is that the economy is growing,” he points out. “Manufacturing has expanded for the past two years. The service sector is in expansion mode.”

Aleman is also confident that the housing market, which sets the tone for much of the construction market, will come back. “Home prices are going to come back,” he says. “Don’t ask me when, but they will. We can’t outsource home buying to China, so it has to come back.”