It's official: The economy is in a recession

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The National Bureau of Economic Research said today the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, CNNMoney reports, making official what most Americans already believe about the economy. The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns.

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

The NBER said that the deterioration in the labor market throughout 2008 was one key reason why it decided to state that the recession began last year.

Employers have trimmed payrolls by 1.2 million jobs in the first 10 months of this year. On Friday, economists are predicting the government will report a loss of another 325,000 jobs for November.

The NBER also looks at real personal income, industrial production as well as wholesale and retail sales. All those measures reached a peak between November 2007 and June 2008, the NBER said.

In addition, the NBER also considers the gross domestic product, which is the reading most typically associated with a recession in the general public.

Many people erroneously believe that a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of economic activity declining. That has yet to take place during this recession.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/econo...sion=2008120112

[SpiritAlight 1]

Oh, "they" invented cute new ways of saying it.

"They" called it negative growth.

Bah!

Creative bunch.

Not to alarm.

As if.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

bah,

I knew about 1 year ago, is not like is rocket science, we all have eyes

[Ling Ling 22]

"Negative growth" has been part of the definition of a recession , for as long as I can remember.

The definition is pretty clear...."a decline in" (or negative growth in) the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters.

Definition of a depression..."a long recession". Seriously, that's what one of my business text books said.

So with these definitions, most of us didn't need for anyone to make it official...or to quote my pal Bill (who was quoting his pal Bob),

"You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".

[Amby 490]

thanks for the important info

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

lies damned lies

[Sprailenes 47]

NO WAY!! GET OUT!!