It's official: Recession since Dec. '07

[Robbien]

Source: CNN

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

. . .

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.

. . .

The current recession is one of the longest downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

The last two recessions (1990-1991 and 2001) lasted eight months each, and only two of the 10 previous post-Depression downturns lasted as long as a full year, according to the NBER.

In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto said that even though the recession is now official, it is more important to focus on the steps being taken to fix the economy.




Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postversion=2008120112

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[YOY]

1. And according to FReeps it's already Obamas fault I bet.

n/t

[FriendlyReminder]

10. Sorry, I'm a noob and was wondering

what a FReep is???

Thanks in advance....

[sweettater]

11. the folks

over at FreeRepublic. (website) They are pretty much wack-o.

[tclambert]

12. I think it refers to people who post on freerepublic.com

which is a poor Republican imitation of this website.

[FriendlyReminder]

27. Thanks so much!

[YOY]

19. Somebody so Republican that Bush is a success, Palin a "breath of fresh air", and Rove a genius.

So far right you can't hold a discussion with them.

The kind of people who think Sean Hanity is a Great America, Bill O'Reiley is impartial, and Rush Limbaugh isn't paid 20+ million yearly to tell idiots their opinion (but does so out of the goodness and righteousness of his kind pedophilic heart.)

The kind of people who have told anyone who disagrees with them over the past 8 years to "leave their country." I wonder how many of them are planning on leaving...

They're also blazingly stupid. They constantly try to "infiltrate" us to find out how we nefariously would plan on destroying American and turn all their kids gay. Since most of them don't have kids and live in their parent's basement it is rather pathetic.

Total scum of the earth, wouldn't you say FRiendlyREminder?

[FriendlyReminder]

26. Thanks, I appreciate it!!

I am really new at this posting stuff and I am glad I have found a place to "vent" my frustrations.

If I get the gist of your last line......OUCH! I had no idea when I picked my username that it could be construed in such a way. Can I change my username???? It was going to be either ShrubBeGone or FriendlyReminder ;-)

[YOY]

29. Ask the mods.

They may be able to help you.

[AndyA]

2. Who could have possibly predicted this could happen?

Why do you hate America?

Get out there and SPEND SPEND SPEND. The economy will come bouncing back.

:sarcasm:

[PBS Poll-435]

3. But, But, But

Phil Gramm said it was all in our heads, a mental recession if you will...

[tclambert]

14. . . . whine . . .

[Tesha]

4. Who'da thunk it? Certainly not Dumbya! (NT)

[DUlover2909]

5. Looks like recessions only happen when repukes are president.

[tclambert]

15. . . . and only admitted when they are about to leave office

[d_r]

20. US recessions since the civil war and who was president -

Panic of 1873 Ulysses S. Grant March 4, 1869 March 4, 1877 Republican

Panic of 1893 Benjamin Harrison March 4, 1889 March 4, 1893 Republican

Panic of 1907 1907–1908 Theodore Roosevelt September 14, 1901 March 4, 1909 Republican

Post-World War I recession (worldwide) 1918–1921 Woodrow Wilson March 4, 1913 March 4, 1921 Democratic

Great Depression 1929–1939 Calvin Coolidge August 2, 1923 March 4, 1929 Republican

Herbert Hoover March 4, 1929 March 4, 1933 Republican

Franklin D. Roosevelt March 4, 1933 April 12, 1945 Democrat (introduced New Deal and got us out of the depression)


Recession of 1953 1953–1954 Dwight D. Eisenhower January 20, 1953 January 20, 1961 Republican

Recession of 1957 1957–1958 Dwight D. Eisenhower January 20, 1953 January 20, 1961 Republican



1973 oil crisis 1973–1975 Richard Nixon January 20, 1969 August 9, 1974 Republican

Gerald Ford August 9, 1974 January 20, 1977 Republican


Early 1980s recession 1980–1982 (The Iranian Revolution sharply increased the price of oil around the world in 1979, causing the 1979 energy crisis.)
Jimmy Carter January 20, 1977 January 20, 1981 Democrat

Ronald Reagan January 20, 1981 January 20, 1989 Republican
1985-1987 was the "farm-aid" crises of foreclosures on family farms

Early 1990s recession 1990–1991 George H. W. Bush January 20, 1989 January 20, 1993 Republican

Early 2000s recession 2001–2003 George W. Bush January 20, 2001 January 20, 2009 Republican

2008 financial crisis 2007–present George W. Bush January 20, 2001 January 20, 2009 Republican

[DUlover2909]

25. Nice compilation. It indeed is mostly repukes.

[nancyr]

6. Well, duh.

The average person out here in the real world has been aware of this fact for a very long time.

[BR_Parkway]

7. elections over, of course they can officially declare it now

[skids]

16. They weren't exactly quiet about it before the election...

They said we were in a recession well before the vote. The news just didn't cover it. I don't have an opinion on the NBER personally, but I wish DUers wouldn't go on a bashfest of these folks when it was the likes of Murdoch keeping the news away from the people and instead shoving as many polyannas into the spotlight as they could muster up.

They didn't officially declare the recession today, they just officially established its start date.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Starting in 2007 leaves no doubt: This is The Republicon Recession

And the fail-freak republicons have no one but themselves to whine to or to blame.

Deal with it, you republicons, you.

[FriendlyReminder]

9. OMG! That just figures.....How long do you think it will take the new administration

to turn this thing around?? I hope it is quick because my 401k won't take it much longer....

[Bushies gotta go]

13. No Duh.

I can't tell you how many times I've been laughed at over the past year by every brain-dead shrub-loving SOB... Fnck you... turns out YOU are the traitors!

[rcsl1998]

17. 'Main Street' Knew This All Along But The Wizards Of Wall Street Were SHOCKED To Learn This...

...which led to the big drop today in the stock market - Things that make you go HMMM...

[Demeter]

18. Why Did It Take Them an Entire YEAR to FigureThis Out?

Because they print lies instead of data. Because they ignore the data. Because they don't care.

[depakid]

22. There's a difference between the usual "dictionary" definition

and the broader set of indicators NBER is looking at.

The dictionary definition of recession:

A period of general economic decline, defined usually as a contraction in the GDP for six months (two consecutive quarters) or longer. Marked by high unemployment, stagnant wages, and fall in retail sales, a recession generally does not last longer than one year and is much milder than a depression.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/depression.html

National Bureau of Economic Research amalgam:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators. A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.

Because a recession is a broad contraction of the economy, not confined to one sector, the committee emphasizes economy-wide measures of economic activity. The committee believes that domestic production and employment are the primary conceptual measures of economic activity.

The committee views the payroll employment measure, which is based on a large survey of employers, as the most reliable comprehensive estimate of employment. This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then.

The committee believes that the two most reliable comprehensive estimates of aggregate domestic production are normally the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Product and the quarterly estimate of real Gross Domestic Income, both produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In concept, the two should be the same, because sales of products generate income for producers and workers equal to the value of the sales.

However, because the measurement on the product and income sides proceeds somewhat independently, the two actual measures differ by a statistical discrepancy. The product-side estimates fell slightly in 2007Q4, rose slightly in 2008Q1, rose again in 2008Q2, and fell slightly in 2008Q3.

The income-side estimates reached their peak in 2007Q3, fell slightly in 2007Q4 and 2008Q1, rose slightly in 2008Q2 to a level below its peak in 2007Q3, and fell again in 2008Q3. Thus, the currently available estimates of quarterly aggregate real domestic production do not speak clearly about the date of a peak in activity.

Other series considered by the committee—including real personal income less transfer payments, real manufacturing and wholesale-retail trade sales, industrial production, and employment estimates based on the household survey—all reached peaks between November 2007 and June 2008.

The committee determined that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession, as set forth in the second paragraph of this document.

All evidence other than the ambiguous movements of the quarterly product-side measure of domestic production confirmed that conclusion. Many of these indicators, including monthly data on the largest component of GDP, consumption, have declined sharply in recent months.

http://wwwdev.nber.org/cycles/dec2008.html

As is typically the case, the trouble lies in pigeonholing- and the mass media's inability (and/or unwillingness) to present more complex notions to folks in their race to appease both the corporate conglomerates- and the lowest common denominator, who they don't want to "bore with the details."

[Xipe Totec]

21. Old news, then?

:sarcasm:

[uppityperson]

23. I hate it when I am right.

[llmart]

24. This qualifies for the.....

No Shit Sherlock Award.

[smirkymonkey]

28. In other breaking news....

water is wet.

[tclambert]

30. And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still holding on in his valiant fight

to remain dead.