from the pages of duh!journal: economic “news”
duh!journal scours the earth for dumb behavior….some low brow…some high minded…all duh!
just in case you haven’t heard or didn’t know….check out the lead story on cnn.com under breaking news! wow! i didn’t know that!
It’s official: Recession since Dec. ’07
The National Bureau of Economic Research declares what most Americans already knew: the downturn has been going on for some time.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — 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 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 committee views the payroll employment measure, which is based on a large survey of employers, as the most reliable comprehensive estimate of employment,” said the group’s statement. “This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then.”
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.
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.
“The most important things we can do for the economy right now are to return the financial and credit markets to normal, and to continue to make progress in housing, and that’s where we’ll continue to focus,” he said. “Addressing these areas will do the most right now to return the economy to growth and job creation.” 
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thanks, cnn! wow! who knew? i thought all this talk of bailouts, job loss, panic on black friday was just for fun! did we really need an “official” announcement?
i guess somebody did.
someone duh!
Posted under duh! journal
That CNN “Breaking News” seems so much like an Onion thing. But anyway it’s also duh! on the part of the National Bureau of Economic Research since they’re the ones who say if we’re in a recession or not.
it does seem like an onion article! but it was real!
bush also said he had not heard we were in recession awhile back!
Yes this recession is different. First you see people shouting in glee that yes we are in a recession. Then consider the political infighting that we see daily. This infighting causes all parties to give money to whomever in hopes of getting votes during the next election cycle.
Our leaders are not putting our nation’s best interest first. They are selfish imbeciles that need to grow up a play with each other’s toys.
Yes it is true that we see a recession about every three years, and when we do they usually last about 8.5 months. This time politics will bring to the table spending and their denial of the situation won’t get us out of this mess.
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
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