THE COMMITTEE SPEAKS: WE’VE BEEN IN A RECESSION ALL YEAR.

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Philip

THE COMMITTEE SPEAKS: WE’VE BEEN IN A RECESSION ALL YEAR. I posted in August about the fact that a committee decides whether the United States is in a recession and what the beginning and ending dates of the recession are—just as a committee of sportswriters decides each year who was the Most Valuable Player in each of the major leagues. The committee has announced that the United States went into recession in December 2007. The alternative test of two quarters of decline in gross domestic product would have put the beginning of recession as July 1, 2008, the beginning of the third quarter, which had a slight decline in GDP.

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4 Responses to THE COMMITTEE SPEAKS: WE’VE BEEN IN A RECESSION ALL YEAR.

  1. Annalisa says:
    December 10, 2008 at 4:09 PM

    So I guess those people who were complaining about the recession 6 months ago (whom Lee and I criticized for using the term “recession” too early) were, in retrospect, technically correct for doing so?

  2. Annalisa says:
    December 10, 2008 at 4:10 PM

    Maybe this explains Mom’s 11 infections this year: her immune system is magically connected to the welfare of the U.S. economy. OOoOoOOOhhh! (How’s that for an Internet comment that will be preserved for the ages?)

  3. Philip says:
    December 10, 2008 at 4:31 PM

    If you take the definition that a recession is whatever the National Bureau of Economics committee says, then those people were right. If you take the simple test of two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic product, then they were wrong because there was no decline in GDP until the third quarter of this year (and possibly September).

  4. Pingback: HORSEBACK JUDGMENTS AND THE “MISINFORMATION POLL” (COMMENT). | Pater Familias

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