We’ve all heard the joke when our neighbor loses a job it’s a recession, but when we lose a job to depression. Apparently, that definition of recession contains too much common sense.
According to a group of academic economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, the Great Recession ended in June 2009 during a plague unemployment, foreclosures, and decimated home prices.
Yep. No worries. The recession has been over for 15 months! That’s the reason you’ve seen so many ostentatious block parties and inconspicuous consumption. It’s the economy, stupid!
In all seriousness, as Barry Ritholtz notes, “No, we are not still in a recession as some people have asserted. No, its not a depression. The wheel has turned, the trough is more than a year behind us. This is not a robust recovery, but the economy is now expanding, not contracting.” GDP, Industrial Production, Personal Income, and Retail Sales have all stopped contracting. But Unemployment still feels recessionary and has not proven more than a temporary (Census hiring) expansion:
(Don’t Miss: “Your Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Unemployment Numbers“)
Although the NBER made a subjective call, we can now officially say we lived through the second worst recession since the Great Depression:
Source: WSJ
Do you think the recession ended in June 2009? If not, let us know why in the comments below …
Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet
