It’s official.. The United States is in a recession. We are losing jobs, everyone is broke, people are struggling, and most people are confused, scared and don’t know what to do or say. Alot of people are holding on to their jobs, not spending their hard earned money, and waiting these hard times out.
The article from CNBC:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27999439
The U.S. economy slipped into recession in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research’s business cycle dating committee announced on Monday.
The NBER’s committee, considered the arbiter of U.S. recessions, said its members met by conference call on Friday and concluded that the 73-month economic expansion had ended.
The previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.
Many Wall Street financial institutions already had said the recession began in December 2007, when the US encountered a sharp increase in the unemployment rate.
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.
The last two recessions have been so short—about eight monrths—that the NBER’s official prenouncement came after the downturn had actually ended.
In Nov 2001, for instance, the group said the recession had begun in March of that year. History would later show the recession ended in November of 2001.
“A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough,” the NBER said in a statement. “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 group added. “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,” the statement said. “This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then.”
December 1, 2008
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