WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2008
It's Official: U.S. In Yearlong Recession
Economy Fell Into Recession In December 2007, National Bureau Of Economic Research Says
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The NBER — a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.
By one benchmark, a recession occurs whenever the gross domestic product, the total output of goods and services, declines for two consecutive quarters. The GDP turned negative in the July-September quarter of this year, and many economists believe it is falling in the current quarter at an even sharper rate.
But the NBER's dating committee uses broader and more precise measures, including employment data. In a news release, the group said its cycle dating committee held a telephone conference call on Friday and made the determination on when the recession began.
The White House commented on the news that a second downturn has officially begun on President George W. Bush's watch without ever actually using the word "recession," a term the president and his aides have repeatedly avoided. Instead, spokesman Tony Fratto remarked upon the fact that NBER "determines the start and end dates of business cycles."
"What's important is what is being done about it," Fratto said. "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."
Many economists believe the current downturn will be the most severe since the 1981-82 recession. The country is being battered by the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s as banks struggle to deal with billions of dollars in loan losses.
The Bush administration won approval from Congress on Oct. 3 for a $700 billion rescue package for the financial system. Bush said in an interview with ABC's "World News" to be aired Monday that he would support additional intervention if necessary to end the recession.
"I'm sorry it's happening, of course," Bush said, referring to a global financial crisis that has eliminated millions of jobs and damaged retirement accounts.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that further interest rate cuts were possible but he cautioned that there were limits to how much such action will be able to revive an economy expected to remain weak well into next year.
"Although further reductions ... are certainly feasible, at this point the scope for using conventional interest rate policies to support the economy is obviously limited," Bernanke said in a speech to business executives in Austin, Texas. The Fed is widely expected to cut a key interest rate when officials next meet on Dec. 15-16.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also was scheduled to give a speech Monday providing an update on how the government's rescue efforts are working to deal with the economic distress.
Two new reports provided a grim snapshot of how steep the economic slump is becoming. The Commerce Department reported Monday that construction spending fell by a larger-than-expected 1.2 percent in October, while the Institute for Supply Management said its gauge of manufacturing activity dropped to a 26-year low in November.
The GDP contracted by 0.2 percent at an annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2007, but that that drop was followed growth in the first two quarters of this year, partially boosted by the distribution of millions of economic stimulus payments.
However, employment, one of the measurements tracked by the NBER, has been falling since January.
The NBER decision means that the economic expansion lasted from November 2001 until December 2007. Economic expansions peak and recessions begin in the same month, according to the NBER's dating methods. Founded in 1920, the NBER has more than 1,000 university professors and researchers who act as bureau associates, studying how the economy works.
The decision on the recession means that during the eight years that Bush has been in office, the country has seen two recessions. The first downturn lasted from March 2001 until November of that year.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 98 CommentsNO!! really??? whatever gave them THAT idea? according to king george not long ago the economy was STRONG and recession was not even uttered!
It only took this long for old George W Bush, to figure out what every working stiff has known all along.Well I always knew George took one to many kicks to the head from his father''s horses as a kid. Or maybe the only way George Senior got through to George W as a kid was using a baseball bat.
Pathetic.
Time for a change!!!
Posted by lady_organs "
Oh? WHEN did "liberals" supposedly "take" congress? The new administration isnt even IN yet, but MY how you overlook repub''s BORROW and spend BORROW and spend, and the $10 BILLION /mo war we didnt need, but I guess $10 B/mo is chump change when you look at the 5 trillion debt under Clinton ROARING to over $10 trillion on it''s way up to 11 under the repub/bush regime in just 7 years!
Oh, you mean when the "libs" "took" congress when last Nov they garned about ONE more Senate or house seat but the repubs still controlled the house or senate and the president is repub too and still controlled everything?
Honey, ONE seat doesnt control either the house or senate, ya need a far bigger margin like a 2/3rds MAJORITY, or enough to override the kings constant vetos, and that hasnt happened yet.
They are also the same body that determines if we are in a Depression or not.
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Posted by Glidescube
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I am sure Bush had the place disinfected after Clinton left... So Obama should be good.
What, are the 2008 elections over or something?
Oh more excuses from you bleeding liberals about how your man Obama isnt to be blamed because he hasnt taken office yet. You liberals are pathetic!
Are you serious? I guess it hurts to have to admit the loser you voted for twice has put us in this mess,since after all, HE WAS IN OFFICE.
Remember Enron? Phil Graham (both of Texas)
Every patriot in this country should have a photo of Phil Graham framed with a toilet seat for this economic mess. He was President Bush''s economic advisor.
Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson,Ronald Reagan and George Bush followed Phil Graham''s economic ideaology and it failed the country miserably!!
Deregulation sucks!!! Airlines, telecoms, credit banks, mortgage finance, automakers....barely alive, and begging for more, while sending the worker to the unemployment line.
You are trying to make something out of nothing. Who cares about hair splitting textbook definitions. The facts are the economy sucks. The president ,whether right or wrong takes the blame and/or the credit for the economy. Bush is in office. He gets the blame. It is really in bad shape no matter what yard stick you want to use. Try being less paranoid.
I happily voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and would gleefully do so again without thinking.
Obviously you did it the first two times without thinking, why not a third.
Posted by lady_organs at 01:57 PM : Dec 01, 2008
You should put something at the end to indicate that you are putting people on here OR everyone will think you have lost your mind! ROFLMAO I guess "Trickle Down" didn''t work.. YET AGAIN huh?
No, it''s just the truth of boosh incompetence.
And you are thinking Obama conspiracy? Get help.
Mission Accomplished.
Posted by lady_organs at 02:17 PM : Dec 01, 2008
Civil unrest just doesn''t happen that easily in a country like China, where people are used to living under repressive rule for eons.
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Posted by lady_organs at 02:17 PM : Dec 01, 2008
That would be the U.S. that you are talking about.
It''s time to face reality there girl...This an''t Kansas anymore..or any other state either
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Can''t take any more of those REPUBLISCUM BOOM BUSINESS CYCLES, we''ll all end op destitute
It took them a year to determine what everyone else knew was a fact for over a year!
Naturally, the Great Emperor Bush II still does NOT believe that the country is in a recession, let alone a DEPRESSION that many of us "ignorant, average" citizens are now saying. Like his father before him back in 1992, the Great Emperor Bush II refuses to admit his neocon Ferengi "dribble down" economics DOES NOT WORK!
There must be a defective gene in the Bush physiology that makes them all so STUPID! Perhaps it is a virus that infects others to be equally stupid to vote anyone named BUSH into any kind of political office!
SIG HEIL, I MAY BE STUPID, BUT I''M SITTING ON A PILE OF YOUR MONEY!!!, BUSH!!!
george w bush
texas
Posted by lady_organs at 02:29 PM : Dec 01, 2008
Obama doesn''t have anything to do with it yet..
It''s all on your little boy goerges shoulders.
Does that make you feel better, knownly to vote for the fall of America?
Yup, that''s what you did alright!
Troll alert,,,,,troll alert
Lady-organ maybe a human organ, But she''s no lady?
LOL
____________________
Geeze lady_organs, you really know how to bring them out don''t you.
For the rest of you out here, lady_organs is the troll gop_willwin, gop_4ever, gophockeymom, paidgopschill. Some of you folks need to recognize a troll by its foot prints.
No one brings you out like gop, or whatever her name is this week, can.
During George W. Bushies Watch !
The Worst President In US HISTORY with a Current approval rating of 26% & Most of the Republican Party did not want anything to do with him during the elections or their name to be associated with George W. Bush the most unpopular President in US HISTORY !
U know thats right !
I thought you guys would have picked up on that post I made to Lady-organs, being a di(k head...
NO!
Say it ain''t so.
I thought you guys would have picked up on that post I made to Lady-organs, being a di(k head...
Posted by slim1h2o at 03:17 PM : Dec 01, 2008
I got it!! But I was too much of a "lady" to say anything. Do you believe that?:)
Posted by erasmus606 at 03:29 PM : Dec 01, 2008
HMM,,Can I think about for a minute?
Another new name?
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying %u2014 along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK %u2014 regulators delayed action for nearly one year.
SOMEBODY NEEDS TO GO TO JAIL FOR THIS MESS, starting with Bush.
GREED GREED GREED-an American tradition.
Just another MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
You morons that voted for Bush, TWICE, are to blame for all this mess.
Posted by slim1h2o at 03:35 PM : Dec 01, 2008
You''re lying.:)
Yes, new name. I can''t for the life of me understand what I did this time. Ok, maybe it was from having "conversations".:)
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