In fact, it was over about 15 months ago, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists based in Cambridge, Mass. They say the recession lasted 18 months, starting in December 2007 and ending in June 2009. That was the longest of any recession since World War II.
Ann Brenoff, writing at WalletPop, explains why you may be excused if you didn’t notice the end of the recession.
“There are only a few pesky problems with that declaration: What to do with those 14.9 million or so people who still don’t have jobs (more if you count those who have given up looking out of futility)?” she noted. “Or the foreclosure plague that has wiped out entire communities? Or the fact that food banks are stressed to the breaking point with hungry families? Or that more than a few people can’t remember what the inside of a shopping mall looks like and panic when they misplace a grocery coupon?”
Richard Eskow writes at the Campaign for America’s Future: “The situation on the ground—in the lives of the millions of people who must survive in today’s economy—hasn’t changed. We still need jobs, and we still need a concerted government effort to create them….
“An analogy: When the earth stops shaking, seismologists all agree that an earthquake is over. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s left a lot of wreckage behind.”
Even the National Bureau of Economic Research, itself, acknowledged that the recovery from the recession has been very slow, saying, “the committee did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity.”
For months, progressives and economists have warned that the slow recovery could create a second double-dip recession. The only way out of this mess, they point out, is to create jobs—not rush to cut the budget.
Last week, a group of 300 prominent economists issued a statement, “Don’t Kill Growth and Jobs in the Name of Deficit Reduction.” They are urging the president and lawmakers to take bold action to create jobs and restore fiscal responsibility while investing in the future.
James Parks writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, where this article originally appeared.
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In fact, it was over about 15 months ago, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of academic economists based in Cambridge, Mass. They say the recession lasted 18 months, starting in December 2007 and ending in June 2009. That was the longest of any recession since World War II.
Ann Brenoff, writing at WalletPop, explains why you may be excused if you didn’t notice the end of the recession.
“There are only a few pesky problems with that declaration: What to do with those 14.9 million or so people who still don’t have jobs (more if you count those who have given up looking out of futility)?” she noted. “Or the foreclosure plague that has wiped out entire communities? Or the fact that food banks are stressed to the breaking point with hungry families? Or that more than a few people can’t remember what the inside of a shopping mall looks like and panic when they misplace a grocery coupon?”
Richard Eskow writes at the Campaign for America’s Future: “The situation on the ground—in the lives of the millions of people who must survive in today’s economy—hasn’t changed. We still need jobs, and we still need a concerted government effort to create them….
“An analogy: When the earth stops shaking, seismologists all agree that an earthquake is over. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s left a lot of wreckage behind.”
Even the National Bureau of Economic Research, itself, acknowledged that the recovery from the recession has been very slow, saying, “the committee did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity.”
For months, progressives and economists have warned that the slow recovery could create a second double-dip recession. The only way out of this mess, they point out, is to create jobs—not rush to cut the budget.
Last week, a group of 300 prominent economists issued a statement, “Don’t Kill Growth and Jobs in the Name of Deficit Reduction.” They are urging the president and lawmakers to take bold action to create jobs and restore fiscal responsibility while investing in the future.
James Parks writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, where this article originally appeared.