Sixty-one percent of the public believes the economy is now suffering through its first recession since 2001, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
The fallout from a depressed housing market and a credit crunch nearly caused the economy to stall in the final three months of last year. Some experts, like the majority of people questioned in the poll, say the economy actually may be shrinking now. The worry is that consumers and businesses will hunker down further and pull back spending, sending the economy into a tailspin.
“Absolutely, we’re in a recession,” said Hilda Sanchez, 44, of Waterford, Calif.
Squeezed by high energy and food bills, “we can’t afford the things that we normally buy,” she said. “We are cutting corners in our spending. For our groceries, we are buying a lot of generic and we are eating out less.”
For many, the meltdown in the housing and mortgage markets has proved especially disturbing. Record numbers of people were forced from their homes, unable to afford the monthly loan payments. People watched their single biggest asset fall in value, a reason to tighten the belt.
A recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Since we haven’t had even one quarter of negative GDP growth, how can anyone say we’re in recession?
It’s an election year. Normal economic definitions of correction and recession do not apply, nor do they sell newspapers and magazines.
#1, that is the old defintiion of recession but is not used any longer, see the NBER website. The reason no one can say is that the fact is only determined retrospectively. In many recessions people did not realize they began until well into them or even until they were nearly over.
So, essentially, we’re only in a recession if we redefine what a recession is.
It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose yours. – Harry S Truman, in Observer, April 13, 1958
The recession is real. Root causes: 1. The federal deficit. Mr. Bush (remember him? Gee, no GOP candidate seems to mention ‘continuing GWB’s legacy’ or any such absurdity, I wonder why); Mr. Bush has racked up a larger budget deficit than ALL OF HIS PREDECESSORS ADDED TOGETHER. This is a Republican Administratin??? 2. Communist China and other dictatorships are propping up our economy through their investments. With the dollar falling so far so fast, how much longer until they decide to invest elsewhere? 3. The biggest sucking sound of our taxpayer dollars (and our children’s future)? Can you spell ‘I-R-A-Q’???
Yes, we are in a ‘recession’. And it will become much, much worse before it is any better. Whomever is elected the next President will be blamed for the pain to come, while Mr. Bush is playing cowboy down in Crawford. Sheesh, what a ‘legacy’!