The Recession's Been Over for More Than a Year. Can't You Tell?

[dajoki]

The Recession's Been Over for More Than a Year. Can't You Tell?
by Josie Raymond September 20, 2010 09:32 AM (PT)
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/the_recessions_been_over_for_more_than_a_year_cant_you_tell

Ok, everybody, you can go back to work now. The recession officially ended back in June 2009, according to research released today by the National Bureau of Economic Research. So what are you waiting for?

Oh right, jobs, since the unemployment rate of 9.6 percent is higher than it was in June 2009. And jobs that pay a living wage at that, since a record 40 million people, many of them the working poor, rely on food stamps. And health care, since 51 million Americans are without health insurance. The list goes on.

The NBER, the independent group that tracks recessions, pointed out that the Great Recession lasted 18 months, from December 2007 to June 2009. What that means is that the economy hit bottom in June 2009 and has been growing ever since, however slowly.

A full year and half-long economic downturn makes it the longest recession since World War II. The longest postwar recessions had previously been 16 months apiece, from 1973 to 1975 and from 1981 to 1982.

Thnakfully, the group also recognizes that the end of a recession doesn't mean things are hunky-dory on Main Street USA. "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," it said in a report.

Things are looking so bad in fact, that some economists suspect the beginning of another downtown, a double-dip recession. National Bureau of Economic Research experts disagree, though, saying that any future downturn would be categorized as a new recession due to "the length and strength of the recovery to date." Funny how statistics can paint a picture so far from real life.

[Motown_Johnny]

1. the recession has been over, the economy is growing again

That doesn't mean that we have made up the ground we have lost. It simply means that we are gaining ground.

[dajoki]

2. Could of fooled me n/t

[Newest Reality]

3. When it comes to

economic stats and the "real" people, maybe it is over for them. In fact, the whining, lazy, deadbeat rich are doing very well and have recovered. Companies are sitting on a lot of capital, etc. There are many, in your face factors all around us now that are continuing to decay, across-the-board and they show no signs of improving at all. In fact, things are crumbling away as we speak.

The disconnect is that it really doesn't matter what is happening to the rest of us. That should start to stand-out even more glaringly as this collapse deepens and the boondoggles and propaganda fail to maintain the facade that the rest of us are in, or will see, a recovery. Two + two = five can only go so far.

The kind of news is kind of like what "all men are created equal" meant to white land and slave owners compared to what it meant to Native Americans, Blacks, and other minorities at that time. I think many people are starting to get that. Falling for bullshit is what is keeping the show going for the owners of it all.

"YOU? We don't mean you. We mean US!" That's the story and inferring anything else is an error.

[raccoon]

4. Great post. nt

[LaPera]

5. It has been! - This is the new America from now on......Yea!!!

With a huge unemployed pool for corporations to choose from.... to keep wages as low as possible (you don't want the job? There's a thousand who do, at even less pay) benefits if any will be at a minimum and coming out of your pay....while destroying every social program & fabric - will give order to privatizing every aspect of government for the collusive, corner-cutting, over charging, greedy, deregulated corporations (no government oversight, do as they please)....You and I are just peons, peasants that have no voice and no unions....We the workers, the once middle-class & the small business is what the republicans have led us to- The recession is indeed over- This is now the equivalence of what we can expect - This is America after the recession is over.

[raouldukelives]

6. Give it some time

In another year or so all the people whose unemployment has run out will stop being counted. Then we will have a 0% unemployment rate! Just think of the market rally!