U.S. Recession May Have Begun in Last Quarter of 2007 (Update2)

[Doctor Cynic]

Source: Bloomberg

July 31 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy may have slipped into a recession in the last three months of 2007 as consumer spending slowed more than previously estimated and the housing slump worsened, revised government figures indicated.

The world's largest economy contracted at a 0.2 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter of last year compared with a previously reported 0.6 percent gain, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Growth for the period from 2005 through 2007 was also trimmed.

The revisions now reinforce measures such as employment and production that already signaled the economy was shrinking. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based arbiter of economic cycles, defines a recession as a ``significant'' decrease in activity over a sustained period of time. The declines would be visible in GDP, payrolls, production, sales and incomes.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axADxPkA6IA8&refer=home

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But I thought this is a mental recession here!

[LiberalFighter]

1. It began at least January 20, 2001

[Robbien]

2. Well, it really began the second FDR was laid to rest

when the dismantling of the middle class began in earnest. The revolutions of the 60s/70s slowed down the dismantling, but one can never keep the elite down for long on their mission to transfer wealth from anyone other than the elite.

[The Croquist]

4. No it may have begun in the first quarter of 2008

Your personal opinion on when a recession begins is your opinion but it isn't the definition.

If a recession lasts 63 years it's not a recession, it's normal.

[24HRrnr]

5. It isn't a recession yet.

It takes two consequective quarters of negative GDP growth to qualify.

Slowed to a crawl is different than a recession.

[sentelle]

6. thats when the U.S. Repression began

Not the US reCession.

Help, Help, I'm being repressed!

[SpiralHawk]

3. "D'oh" - Average American Citizens

If the cabal of corupt republicon homelanders had not been cooking the books and fudging the statistics so thoroughly, even the pathetic - D'oh - corporate media might have gotten a clue before now.