The Recession Is Over! Really?

The

declared the recession over in June 2009, despite many of us still feeling the after effects of the recession. On the NBER's website, it said that this was the longest recession since World War 2, lasting 18 months. This was two months more than the recessions in 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months. The release goes on to say: "The committee decided that any future downturn of the economy would be a new recession and not a continuation of the recession that began in December 2007. The basis for this decision was the length and strength of the recovery to date." "The committee waited to make its decision until revisions in the National Income and Product Accounts, released on July 30 and August 27, 2010, clarified the 2009 time path of the two broadest measures of economic activity, real Gross Domestic Product (real GDP) and real Gross Domestic Income (real GDI). The committee noted that in the most recent data, for the second quarter of 2010, the average of real GDP and real GDI was 3.1 percent above its low in the second quarter of 2009 but remained 1.3 percent below the previous peak which was reached in the fourth quarter of 2007." There are a number of indicators used by the NBER to determine whether was the recession finished, including, but not limited to: Macroeconomic Advisers monthly GDP, The Stock-Watson index of monthly GDP, Their index of monthly GDI, An average of their two indexes of monthly GDP and GDI, and others. Try one of Benzinga's premium newsletters