Sunday, May 17, 2009

Acclaimed Economist Says Recession Is Over at SmartMoney.com

Acclaimed Economist Says Recession Is Over at SmartMoney.com: "The source is Robert J. Gordon, an acclaimed macroeconomist and professor at Northwestern University. It’s surprising to learn he thinks the recession is over, because he is one of seven members of the elite Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Analysis . These are the people who decide officially, for the record books, when recessions begin and end—usually many months after the fact, when the decision is really obvious. I’m unaware of any previous case in which a member of this Committee has ever stepped forward and declared the end of a recession in real time.

Gordon bases his gutsy call on an indicator that he says the Committee never even looks at: claims for unemployment benefits."

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Sure hope he's right.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I hope he is right, too, but any optimism is seriously tempered by the current government situation.

The current federal government has become an insane asylum run by the inmates! I have no confidence whatsoever in any of them from the president on down to do anything but meddle in the economy in a harmful way. If we have any semblance of economic revival in this country, it will be DESPITE the actions of Washington, NOT because of it's heavy handed intervention.