Is the Great Recession over?
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession, but not necessarily its pain, has probably ended
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession is 'very likely over.'
(EPA/Pool/Corbis/Chris Ratcliffe)
Ben Bernanke says the recession is “very likely over”—does that make you “breathe a sigh of relief”? said Kimberly Amadeo in About.com. “I didn’t think so.” That “queasy” feeling you have in the pit of your stomach is probably telling you something different—that with unemployment, bankruptcies, and foreclosures still rising, the economic crisis is still on, “even IF the recession is over (notice the big IF).”
Your gut and Bernanke are both right, said 24/7 Wall Street. Bernanke wasn’t being “insensitive” to the ongoing “human misery” when he told the Brookings Institution that the recession has, technically, ended—he’s just “very specific about his choice of words and his role in the system.” He isn’t in charge of “promoting happiness,” just monetary policy.
Yes, Bernanke—our “most famous student of the Great Depression”—is probably right about the “technical” end of the Great Recession, said Dan Burrows in DailyFinance. Unfortunately, he's probably also right in suggesting it will be a long, jobless recovery. But there are some resaons for hope: “Consumers opened their wallets and purses last month,” spending the most in three and a half years.
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6 Comments
Posted by venice.mentor, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 1:05 pm JOKE! It has just begun folks and we have 545 people in Washington who have no bloody idea. HOPE CHANGE, another joke. The more things change the more they stay the same. The economic situation reminds me of the dust storms in the 30's and those lasted for 10 years. Still, for years and years no one paid any attention as to how they were created. They raped the land like the government has raped the public, there is nowhere to go. Thanks Bernanke for your insightfulness NOT!!!!!!!
Posted by Michael J. Gorman, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 3:04 pm Don't people realize that one of the reasons for the improving economy is the higher unemployment? Individuals are left out of a share in the pie so the overall economy can recover. Many who lost good jobs will never have good jobs again, and will be lucky to be flipping hamburgers in McDonalds or sorting mail in the post office, part time. College grads and even graduate school professionals will face a pretty bleak employment picture, and it won't get better very soon. The talented few will do well, and the rest will have to support them.
Posted by GD, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 5:45 pm The problem is that the US cost of living is so high that even with very high productivity levels, we can't afford the full range of jobs. I really don't see how an economy as large as ours can survive without a vibrant manufacturing sector. And dare I say that it seems like only illegals are willing to work the remaining laborintensive jobs in agriculture, construction, etc. What's particularly odd to me is that the EU appears to have mostly solved this dilemma. Is it their ... ack ... more socialist governments?
Posted by Rob, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 8:36 pm GASOLINE PRICE MANIPULATION. How come everyone forgets that the price of gas was 5 plus per gallon at the same time that the economy tanked? We are in for a tough slog, but don't worry, as long as we have cheap burgers, air conditioning, guns, and god, the American public will continue to grumble and take it up the as.
Posted by glenn in CA, Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 10:10 pm Sorry! but the recession ain't over until reform on finance is in the bag and Lehman's PresidentCEO, Board of Directors and the CEO of the 81 failed banks this year are in jail! Then we should curtail bonuses and write a law to protect investors. 401K's never again! thanks god or somebody I have a millitary and CALpers retirement. Your greed is my lose don't you forget it! I'm not religous, at all, but if you are remember we've been fighting greed and usury for 2000 years. Jesus or not its time we stop it now!
Posted by Michael J. Gorman, Thursday, September 17, 2009, 2:46 pm Nobel Prize winner, Professor Joseph Stiglitz, predicts the recession's end won't come until around 2012. He hammers the use of complex derivatives which he says are against the common good. He says they were designed to manage risk, but just increase risk. According to Stiglitz, with companies like Goldman Sachs, that trade on their proprietary desk and on behalf of customers, you have conflicts of interest, front running, and insider trading. Stiglitz is right that the common good must be protected from high risk schemes.
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