Recession is "over" but the REPUBLICAN DYSTOPIA grinds on...

[JohnWxy]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x450261

[Ian David]

1. IIRC, a "Recession" is a Trend, not an A or B state.

The end of the Recession just means we're no longer in a downward death spiral-- things are trending toward being better.

Does not mean that everything is wonderful now.

[JohnWxy]

2. I know how they define "Recession". What I'm saying is they should define it to be consisstent with

common sense. When we move from economic contraction to expansion - just say that: "the economy has stopped contracting and started growing."

For people, the matter of recession is NOT a matter of direction but it is a binary matter. You're either employed or you're are not and it is hard to find another job.

Recession is really that threshold of employment below which people feel it..that is, they experience that there are too many people out of work and it takes too long to come up with another job. Where to place this threshold is subject to debate. I threw out 6.5% unemployment. You might want to add into the consideration the time it takes to get another job. That's important to people too.

The way it is now, defining a recession as a certain number of quarters of contraction doesn't really mean much to people. If you are talking about contraction versus expansion then say that. But leave the term 'Recession' to apply to a level of employment below which there are too many people out of work and it takes too long to find another job.. and above which people have a reasonably good chance of getting a job in a reasonable length of time (3, 6 months ? - i.e. anything longer would be too much). When you go below that level of employment (or above the corresponding level of unemployment) - that would be a recession. That would be more meaningful than the way it is defined now.