The people who make the official call for the start and end point of recessions, which is the National Bureau of Economic Research, announced on September 20 that the recession officially hit bottom in June 2009. We need to look at what that actually means. The bottom point of the economic cycle is considered the end of a recession. The Bureau calculated the low point, or the trough, was in June last year. Since then the economy has been recovering, although slowly.
Most people I know will be surprised to hear the recession has been over for 14 months. All that means is we hit bottom and are slowly digging our way out. Contrary to what we are feeling here in Southern California, the economy nationwide has been growing. Really. Overall, there has been growth. You can see the actual data here.
One thing I noticed in the official announcement: If the economy slows again, it will be a new recession. If that happens in the near future, it would be the much discussed “double dip”.
If you really want the hard data behind their decision, they have a spreadsheet available with the raw data. That is a bit much for me, so I won’t be reading it.
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