...and have been for nearly a year now! The National Bureau of Economic Research said today the U.S. economy has been in recession since December of 2007.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/081201/120108_recession.html
The above article states that, "The NBER did not give any reasons or causes of the recession. But it is widely accepted that the housing downturn, which started in 2006, is a primary cause of the broader economic malaise."
This report only confirms what most of us have known for quite some time! It's already been a "longer downturn than most" and "one of the longest downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930's".
Any thoughts? Have you been personally affected by this recession?
Annie
[question posted by anniepa]responses and comments:
There was an announcement on the news just a couple of minutes ago, saying that we're in a recession. Who didn't know that, months or even a couple of years ago? A lot of commentators have said they think it's going to get a whole lot worse. I find that unimagineble! I'm already overdrawn and waiting for a paycheck to come Friday. What's next? I hate being so poor, but it is the way it is. I quit smoking and having luches out with friends o the weekends. I won't buy any more books -- library's directly across the street. No new anything!!! This stinks! [cobrateacher]
Do you think anybody really had to be told? I read a post that seemed totally out of step with the rest of us, because she said she didn't see anybody cutting back on shopping or anything. Could she be incredibly rich? Or maybe she just hasn't paid attention. I know I wasn't even this broke while working my way through college -- and that's broke! [cobrateacher]
Boy, those guys in Washington are right on top of things aren't they? I have been on disability for over 3 years and it hasn't affected me all that much. My cars are paid for, so is my home and since I don't go to work everyday, my fuel costs haven't been effected. The cost of living adjustment has been very little and I've lost some on the price of groceries, but overall, things are about the same as they were before my accident. Now that I'm ready to return to work, it may be that I'll be affected more now, but the cost of fuel is way down and I expect the cost of goods to follow shortly. Its so nice to see you again Annie. [DrMario]
Yep they are bright as buttons having just discovered what we have all known for months. I hope they are brighter at digging their way out of it. [sharra1]
I find it weird that we have been in a recession for a year and have only really worried about it the last month or so. Does that stike you as odd? I mean to that is just weird. But no my family has not been affected by it other than my father who is a real estate agent. He has been agent for over 20 years and makes 150+. This year has been so bad that he has only make about 25K. However he says that it is now starting to pick up again. He said that he has seen this cycle before. However he does believe that ultimately the US economy will fail as we believe what is prophesied in the Bible and now is a good time since other countries are failing also. I really hope that no one really has to feel the affects of this recession it is so sad that we have all these greedy people that can't be happy making a million dollars a year they keep wanting more and more and more. We make it by on 100K and live very nicely why cant all those corporate scum bags do the same. It is just insane. [baileycows]
Recession rumors have been floating since the beginning of the year. People have been worrying about it. It's not just a recent thing. It's just that we are all more and more aware of it and those who were in denial at the beginning of the year, well, I told you so;) [jonesy123]
Surprise Surprise lol I'm sure in a few years they will come out and say, Oh, we were in a depression we just came to the conclusion after we were out of it lol I'm glad to see they are paid so much to be flakes! [ZephyrSun]
I have 4 Bibles (yeah I know it's sad the one that probably has the smallest amount of faith there is a God/god lol) and my children have bows, real ones not little plastics ones...WHERE'S my bailout?? lol [ZephyrSun]
Gee, you could just knock me over with a feather at that news! [BethsMom24]
I know, it sure was a surprise to me! Annie [anniepa]
Funny how they took so long to let the cat out of the bag. People are struggling to pay bills and buy food. Personally, we are getting ready to pare back our spending. But, where to start that is the question. [ElusiveButterfly]
Where to start, indeed! I've already cut back as much as I can but I'm going to have to find something else to cut somewhere...lol! (Actually, it isn't funny!) Annie [anniepa]
Lol, it's nice that they confirm now what we have been saying for several months. It wasn't even spring yet when people were saying we are in a recession. They are really fast with their analysis.. they just have to look at salary and wage development compared to price increases... my money isn't going that far anymore. Don't have to be a hot shot economist to figure that one out;) Personally affected? Well, not as much probably as those who lost their homes and jobs, but yes, we had to make major cuts in expenditures and cut non-essentials. My husband's job is relatively secure. At least I don't have to worry for him to be out of a job tomorrow. [jonesy123]
I know, they have their special indicators of when we're in a recession but most of us don't need any economist or anyone from the government to tell us the economy sucks. All I have to do is drive down about three blocks from my house to see all the businesses that have closed in the past year or so to know things aren't going so well. Annie [anniepa]
This time next year they'll be telling us that we've been in a depression since December 2008! [newtondak]
Well, I know I'm depressed! Annie [anniepa]
What really blows my mind is the plunge that the stock market took on hearing this 'news'. Hello!! This is no news. At least not new news. [Transdisc]
Oh, yes, we are affected. My husband and I are in our second full year of retirement. One year ago, we had a comfortable, well-diversifed nest egg in the charge of a qualified financial adviser. Today, we are looking for jobs--in an economy with unemployment is rising. Thank you to the incumbent administration, which assured us until the very last moment that our economy was basically sound. Oy . . . [LovesTravel]
That's the best part..."The fundamentals of our economy are strong..." Yeah, and I was born on Mars! Annie [anniepa]
We the public could have told them that! And to think they call that news! Funny thing is that Wall Street took a plunge at the announcment...go figure. [relundad]
We are in recession and I think it would not be easy for the economy to recover. I am not affected by recession but I know that a lot of people are losing their job. Recession is a short term problem. I think it will recover when the finance industry recover. [sdas86]
I think a lot of people didn't worry about the recession for a number of reason. #1 was that the major housing downturn was localized. If you didn't live in one of those areas that went crazy for a few years and then popped you didn't really notice the housing thing. If a person wasn't fired they didn't change their habbits because they had the same income stream, and if they moved and were stuck with two houses it is easy to see that as a bad situation for an individual rather than a wide spread problem. It was only really the gas spike followed by an huge hit on savings accounts that threw people for a loop and they started to cut back on spending significantly. That spending cutback puts us into the downward spiral we see now as people are looking for cheap homes instead of mansions. [Troublegum]
Our family knew a couple of months ago. At our school, we have been playing the Stock Market Game. It's a virtual game in which you are given virtual money to start off with to buy stocks, mutual funds, and bonds. You are given a total of 10 weeks, and the top people in the state get to go to the awards banquet. The day after we started playing, the stock market dropped 500 points. Playing this game helped me better understand the economic crisis we are currently in. My parents aren't in any danger of losing their jobs even if they buy a skin care mask, but it is affecting the people around us a lot. Many parents of my friends are frantic about being able to keep their jobs, and I am worried for them. I understand this will get even worse, and it will be at least a couple of years, maybe even a decade, before we are out of this big hole. [annabellaelizabeth]
The title you picked for this just made me laugh so hard... I actually started hiccuping! HAHA. Very nice, very nice. But yeah, I can't believe there are a lot of people that are still in denial that we're in a recession, or that they even deny one is soon approaching if you try it that way. They're gonna have a rude awakening once things REALLY start rolling downhill. [WolfSpirit292]
Wow they have finally admitted it. Everyone has known this for months but they hate using the R word, let alone the D word. I think we could well be in a depression as bad as the 1930's one but I hope not. As for being affected by it well I am on a pension with a house I own outright and one old car owned outright. So as long as I can keep paying my rates and bills I am ok. Food has certainly gone up heaps though and that hurts. We try not to use the car much so we can keep our petrol costs down. Also I saw it coming and moved my super out of shares and into cash. It does not pay much above the inflation rate but I did not lose money. Had I not moved it I would have lost thousands. [sharra1]
Annie I would be surprised if we are not in for a depression. I hope I am wrong but I think things will get worse before they get better. It is the snow ball effect. It as not come to rest yet and more companies may yet go under. [sharra1]
*bursts out laughing* I saw them talking about this on Bloomberg and I thought it was hilarious then too. And it...what only took the news anchors til Midsummer to ask "maybe we ARE in a recession?"...then Autumn-winter for the government and economists to catch up. I wanna ask 'em if they just suck at their jobs or; "Dense, much?" I don't know a single person who hasn't been affected by the economy as it's gone downward. A few friends of ours have experienced foreclosures due to tough times paying bills because of sudden medical expenses...the gas prices nearly flattened us here in rural Ohio. The food prices added a second whammy to that for alot of us. ...because this is a buyer's market and no longer a seller's market fo houses, we got to flat out trade our old burnt out place for this one so we could get out from under rent in the city so that we wouldn't go into debt like nearly everyone else around here. My family is extremely lucky, in this respect. It's changed my entire plan for my future. College is outta the picture unless someone wants me at a career college and'll let me learn there for free -- which I doubt will happen. This whole thing has opened my eyes about cars and how we travel in this country in general and I've turned my back on cars entirely; I'm working toward getting a scooter. As for houses, now I've decided that if I don't rent this one from my parents (like if they don't manage to do okay enough to buy a better patch of countrythan ths one)...then I'll work toward buying me a scrap of land and working on a mobile sort of living -- like a yurt. My career that I'm working toward has changed. I'm moving toward farming now, since food is crisis proof. It's rocked my world. Of course it's affected me, lol. [xParanoiax]
Sure, dearie and cool! I hope it turns out pretty awesome! [xParanoiax]
I guess this revelation is nothing new to many people, nor will it rattle the stock markets anything more than the constant slew of bad company performance forecasts, poor performance results, collapse of big institutions and foreclosure problems. Technically, more and more countries are finding themselves in some form of recession, my country included. Almost as far back as a year ago, US citizens were already feeling the strain of recession in their daily lives, but usually when the economists and politicians make such announcements, they go by the economic indicators as the official gauge, and that is that countries are only in technical recession when they suffer at least two consecutive quarters of growth decline compared to the same period a year back. So by the time such news are officially confirmed and announced, it will be old news to those on the ground who have for months been suffering the effects of such a recession. [lexus54]
Oh, I'm truly sorry about Sissy. I'll lend you my shoulders to cry on. I'm a cat lover too, and when I saw little Sissy in that avatar, I was attracted to her. [lexus54]
Its not recession just over there. In India here, its the same thing. Most recession is seen in IT feilds. There are more than lackhs of IT professionals fired from their jobs and every year, more of them are just adding to it by passing out. [anurag440044]
That's right, I think the entire world is affected by this bad economy. I just hope somebody finds a way to get us back on track before it's too late. Annie [anniepa]
that's really funny. did anyone know this until we were actually told we were? [kuzzon1960]
I think just about everybody knew it except for the few who fell for the claims that "the fundamentals of our economy are generally sound" as McCain said a few days before he suspended his campaign to go fix the economic crisis! Annie [anniepa]
It seems to me that the rest of the world has been aware of the situation for a very long time now or certainly some months. I am not an American and nor do I live in the U.S. but I can read the newspapers and listen to the news, so have been aware of the situation for a long time. In fact if these people, i.e. the politicians, their advisors and the bureaucrats were not the ones who make the decisions, releasing this information at this late date could be funny. Instead it is rather scary if we think about it. At this time here in Australia we are not in recession but it could still happen all the same. We are lucky that our previous Liberal government amassed a substantial surplus which the current Labor government are busy spending or maybe better to say a lot of it is being given to pensioners. low income earners and families with dependant children. The hope is that when this money is given out in the next week or so that people will go out and spend it to stimulate the economy. Only time will tell of course whether this is the best strategy for the government to adopt. Also interest rates are dropping considerably in recent months which should help many of those who have a mortgage to pay. AS in many other countries though is the risk that some comopanies might have to retrench employees or possibly go out of business. Our unemployment was very low until the end of 2007 when we got a change of government but it has risen a bit since then. All we can really do is hoope that the situation doesn't worsen and in fact things start to improve in the near future. I think that thse who will be worst affected are the self-funded retirees who will now have seen a huge drop in their income. [oldboy46]
I'm in San Antonio, and we are now the most prosperous city in the United States. The reason we are only slightly affected by this recession is our medical, military, and tourism base. Because the price of gas dropped due to decreased demand, tourism has remained strong. The military bases here continue to be active, and, in stressful times, such as these are, the medical field is always needed. But, also, South Texas is very much into agriculture, and we benefitted from the higher commodity prices, just as Oklahoma did. Even if they have now backed off a bit, along with oil, the farmers had a good year. And they spent their money largely on more equipment, and that did the manufacturers in Oklahoma and Texas, and there are a considerable number of them, lots of good. OK, what caused the recession? Bad money management and a lack of accountability in commercial banking from investors who knew little about autocad for one. All that bail-out money just went into the back pockets of the very ones that created the mess, instead of to the consumers who are caught in crunch. Ignored was, and still is, by most of the rest of the country the effects of Hurricane Ike on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Of course, Texas and Louisiana aren't ignoring it. They're watching as the fat cats in New York City get bailed out, instead. It just shows the priority of the news media, and who's bankrolling them. The borrower serves the lender, and these news media outlets have borrowed their share, and they also depend on the advertising revenue of these same companies. At any rate, once the mortgage companies had made all these loans to the home buyers, they then turned around and lent it to each other in the form of derivatives. They got the great idea that you could take a loan, call it an asset, and loan that money out, and therefore increase your asset. That's the way banking works - what is to us a debt is to them an asset. But, what increases their assets, also increased their risk, if the original loan failed. Which many did. While this little shell game was going on, to the tune of trillions of dollars that didn't actually exist, the oil companies started seeing the advantage of feeding at the trough with the rest of the pigs, and made up reasons why they had to raise the price of oil and gas. The devastating effects of hurricanes in the Gulf. Increased demand from China and India. Whatever. Oh, my favorite: we're running out of oil. I'm so sure. And people kept paying it, even as it went to $4/gal for gasoline, and even more for diesel. But that had it's effect - you got to cut somewhere, and they suddenly decided they were either going to go without eating or clothing, or they were going to be late on the house payment and fight it out with the bank. Or they were going to not purchase that new home, and fix up the old one instead. Or they were going to put off buying that $30,000 truck that only a few years ago was 1/2 that. Subsequently, businesses started cutting back, and reducing inventory - which is what you do if you're seeing the signs of a downturn. They also started laying people off, or forcing early retirement, or reducing them to part-time to get around having to pay unemployment. That brought on the end result, recession. The question is not whether we are in a recession. We knew that when I was back up in SW Missouri over a year ago. The question is what do we do about it? How do we make a turnaround. Despite Mr. Obama's grand plans, the answer is not the Federal government taking over the banking industry. It is not them fixing health care. It is not them starting a conflict with nations such as Russia and Iran. Those nations would beat us hands down with a chief executive that has no understanding of war, and would not manage the resources and logistics it takes to take on such powerful adversaries. No, the answer is really quite simple. Either start a business, or support your local businesses. It can be anything from buying a horse, and then buying from a local feed store. Or better yet, feed your pets Canidae or Felidae (the dog and cat food I used to sell), which is only distributed by independent stores. Or, raise cash in other ways - make crafts, do house cleaning or construction clean-up, do some canning of fresh fruits and Vegetables and then sell them, and by all means, take at least 10% of your earnings and donate to a church, a pastor, a charity, or someone in need of food or housing. The real key is to do for ourselves, and for our neighbors. When we truly have our hearts in the right place, God will once again bless this nation. And He'll bless the other nations as well. He'll bless Russia - which has really done fairly well given the severity of the recession that they have suffered. He'll bless China, India, Pakistan, Mexico, and Venezuela. He'll even bless merry ol' England, and they've really gone through it. There's always hope, at least. We'll get through this. We'll do it by using this internet community. We'll do it by making ends meet, and praying real hard for the next paycheck. We'll do it by having the courage to stand up for our convictions. I'm not against Democrats, and those that advocate governmental solutions, as much as I am against those who would turn us away from God, and a higher and a more moral lifestyle. There are many arguments for using government, but this credit crunch and recession has started a healthy debate. I wish Mr. Obama hadn't been elected, but he was, and Congress is now Democratic, and where does that leave us independent businessmen and women? It depends on where you live, but it also depends on what regulations and taxes they will impose. If Mr. Obama had ever had to go out, with little capital and start a business, as I have several times, he would probably have a slightly different viewpoint on the role of government. As a paint store owner told me one time, in response to a question I asked about what the role of government is. His reply, "I just want them to leave me alone." Well said. Stay out of our business, thank-you very much. Have a very merry Christmas, and good luck with your post. It's a great one. Dan [keymandan]
I hope so, too, Precious. I sincerely hope that we can become the country we once were - virtuous, blessed, and a little closer to God. I don't know - we may find in times to come that we are further and further from Him. Why? Because we simply do not accept the simple message of Christ: that salvation is our key. To repent, and to turn away from sin. For the Kingdom of God is truly at hand, now as ever. I am no saint, don't get me wrong. By the way, my music website is www.soundclick.com/danmatheny I'd very much like you'd to listen to it. You won't find anything on there, except "Pigs Can Fly", that is not family friendly. I had to write "Pigs Can Fly". The fact was that my ex had lost her mind, temporarily. Other than that song, I believe you will enjoy everything I did. Let me know what you think. [keymandan]
I'm in debt up the wazoo, but it has nothing to do with the economy. The fault is in my own improper use of credit cards. Isn't that what has caused this country's financial problems, improper use of credit? I still have a job, I'm still making as much money as before, but I'm trying to be more careful with my money. I think before the politicians start passing out all sorts of money to those that want, they should ask themselves, if the money was coming out of my pocket, would I support this project? It also wouldn't hurt for the politicians to talk with economist before being so free with other people's money. [6precious102]
I saved more money last year than I ever have in my life. I am richer now than I've ever been. [Drumman]
I'm happy for you. Congratulations! Annie [anniepa]
This recession hasn't effected me, but my one financial stupidity has. [bestboy19]
I wasn't surprised to here this at all. [Bd200789]
When we drove through the States over a year ago, and I saw all those corn fields and the announcements on the billboards that said, "we use ethanol, we do not depend on foreign oil," I said to my husband, the food prices are going to go up. And I was right. Not only did the food prices go up from what I heard when we got back from our trip from the other mylotters, but the gas went up to over $4.00 a gallon, then came the Fannie Mae, and the people not being able to pay on their mortgages. I knew this would happen. And with the Democratic congress preventing oil drilling in the States until it was too late and they needed a presidential order, I knew this would happen. Such a cruel way to get rid of the Republicans to cause a recession. [suspenseful]
Dems have been in Congress for the past 2 years - when things 'started getting bad'. [Benjaminna]
My family hasn't really been affected by the recession. But then we have always been responsible, lived within our means and saved money. [Benjaminna]
I understand what your saying. Don't get me wrong though - we have deffently had our share of hardship over the past couple years. A few months after we bought our first house my husband was laid off, we had a flood in our basement which ruined everything, last winter my 4 year old fell and broke her arm which ended up costing us big bucks - even after insurance. We had to replace a water heater and ac/heater unit, van started smoking and ended up costing over $1,000 to fix and even the most recent, my 3 year old decided to see if he could flush a roll of toilet paper down the toilet - 2 days of plunging and nothing coming up we had to call a plumber and sad to say there was another couple hundred bucks. That's just to name a few... [Benjaminna]
And the pain will be much worse, its only just begun say most financial pundits. Who on this planet has not been affected by the meltdown in some way or the other? Bad money management, the greed of the ratings agencies (its a question of who will watch the watchdogs), rising oil prices during a major portion of the year, bad leadership are some of the underlying causes for the recession. The effects were felt towards mid to end January 2008 in India with huge crashes in the stock markets - which at one point of time had crashed by almost 70 percent of the high, rise in inflation - this had gone to double digits just a few months ago. Fortunately, India consumes almost 70 percent of its gross domestic product, and the dollar has risen now considerably against the Indian rupee (almost 25 percent) to help make exports more viable. I think the world is going to come out stronger, better and more connected than ever before once this crisis has been tided over. [tarachand]