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The U.S. is in a Recession

It's official: the United States has been in a recession for a year now, the National Bureau of Economic Research confirmed today.

From NY Times...

The committee noted that the contraction in the labor market began in the first month of 2008 and said that the declines in most major indicators, like personal income, manufacturing activity, retail sales, and industrial production, "met the standard for a recession."

The announcement came as the stock market fell sharply, its first decline in five sessions. The Dow Jones industrial average was off more than 450 points or 5.1 percent by afternoon trading. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 6.1 percent.

This is the first official recession since 2001, when the economy suffered after the bursting of the technology bubble. The period of expansion lasted 73 months, from November 2001 to December 2007.


As you all know, the government has already issued a number of bailouts to help bolster the economy. What else can the government or corporations do? What responsibility should the average citizen have? Let us know in your comments below.

Posted by Natasha G on 12/01/08
2 Comments   add a comment >>
aj p.
Wednesday December 3, 2008, 7:21 AM


Do you know how easy it would be to fix the economy right now? Instead of giving bailouts to banks and companies I would take that $700 billion and give it to the taxpayers. That comes out to about $250,000 per person. I would also make sure the payouts were in vouchers. You would have to provide documentation on how much you owe on your mortgage, student loans, car payment. Then, that money would go to the banks taking care of all the bad debt and the housing crisis. Freeing banks to make more loans so people could buy houses again. I would also give vouchers to people who bought American cars. That would save the auto companies and people would have American cars. I would reorganize the car companies to help them run more efficient and I would put more oversight on banks since they pretty much are a form of legalized racketeering. And that would stimulate our economy. But that won't happen cause banks make too much money on the interest they charge and that is why we are bailing them out to give more loans instead of taking care of the bad debt the average joe has accumulated.

Rosalind R.
Wednesday December 3, 2008, 5:43 AM


I could have told them that Over a year ago but they didn't ask Me. They should ask us little folks in the future.


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