Labour is closing the gap with the Conservatives amid public doubts about David Cameron's economic policies, according to a poll for The Independent. The ComRes survey found that 82 per cent of people want Mr Cameron to be clearer about what he would do on the economy - including 82 per cent of Tory supporters. Only 24 per cent believe the recession would have ended sooner if the Tories had been in power, while 69 per cent do not.
The ComRes survey found that 82 per cent of people want Mr Cameron to be clearer about what he would do on the economy - including 82 per cent of Tory supporters. Only 24 per cent believe the recession would have ended sooner if the Tories had been in power, while 69 per cent do not.
I believe in the US the NBER uses a more flexible definition of recession. See for instance:
WSJ Blogs: Is the Recession Over? Wait Until 2010 for NBER's Answer (2009 September 11)
One member of its Business Cycle Dating Committee, Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon, said he believes June will mark the trough for the recession that started in December 2007. But he expects the NBER's recession-dating panel to wait six to eight more months before voting on an end date to ensure the economy doesn't experience a double-dip recession. (Gordon stressed he was speaking for only himself, not the committee.)
A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.
I'd rephrase the normal "state" of the economy is a cycle, with more time spent in expansion than in contraction.
See the NBER's business cycles. According to the table the recession started in December 2007 and has not reached its trough yet, which means it has lasted at least 25 months. This means the current contraction in the US is now longer than the one in 1910-12. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
