I Think The Doom Is Getting a Little Overdone

[Libertarian666]

Personally, I think the doom is way underdone. Since absolutely nothing has been fixed or even improved, but in fact has been made far worse by all of the government bailouts and other meddling, I expect a sudden crash of the dollar and gold to go "to da moon".

And no, the markets cannot remain irrational longer than I can remain solvent. As I do not use investment leverage, I cannot be shaken out no matter how wild the swings get.

[Pkg Man]

Economists are an odd group (I should know), but according to the way they measure recessions then the recession that began 12/07 probably ended sometime during the summer of '09.

It's official:  The recession ended in June of 09

Business Cycle Dating Committee, National Bureau of Economic Research

CAMBRIDGE September 20, 2010 - The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met yesterday by conference call. At its meeting, the committee determined that a trough in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in June 2009. The trough marks the end of the recession that began in December 2007 and the beginning of an expansion. The recession lasted 18 months, which makes it the longest of any recession since World War II. Previously the longest postwar recessions were those of 1973-75 and 1981-82, both of which lasted 16 months.


You can read the entire press release here: http://www.nber.org/cycles/sept2010.html

Note that all of this is somewhat of an academic exercise as there is judgement involved in deciding when a recession begins and ends.