Democrats Halted Recovery, Derailed Economy Last Summer
#52 David S:
It’s almost as if you didn’t look at the chart of the last four recessions in the article.
If you had, you wouldn’t have written “It’s almost like you didn’t even read the revised employment figures you posted. The first half of 2008 we lost almost 800,000 jobs.”
Geez David S, it’s in the chart (796,000 jobs), and it’s explained as not being as bad as a % of the workforce as the other three recessionary periods (by NBER’s definition), all of which had negative growth, unlike the first half of 2008, which had 1.85% average growth, and 2.8% in the second quarter.
It’s almost as if, when you wrote “but there was never any recovery to halt,” that you didn’t read my three examples of recovery or stability CITED BY NBER.
In fact, it’s almost as if you didn’t read the article or look at the charts at all but just decided to spout off for the heck of it.
2.8% for a quarter is not “A little GDP growth.” And for cryin’ out loud, whether a recession exists is primarily about the presence or absence of real economic growth. If GDP growth is present, as it was during the first half of 2008, someone claiming recession has to make an OVERWHELMING case with the other factors involved that a recession was nevertheless in progress. NBER in my opinion simply has not done that, both for reasons I’ve cited and other reasons I’m saving for another time.
