Prometheus 6

The difference, of course, is that the country entered a recession exactly one year ago, at least according to the Business Cycle Dating Committee, which is made up of seven prominent economists, most from the academic sector. The group made their official announcement on Monday that the economy entered a recession in December 2007.

“A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators,” the members said in a statement. “A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough.”

What about this nonsense about a recession being two quarters of reduced economic activity. If the recession started in December 2007, why didn't we hear this judgement six months ago?

In fact, I have another question: did the Fed know how weak Citibank was when they agreed to finance Citibank's attempt to buy Wachovia for firesale prices? Because that would indicate to me that Paulson and his boys are judging the fitness of financial firms by their names rather than their balance sheets.