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The definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth in GDP. Technically the recession was over.
However,
While the economy grew, large segments of the middle class did not participate. What happened was that in the last two recessions the labor force did not recover completely in either recession. I would say that large numbers of baby boomers were shut out of the labor force by age discrimination. Corporations lay people off across the age spectrum to avoid law suits. Those who are younger get hired at what they made before if they are lucky. The old don't get hired at all.
Here is a graph and the source of that graph illustrating my point:
Recessions never end abruptly. Crashes are always fast, and recovery is always staggeringly slower. If the economy was a human body, a crash is like breaking a major bone. A person doesn't get up and go back to running after breaking a femur.
Sometimes a bad recession changes an area permanently for the worse, most times not, and sometimes changes things for the better. It all depend on the area and there are always many complicating factors to any recovery. Some are simply beyond control, and others arise from sudden events, sometimes natural events.
It's always the old saying: When someone next to you loses his job, it's a slight recession. When you lose your job, it's a great depression.
The fact is capitalism is like mother nature. It's not very predictable in the most stable of times, and it's prone to sudden earthquakes that can change the landscape forever afterward. It cannot be well regulated forever, and it will always be unpredictable, especially if it's working well. None of us can ever foresee what will develop in the future and what will fail. Capitalism provides plenty of both in potential daily, and only time sorts it out.
Do you believe the recession ended as we've been told by the government in 2009? If you do believe it's over, what are your indications it's over?
If you don't believe it's over, what are the indications that's true?
We are in for the mother of all double dip recessions. We are going to have a debt correction event. Too much debt and not enough income. Slow gradual decline, big crash, or inflation take your pick.
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