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Defining the Recession

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Background

Jeffrey Coolidge / Getty Images

The New York Times writes there is no official definition of a recession, and no official body to announce when one starts or ends.  Still, recessions are often described as two or more quarters of a declining gross domestic product (GDP).

The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, non-partisan group based in Cambridge, Mass., does not define a recession based on declining GDP.

“Rather, 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.” – National Bureau of Economic Research

The NBER says the latest recession began December 1, 2007 and ended in June 2009.

Latest Posts

June 19, 2012

Boise Airport Makes A Wishlist: DFW, IAH, ATL, CLT

This spring, Boise business leaders found a target and zeroed in.  The Boise Airport had recently been hit by a spate of cuts.  Southwest had suspended local service to Seattle, Salt Lake and Reno, and that was only the latest round of flight reductions.  Preserving and expanding air service would be its chief focus, a […]

June 12, 2012

Out-Of-Work Idaho Teens Could Be Out Of Luck

The Associated Press highlights the problem of teen unemployment in piece published today.  StateImpact devoted significant time to the issue earlier this year, not long after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data showing Idaho has one of the highest teen unemployment rates in the nation. Idaho’s teen unemployment rate was nearly 30 percent in […]

June 11, 2012

Recession Set Families Back Decades, Fed Survey Shows

The Federal Reserve dropped a sobering statistic on the American public today: 40 percent.  That’s the proportion of median net worth families lost from 2007 to 2010.  The Wall Street Journal pulls no punches in describing the number’s significance: “The data released Monday are the real, step-back deal. In 2010, the median net worth of […]

As Family Income Drops, Idahoans Fare Better Than Most

At a time when economic news appears to come in two forms, “grim” and “grimmer,” this opening line from an article in today’s New York Times is especially bleak.  Binyamin Appelbaum writes: “The recent financial crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than they had in the early 1990s, erasing […]

June 8, 2012

Housing Settlement Dollars Go Toward Tax Revenue Gap, Not Homeowners

Most of the $13.5 million Idaho received as part of the multibillion-dollar mortgage settlement reached earlier this year has gone into the state’s general fund, as StateImpact recently reported.  Now, the state Division of Financial Management’s May report shows that the $13 million directed into the general fund last month helped to offset weaker-than-expected individual […]

Boise’s Housing Market: Why All The Competition?

Boise’s housing market is a moving target.  Last fall, StateImpact reported on a market still in the doldrums.  Earlier this spring, we started to hear about growing demand and new construction.  Yesterday, we took a look at the tough competition for low-priced properties, as new homebuyers and investors scramble for good values. The trickier questions […]

June 7, 2012

Unemployment Benefits Scaled Back As Idaho’s Jobless Rate Drops

As many as 500 Idahoans will lose unemployment benefits this week, according to the state Department of Labor.  That termination of benefits was triggered when Idaho’s three-month average unemployment rate fell below 8 percent. The Idahoans losing benefits are those who have been in the program the longest, and who are in its final phase.  […]

Boise Mayor Spotlights Refugees’ Welfare

The issue of refugees’ economic well-being has been a focus of ours here at StateImpact.  This week, Boise Mayor David Bieter made refugee resettlement and employment one focus of his annual State of the City Address.  Bieter had this to say: Over the last few years, in this tough economy, it became obvious to me […]

June 5, 2012

Idaho Recovers, Sort Of

By one measure, Idaho’s economy has regained the ground it lost in the recession. The state’s real gross state product (translation: the total value of all goods and services produced in Idaho, corrected for inflation) was greater in 2011 than it was in 2007.  That’s according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

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