Defining our Times

For example, the National Bureau of Economic Research in America defines it as “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”. On this basis the US economy has been in recession since the end of 2007.

While for the economist Christopher Dow, recession worthy of the name was one featuring a “clear absolute fall in GDP between one calendar year and the next”, usually but not always followed by a second fall.

David Smith goes on to examine difference interpretations of what constitutes a ‘depression’ and how we will know whether we are in one or not, drawing some comparisons with recessions and depressions from the past – which might make useful reading for those students starting to think about their entry for the RES Young Economist of the Year competition.

Charts used in this blog US_Charts_0209.ppt