You know when you see a train speeding along just a little too fast and you know it's going to jump the track at the nearest turn? Well, you have officially derailed wildly.
Yes, they are the official arbiter of start and end dates of recessions -- they are the largest economic research group in the country. All US government departments that require the details of recession start and end dates use the NBER evaluations.
Just because you don't like them, or believe that they're part of the grand conspiracy against the victimized Republican party, doesn't reduce their stature to others.
But heck, use your own definition of when the recession started -- use two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. I doubt it will be much different as the economy was tanking badly in late 2007/2008.
Did they now? Feel free to cite that because I haven't followed the NBER that closely. It will be educational for everyone reading when you cite the NBER's papers on that.
By the way, the act that you're trying to refer to, the act that effectively repealed Glass-Steagall was called the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Just an FYI, Sen. Phil Gramm (R, Texas), Rep. Jim Leach (R, Iowa), and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R, Virginia), the co-sponsors of the GrammâLeachâBliley Act.
Yes, congratulations are in order. Not very long ago, just as Bush was leaving office, there was serious talk among economists of the very possibility of another depression.
Are you talking about Iraq? Which war of choice that the Republicans started are you trying to refer to? Obama never promised to "initiate a conclusion" to Afghanistan, and the last combat troops left Iraq a couple of weeks ago.
I don't want to get into an explanation of external debt and deficit with you, but the budget was effectively balanced, or incredibly close to balanced, in 2000. (Depending on what debt you count.) So yes, the deficit began again with the election of the Republicans -- which is an excellent reason to not vote Republican if you're a fiscal conservative.
