The unemployment rate is 9.7%, yet Republicans on Capitol Hill continue to block unemployment benefits. The major financial institutions are up to their same old tricks (and making huge profits), yet Senate Republicans are planning a strategy to derail financial reform. They're still playing games with the economy that they helped to ruin. As the GOPers keep playing politics, we get word from the experts on recessions that this one isn't over:
For the record, this recession isn’t over yet.Most of us are ready for this recession to be over. But, for GOPers, dragging it out helps their electoral prospects in 2010.
A committee of economists, charged with determining the official turning points in the nation’s business cycles, certifies the beginnings and ends of recessions. But this time, the committee members say, the evidence is not so easy to decipher.
The committee plans to announce on Monday that it cannot yet declare an end to the recession that began in December 2007, several members indicated on Sunday. Such an acknowledgment is rare in the history of setting dates to business cycles and could affect the behavior of investors and consumers.
Despite a recent uptick in employment and income, the decision of the committee at a meeting on Friday reflects a lingering worry that the economy could turn downward again in a so-called double-dip recession.
