The U.S. is officially in a recession

It is like we really didn't know this already. From MSNBC News:

WASHINGTON - The economy fell into recession late last year, according to a panel of economists that is responsible for determining the dates of business cycles.

Monday's declaration by the panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms what many private economists, lawmakers and members of the general public already have assumed and puts an official date on it: A U.S. recession began in December 2007.

That was the same month employment peaked, and the economy began shrinking in a downturn that has been exacerbated by the financial crisis that took hold of markets beginning in September.

It is interesting that the NBER is calling the start of the recession in December, 2007--right into the seventh year of the Bush administration. Looking back at the November / December postings, we were really starting to see the subprime mortgage mess taking affect on the U.S. economy with rising foreclosures, a possible rise in homelessness, and retailers were starting to worry about a "blue" Christmas. Of course, we also had presidential election news, Iraq, and intelligence failures and Bush domestic spying news to keep our attention span diverted from the economy. Now the NBER is calling the start of this recession in 2007, making this a George W. Bush recession.

And how does the Bush White House react to this latest news? Continuing on with the MSNBC story:

The White House commented on the news without ever actually using the word “recession,” a term President George W. Bush and his aides have repeatedly avoided.

Instead, spokesman Tony Fratto remarked upon the fact that the NBER “determines the start and end dates of business cycles.”

“What’s important is what is being done about it,” Fratto said. “The most important things we can do for the economy right now are to return the financial and credit markets to normal, and to continue to make progress in housing, and that’s where we’ll continue to focus.”

So instead of calling it a recession, the Bush administration is calling it "the start and end dates of business cycles." I guess King George The Deciderer doesn't want this recession blamed on him, along with the rest of the failures of his destructive administration.