[IWE] recession boom

[Peter Whysall]

On 26 Sep 2008, at 14:10, Jay Mehaffey wrote:

> >From: "williamoxley@aim.com" <williamoxley@aim.com>
> > I thought a recession was any time gdp went down for 3 consecutive  
> quarters and a boom was anytime we are not in recession....
>
> There is no universally accepted what constitutes a recession.  In  
> the US, a recession is whatever the NBER says it is. The GDP being  
> down two quarters a row is often given as rule, but even that does  
> not hold all the time.
>
> A lot of economists think our current situation is a good example of  
> when the GDP rule does not work. The GDP is being held up by money  
> moving around in ways that are not real economic growth here.
>
> Jay

In the UK, it's two consecutive quarters of negative growth.