Word: slump
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...misery loves company, a lot of recession-battered Americans may be gazing across the sea. There is certainly fuel for economic schadenfreude -- the sneaky feeling of glee at your neighbor's troubles -- over there. Europe has fallen into a slump since the middle of last year, and unemployment and stagnation are becoming political problems as well. The American tourists who have seen how well Europeans live may find it difficult to believe, but hard times there are a fact...
While some economists have described the current slump as a near depression, that phrase overstates the case if it is taken as a comparison with the period 1929-33, when the U.S. economy contracted by nearly a third. The D word becomes more valid, especially with a small d, when it is used to compare the growth rate of the 1930s, which averaged 0.5% a year, with the expected sluggishness of the 1990s, which some economists predict will see an average growth rate...
...some respects, the current recession is more painful than the numbers show because this slump is so different from most. The current unemployment rate of 6.8%, for example, appears to be well below the level reached in the 1981-82 recession, when joblessness peaked at 10.8%. But experts say the comparison is misleading because the labor force is growing far more slowly today than a decade ago, which means that fewer people are seeking jobs. Among other things, the slowdown reflects both an aging U.S. population and a decline in the number of people ages...
...California Economy. "Coming out of the gulf war, people thought it would last just two quarters." But while the economy did manage gains of 1.4% in the second quarter and 1.8% in the third, few experts doubt that the U.S. has become mired in a double-dip slump that for all practical purposes never really ended. "Everything was set for a typical recovery," says economist Gordon Pye, who runs his own New York City consulting firm. "But when employment did not increase and the waves of layoffs and restructurings continued, that really inhibited...
...market as a leading indicator of economic recovery? In the past, the bulls have been a good bet. The last time the Fed pushed down interest rates to end a recession was in the summer of 1982, which quickly sparked a Wall Street rally. Four months later, the economic slump was over. But bulls know when to retreat too. If investors see no recovery by summer, watch out for at least a temporary comeback of the bears...