recesssion

When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001 and the economy entered a recession, it wasn’t long before a new bubble started to grow and fill the void—money started pouring into the housing sector. That, somewhat predictably, burst even more spectacularly than the Internet one. So, what’s next?  There’s a pretty strong argument that yet another bubble is being primed. What it will be is still unclear (could it be infrastructure or alternative energies?). But like it or not, the bubble cycle could well be finding a permanent place in our economy—a kind of vicious cycle.  The most complete, and interesting, argument appeared in Harper’s earlier this year (it is worth reading in its entirety).

That’s right. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research—the group that officially decides when a recession begins and ends in the U.S.—the American economy is in a recesion and it began in December 2007.  The NYT has more here. And the official statement here.