Recessions are like major league fastballs. They arrive at blinding speeds.
Few, if any, of us can clearly see a recession coming.
That’s why most professional economists admit that a true recession can only be confirmed when ‘two strikes’ of negative quarterly growth have already been called on us, that is, actually occurred. 
Of course, there can be other combinations, such as, two strike quarters sandwiching a slightly positive quarter. In baseball parlance, that would be a change-up designed to throw off our economic timing, and set us up for the fastball coming at us next.
Still, some people say recessions can be seen before they are upon us.
They claim a recession can be forecast by closely analyzing key segments of the economy. In other words, it requires a deep analysis of losses in the stock market, declining home values, drops in business expansion and startups, and spiking levels of unemployment.
Perhaps, that’s so. Indeed, I wish it were so. And, wouldn’t you want that to be so?
Come to think about it, in retrospect, who wouldn’t prefer that?
Unfortunately, in this cycle, how many whistles did you hear back in 2007 and early 2008, that alerted you then of the coming slowdown, or warned you of the impending drop in home prices, the stock market etc?
In either case, many economic analysts like to include unemployment filings and rate trends as well as surveys of consumer confidence in the assessment mix. Inclusion of such data variables makes sense in general; although the more objective - hard measure - unemployment numbers are worthy of heavier weighting compared to the subjective - soft perception -consumer confidence figures, which can be, and are, widely influenced by media spin and political self-interests.
The reality is that recessions, which are actually contractions, are part of the natural dynamics of all things economic; and, as such, reflect the net result of both increases and decreases in consumer spending, and consumption, as well as the prices of goods, services, and labor.
Continued... |