Why do Conservatives keep stating that a recession is two quarters in decline, when that's not the case?

Question

The National Bureau of Economic Research, which is responsible for defining recession in the US states the following, "The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."

http://www.nber.org/cycles/

For example, the 2000 recession of the Clinton era did not follow the definition of two consecutive terms of negative growth, but incorporated a plethora of factors.

Answer 1

That is the definition of recession.

Answer 2

Because that is the actual defination....geeeees

Just like the definition of marraige is a union between a man and woman.

94.5 %  employment

not a single quarter of negative GNP GROWTH in over 7.5 years

Answer 3

A widespread definition, is that a recession occurs when real growth is negative for two or more successive quarters of a year.

  The issue with the word recession is that it is a political word, but it has no legal standing. The Central bank has no mandatory response to a recession ( e.g. lowering interest rates). It is defined slightly different by NBER, IMF, and Moody's.

Answer 4

It's more convenient for the politicians - they can claim the credit for economic growth as soon as it happens, so it's helpful if you can stack the odds and get people to hold off for an arbitrary 6 months while your economy drops off a cliff!

You're right anyway, it'll not be over in 6 months and whoever takes over the White house next (assuming Herr Doktor von Busch lets them) will have a mountain of his problems to clear up... the picture won't be pretty for a loooong time to come, meantime the rich and the major banks are going to clean up on the backs of the poor.

Answer 5

Because that is the dictionary definition of an economic recession, and it sounds better/less likely.

Answer 6

The two quarters decline measurement has nothing to do with politics. It's not a conservative or liberal thing it is a well documented way to determine the health of the economy.

It is taught in every college economics 101 class in the the country.

The majority of academia is known to be liberal.

Answer 7

Conservatives are ignorant. What else is new.

Answer 8

Conservatives? Every econ 101 class in the world defines a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. We haven't had one quarter yet. It's so rudimentary, you sort of forget about it by the time you head off for your MBA. Kind of like 2+2=4.

Answer 9

Basically because it is the generally accepted meaning of the word, regardless of the technical definition for the USA by NBER. For example:

"An extended decline in general business activity, typically two consecutive quarters of falling real gross national product" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/recessi...

"A period of general economic decline; specifically, a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters" (http://www.investorwords.com/4086/recess...

"The standard newspaper definition of a recession is a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters" (http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscy...

Yes, this is a short form, and no, it doesn't take into account nor express all the subtleties that economists would like the word to imply but long, wordy, subtle interpreations don't sell newspapers, make good sound bites nor engage the majority of the electorate,,,

Answer 10

Possibly ignorance.  Probably political spinning.

Answer 11

ok then...

real GDP, still up, yeah, only 0.6%, but still not going down

real income, going up, every year the average income has risen

employment, still hovering right around 5%, which is essentially full employment since  people move in and out of jobs and there will always be a small percentage who is between jobs...5% unemployment is phenomenal

industrial production, ok, here's where you're going to get one...our INDUSTRIAL production is down, but only because companies want to increase their bottom line and ship those jobs overseas, but if you look at TOTAL production, you'd get a positive result

wholesale retail sales...these are essentially static, but look to the headlines this last week and you'll see lines outside AT&T stores with people who have $300 or more burning a hole in their pocket to buy the new iPhone

so the NBER, whether you look at the traditional definition of a recession, or your 'new and improved' one, the point is, we're not in a recession...we're not even close

Answer 12

BECAUSE AS ALWAYS :: THEY ARE LYING

Answer 13

You can blame your Democratic Majority Congress for any Economy downfalls, they don't support any ENERGY so it will only get worse if you guys vote for Democrats!  The economy went to POT when they TOOK OVER!   Hope you can afford a horse and buggy, cause you won't even be able to sell your cars soon.     Start chopping down trees and stock up for winter too, too bad we will be killing the birds but Energy won't be available too much longer since PELOSI and her GANG won't DRILL, won't BUILD NUCLEAR clean air Plants, Don't even support COAL!   Something is very wrong with them!

Answer 14

nber.org isn't a reliable source and isn't a economic catalyst for anyone but the public.just another .org who can say what they want.please view the definition of recession!