I’m not even going to answer this question.

But instead I’m going to look data speak.

How is a recession defined anyway? I guess it’s really up to what the majority of people percieve it to be.

Now, Google has a nifty little tool that allows you to look for how often a word has been searched for – thus allowing you to “peek inside the minds” of billions of searchers who type in queries.

It then draws out a line that shows how often these term have been searched for over the last couple of years.

Usually the lines are pretty constant. Look for example at the term “bicycle”.

Granted – within each year there is some cycling variations (it peaks during the summertime and reaches it’s low point in the wintertime) that is no surprise. Most people buy their bikes when it’s sunny.

But overall, the curve is pretty smooth over the years – overall, the line seems to go done a little bit.

Now let’s look at another curve – the curve for the word “recession”:

You see that? It’s been pretty smooth until 2007 – then, it started to bump around a bit. In early 2008 it really peaked – this was when the stocks dived because of fears of recession.

Then it falls sharply again, but it remains on a higher level than before with still lots of activity.

So, are we in a recession now?

Categories: Uncategorized
No Comments »