Fed Chairman Bernanke says "recession is very likely over." True for you?

In his first speech since he was reappointed, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is "very likely over" but detailed the tough road ahead for the economy.

He hit hard on the "challenges" for the Fed and all policymakers in dealing with a sluggish unemployment rate as the economy recovers from a recession that began in December 2007.

"That's one reason why, even though from a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time," Bernanke said. "As many people will still find their job security and employment status is not what they wish it was."

While answering questions, on Tuesday, Bernanke said the pace of recovery in 2010 would be "moderate" and added that the unemployment rate would come down "quite slowly," due to "headwinds" on ongoing credit problems and the effort by families to reduce household debt.

My question to you: Are you personally seeing signs that the economy is getting better?

full cnn article

Tags: Bernanke, Chairman, Fed, recession

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Permalink Reply by Kevin on September 15, 2009 at 11:04am

I work in the hotel industry and things are way down compared to two years ago. A lot of people can't drop a couple hundred dollars on a hotel room anymore.

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Permalink Reply by stephanie on September 15, 2009 at 11:23am

In France , the percentage of couples who has got overdebts has increased of more than 20 %.Each couple has more or less 5 revolving credits that they won't be able to pay back.

I often wondered how people could afford things I couldn't with the same wage.

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Permalink Reply by FubarGuy on September 15, 2009 at 12:00pm

Bah, what a load of crap. We're still facing shortened work hours at my employer, all the people that were laid of here haven't been re-hired, and the pay cuts we took aren't being put back into our paychecks. And what can we do, look for another job? There's nothing out there!

I know these idjits have to be positive & try not to panic people, but come ON. At least be honest. O, right - politicians can't be honest - my mistake.

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Permalink Reply by Glenn Dunster on September 16, 2009 at 3:50am

He tries to make it clear that he's calling it from an economist's technical definition of R, and adds enough caveats that his remarks shouldn't be mistaken for optimism.

Over here (Hong Kong), real estate has been on a tear since March, gaining about 20%, and it ceased to be possible to just turn up at a restaurant on a weekend night and get a table some months ago. Found it next to impossible to get airline seats to Europe at the end of this month, and the lowest fares are 80-120% higher than last year's equivalent.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Huckabee on September 16, 2009 at 6:56am

For me personally, I never felt it in the first place. Our consulting business has continued to grow all through this. That's not to say the problem wasn't real. I know a lot of other people who've been hit hard. Real estate in our area never grew as much as other areas during the bubble so it didn't have as far to fall. I don't see it recovering though. There are still a lot of houses for sale and they aren't getting any traffic. Restaurants and bars are still fairly empty.

I know that in many cases perception = reality. If the Fed can convince people it is over then maybe they'll loosen the purse strings and spend a little. This only works though if people have jobs. Until unemployment comes back doewn I won't really feel like it is over.

The REAL problem though is that Wall Street has gone right back to business as usual. Actually, even worse than usual. Now there's a feeling that if they make a bad decision they won't have to pay ANY penalty. This needs to change NOW.