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-Diogenes-

Listed below are comments made by -Diogenes- between Friday, 24th October 2008 and Saturday, 25th October 2008.

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'Recession' - banned? 7:12pm on 25 Oct 2008 28. My apologies, apparently I was not clear enough.

You do not need a time machine to know when you are in recession, the ONS tells you when the economy is recessing. In the last quarter it recessed 0.5%. Hence we are in recession.

You are correct in that the BBC should not say we are in 'a recession' without qualification but it is perfectly legitimate to say the economy is in recession and has been now for 3 months.

The 2 quarter definition is only useful when viewing from a historical perspective. It absolutely does not indicate when a recession begins, if it did a half year long recession would begin and end at the same time, which is absurd.
'Recession' - banned? 3:50pm on 24 Oct 2008 A game of football is 2 consecutive halfs of football.

A game of football does not begin after 2 halfs of football, after 2 halfs of football you know you've had a game.

A recession is 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth.

A recession does not begin after 2 quarters of contraction, after 2 quarters of contraction you know you've had a recession. It begins when the contraction begins.

By continually suggesting that recession is on the way, but not yet here, the BBC is misrepresenting the figures. It is possible that this recession will turn out to be just a 'downturn', but at this moment we have been in recession for 3 months. A downturn does not become a recession if it is maintained, a recession becomes a downturn if it is not maintained.

Picture, if you will, a graph of a recession that lasts just 6 months, when would the BBC announce the recession has begun...... right at the end. How can that be right?

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