THIS IS NO SURPRISE

This news is no surprise, unless you had listened to and believed Sean Hannity, who claimed repeatedly before the election that the economy was OK. Hannity was also wrong about the pre-election polls and I'm beginning to think that his political influence is also in a recession.

Recession in U.S. Started in December 2007, NBER Says (Update2)
By Timothy R. Homan and Steve Matthews

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy entered a recession a year ago this month, the panel that dates American business expansions said today.

The declaration was made by the cycle-dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private, nonprofit group of economists based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The last time the U.S. was in a recession was from March through November 2001, according to NBER.

Federal Reserve policy makers at their last meeting predicted the economy will contract through the middle of 2009, in line with private economists’ forecasts. If correct, the recession would be the longest since the Great Depression.

The contraction would be the second under President George W. Bush’s watch, making him the first U.S. leader since Richard Nixon to preside over two recessions.