2 years ago: Cusp of harsh recession?

Retro post: from 10/20/2008

Cusp of harsh recession?

Excerpt:

Many experts expect unemployment will soar from its current level of 6.1 per cent and worry it could go above 8 per cent.

The Fed now thinks that unemployment will rise above 7 per cent and is likely to peak at about 7.5 per cent – a level last seen in 1992.

“We may be talking about one of the most severe recessions in the post-war period,” said Larry Meyer, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers and a former Fed governor.

Comment: Unemployment holds above 9.5% for 14 months

The U.S. jobless rate in September spent its 14th straight month above 9.5%, the Labor Department said Friday, making it the longest such spell since the 1930s - eclipsing the downturn of the early 1980s, which forever disrupted the industrial way of life in the Milwaukee region and the Midwest.

"We're not (officially) in a recession," said Tim Smeeding, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "But if you look at it in terms of people affected and jobs, we're still in a big recession."