I WONDER IF HE CAN BALANCE A CHECKBOOK?

HoplessRomantic4U seems to be on a veritable crusade to prove conclusively how little he knows in multiple fields. I know that most conservatives are ignorant and have poor reasoning ability when it comes to politics, but it is always a treat when a wingnut is eager to show how little he understands economic policy as well. What's next, HR4U, will you display your ignorance of art history? How about burning a few dishes cooking for us? Oh, I know, maybe you can demonstrate your ignorance of biology by arguing for Intelligent Design theory. We always enjoy your clowning.

Hopeless was blathering about the economy as I opened the room this morning. He was trying to claim, as wingnuts frequently do, that Bush inherited a recession from Clinton. Now I've heard this lie enough to have gone and researched it for myself. The National Bureau of Economic Research is the accepted body for marking when recessions begin and end. According to them:

A recession is a significant decline in activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, visible in industrial production, employment, real income, and wholesale-retail trade. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends as the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion. Expansion is the normal state of the economy; most recessions are brief and they have been rare in recent decades.

So, a recession officially begins when the economy reaches a peak, continues as the economy shrinks, and the end is marked when the economy hits a trough or lowest point, and turns back upward into growth. So, what did Hopeless try to claim on the mic? He said, "A recession is two or more quarters of negative growth, so if the recession started in March of 2001, that means that when you look BACK from then, the beginning of the two quarters was in Clinton's term!" Um...sorry, no:

The NBER's Business Cycle Dating Committee has determined that a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER's chronology

...

The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met yesterday. At its meeting, the committee determined that a trough in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in November 2001. The trough marks the end of the recession that began in March 2001 and the beginning of an expansion. The recession lasted 8 months, which is slightly less than average for recessions since World War II.

So, according to the big boys in the know, the economy grew for 10 years, from 1991 to 2001. Then in March 2001 the economy turned down from its peak, and shrank until November 2001. Hopeless, hopelessly outmanuvered, then tried to redefine words:

HopelessRomantic4U: THE PEAK OF THE LOSS IS THE TROUGH OF THE GROWTH
HopelessRomantic4U: THE PEAK IN THIS CASE IS THE LOWEST PART OF THE CURVE

What? Did that make any sense to anyone? The peak is the lowest? What the hell is he trying to say? To be honest, he seemed so terribly overmatched, I just let him drop it right there without pinning him to the wall with his ridiculous claims. He knew there was nowhere to turn, and the blade was about to fall. I let him walk away with some dignity. Don't say I never did anything for you, HR.

JC