Eight ways to define the recession

Posted Oct 12th 2009 2:50PM by Tom Johansmeyer
Filed under: Employees, Economic Data, Recession, Financial Crisis

We've watched stock market numbers bounce around for two years. Unemployment stats have served as unpleasant reminders that, for some, leading indicators haven't translated to reality. We look for so many ways to understand the brutal economic environment with which we've had to contend, and all the choices can make your head spin. So, let's make it simple. Here are eight ways to tack a label onto the financial world in which we live.

1. Lost market value
Total stock market losses from October 2007's top to March 2009's bottom: $11.2 trillion
Total gains in the stock market since the bottom: $4.6 trillion
Lost ground: $6.6 trillion

2. Bad days
Percentage of the 10 worst days in history for the Dow Jones Industrial Average that happened in 2008, by point drops: 60%
Percentage of the 10 worst days in history for the DJIA that happened in 2008, by percentage drops: 30%

3. Mutual funds
Value of mutual fund assets at the end of 2007: $6.5 trillion
... and a year later: $3.7 million
Lost value: $2.8 trillion

But, it got a little better at the end of August 2009: $4.5 trillion (value of assets)

4. Gold goes gaga
Price of gold October 10 last year: $855.40 an ounce
On October 9 this year: $1,048.60
Percentage increase: 23%

5. Hardly working
Unemployment rate at this time last year: 6.2%
This year: 9.8%

6. Save me!
Personal savings rate in 2005: -0.5%
Personal savings rate in May 2009: 6.9%

Credit card debt held a year ago: $975 billion
... and at the end of August this year: $899 billion
Change for the better: 8%

7. Consumer remorse
Retail sales drop in October and December 2008: 2.8%
Nothing changes by August 2009: down 2.7%

Consumer confidence in October 2007: 95.2
February 2009: 25.3
Now: 53.1

8. Moving on
Home resales in 2005: 7 million (record)
January 2009: 4.5 million
August 2009: 5.1 million

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