America’s recession officially over?

November 1, 11:53 PMLouisville City Hall ExaminerThomas McAdam

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For the first time in a year, the country’s economic indicators are giving evidence of a recovery from the economic recession. Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. economy grew in the third quarter, beating market expectations, as consumer spending and new home-building rebounded, signaling the end of the worst recession in 70 years.

According to reports from the U.S. Commerce Department, the third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2007, after contracting 0.7 percent in the April-June period. The third-quarter recovery was generally broad-based, with solid gains in consumer spending, exports and home construction. The economy last grew in the second quarter of 2008.

Of course, not every politician will greet this wonderful news with a sigh of relief. Vice President Joe Biden—cheerleader in chief for Obama’s welfare state—has been going around badmouthing the economy. Monday, he gave another speech in which he claimed the U.S. was in the midst of a “depression.” (If you Google “Biden” and “Depression,” you’ll get more than 1,290,000 hits!) But, then, motormouth Joe has never been a keen student of economic history. Remember back in September of 2008? Biden said: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.' "

The stock market crashed in October of 1929, while Herbert Hoover was president. FDR didn’t become president until 1932, and didn’t appear on television until April 30, 1939, with a telecast of his opening of the New York World's Fair. Remember how we all used to laugh at V.P. Dan Quayle’s flubs? Google “Quayle” and “Flub,” and you get 23,100 hits. “Biden” and “Flub” gets you 232,000 hits.

 V.P. Joe Biden (Photo:  Weekly Standard)

In other good economic news, the Labor Department showed the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits dipped by 1,000 last week to 530,000 last week.

According to Michelle Fleury, BBC business reporter, America joins Japan, China, Germany and France as the leading economies that have emerged from recession. BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym said the 3.5% annualized growth rate was more than the 3.3% expected by most commentators.

Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, measures the value of goods and services produced in a country, reflecting the health of the economy in one number. The U.S. uses a measure called annualized GDP, which takes the change over a three-month period and works out what the annual change would be if it continued at that pace over a whole year. By generally accepted definition, a country’s economy is technically in “recession” after two continuous quarters (three-month periods) of negative GDP growth.

Watch the video: Vice President Biden thinks we’re in a depression

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