Are We In a Recession?

Brad DeLong tries to assess the situation. One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is that people in Washington are pretty out of touch with the basic economic picture in the United States. Not in the usual, pat, pseudo-populist "oh you're out of touch" sense but in a pretty literal one -- the DC metro area is both quite affluent and economically unusual; much of our region is experiencing a war-driven boom that doesn't have much to do with the experience of other areas (though parts of the southwest are, I believe, the same way). People know, intellectually, that "data" isn't the plural of "anecdote" but still people tend in practice to be affected by what they see, and what there is to see around here doesn't really mirror nationwide trends all that well.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/01/are-we-in-a-recession/48007/