We are hearing so much fission on recession with journalists pressing for agreement we are in recession, while economists basically say it is not that simple.

First off no-one indicates the relevance of whether we are in one. What matters is the impact on you.

The facts are that it is not simple and have more to do with the impact on people, and groups of people.

The 2009 view

Here is a post I did in 2009. It references some of the complication caused by demographic positioning and cohorts financial standing.

Here is a post from 2009 referencing a commentary from the Economist.

A succint comparison of exiting 1980 recession, and 2009 recession

I thought this a particularly succinct view of the next 10 years view prospects for banks and their business planning.

The view from New York | Buttonwood/ Economist

The bearish view came from Josh Rosner of Graham-Fisher. Mr Rosner was one of the first analysts to spot the potential havoc caused by the interaction between subprime mortgages and structured products like CDOs. He thinks the economy will not rebound as it did in the 1980s. Demographic trends are not as favourable (the baby boomers were entering their prime earning period in the 1980s; now they are retiring); while credit card use was about to explode (now it is contracting). He argues that small businesses, a key source of job creation are still being denied credit; one problem is that small businessmen can no longer afford to use their houses as collateral.