The U.S. economy is a complex beast with a huge number of moving parts. It's hard even for trained economists to get their heads around the inevitable ups and downs. Right now the word on most people's lips is "recession," which is a severe economic contraction. The problem, of course, is that COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into the normal workings of the world.
You'll hear lots of people say that the U.S. economy is in an official recession when there have been two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP). Only that's not anything official, it's just a rule of thumb. The official start and end dates for recessions are determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The NBER looks at a variety of factors, including GDP, when making its determinations. So if you want to understand the U.S. economy today, you need to look at a number of different things. Here are 10 that suggest we may already be in a recession.
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