It had to happen sooner or later -- economists finally noticed the recession. But rest assured, most of them think that the recession will be less severe than the 1991 and 2001 recessions.
Just in case anyone had forgotten, you can find the average forecasts for 2008 from 44 highly respected economists at the Philadelphia Fed's Livingston Survey. Back in December, they had an average growth projection for the first half of 2008 of 1.9 percent. I'm too polite to give you the number from CBO that was published less than two months ago.
The moral of the story is that economists do not predict recessions. Their predictions of recessions are lagging indicators. When economists predict a recession, it is the final proof that we are in fact in recession. Reporters who cover the economy should know this and convey this information to readers.
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