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Recession dates ... who cares?
Thoughts about redating the last recession miss the point about economic policy.
January 22, 2004: 9:41 AM EST

So a story in the paper today says that the folks who date the beginnings and ends of recessions might change their minds about when the last one began.

The "big deal" about the story is that beginning might be set in November 2000 when President Clinton was still president, not March 2001 when Bush had taken office.

Who cares?

What matters now is how this president handles what happens on his watch, even what he inherited, because that is the true measure of the man and his policies.

What's clear is that the stock market bubble had burst and the economy was heading lower when Mr. Bush took office. Then terror attacks, corporate scandals, and wars took the economy even lower.

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HaysWire

His medicine was big tax cuts, skewed toward people with wealth, because he believes they are the spenders, the investors the entrepreneurs.

This record is what counts. Not the dates of the last recession.  Top of page


Kathleen Hays anchors CNN Money Morning and The FlipSide, airing Monday to Friday on CNNfn. As part of CNN's Business News team, she is also a regular contributor to Lou Dobbs Tonight.




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.