One day after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that "from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over," the Federal Reserve released Industrial Production (IP) numbers on Sept. 16th that were rosier than we've seen some time. August IP was up 0.8% for August, and the Fed revised July's IP number to up 1.0%.
That said, the U.S. economy is still off 10.7% year over year from one year ago and only 97.4% of the average for 2002, according to the Fed's release.
Bernanke, speaking at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, tempered his comments on the recession being technically over with cautions remarks about unemployment: "At this point, it's still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was," adding later in his speech that the unemployment rate will be "slow to come down."
Comments? Please send them to [email protected]. Kate McBride is editor in chief of Wealth Manager and a member of The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard.
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