US papers cry out for ‘recession’, public misled

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on January 24, 2008 at 5:16 PM

If one only read US papers, he or she might think the country’s economy is already in a recession. And indeed, a majority of the US public thinks so - wrongly.

A CNN survey revealed that 57% of US citizens believe that the US had already been in a recession for the past month.

(The strict definition of economic recession is at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth.)

Most interesting is the following infographic, which shows how many articles in The New York Times and Washington Post refer to the words ‘recession’ over the years. The previous peaks coincided with the 1990 and 2001 recession.

Figures for 2008 are only projections.

Source: Courrier International