Business cycle length and the probability of a recession: Are we there yet, mom? - 0 views
-
erinmoran on 18 Nov 15According to this article from the Deloitte University Press, the length of recovery has little to do with the probability that a recession might occur. Dr. Daniel Bachman claims that modern business cycle thought and recession data suggests that business decision makers should look elsewhere to gauge where the economy is headed. Since WWII, the average US business cycle expansion has lasted 56 months. The last three expansions have been exceptionally long and the current expansion is already longer than most of the expansions in the 1950s-70s. Therefore, it is possible that something such as a the role service in the economy has changed but the sample is small and the uncertainty is high. In fact, most economists who study business cycles do not view them as cycles. The world's first industrialized economy, the UK, suffered banking panics in 1825, 1847, 1866, and 1890 and the fact that a crisis appeared every 20-25 years suggest that there was some form of regular force at work in modern economies that lead to a cycle. However, as economists began to use statistical techniques, they discovered that the cycles in the data were probably illusions. As, a result, economists have mostly rejected the idea of business cycles repressing an inherent, regular feature of the economy. Instead, they view the economy as experiencing random shocks, both positive and negative.