More comparison of US recessions

Floyd Norris draws attention to the Index of Coincident Indicators, compiled every month from official US government data, which indicates that the current recession has become the second-worst in the last half-century and is close to surpassing the severe 1973-75 downturn. The figure for March, released this week, showed a decline of 5.6% from the high set in November 2007, the month before the recession officially began in the US. The index is constructed from four indicators - unemployment, personal income, industrial production and manufacturing and trade sales.