Recession, Good News | featured news

It took 5½ years. Surging stock prices and steady home-price increases have finally allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession.

After a long period of consumer retrenchment, U.S. families have cut their once-out-of-control debt loads down to pre-recession levels, largely removing one major obstacle to a faster economic recovery.

It was just last summer that the Dow Jones industrial average shed 2,000 points in three terrifying weeks. Investors had a host of things to worry about, including the possibility of another recession. Now the Dow is within reach of the rarefied 13,000 mark — a level it hasn't seen since May 2008, four months before the financial system almost came apart.

The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.8 percent in the final three months of last year, the fastest growth in 2011. Americans spent more on cars and trucks, and companies built up their stockpiles. But growth in the October-December quarter — and all of 2011 — was held back by the biggest annual government spending cuts in four decades. The Commerce Department says the economy grew just 1.7 percent last year, roughly half of the growth in 2010 and the worst since the recession.

The final weeks of 2011 were the economy's strongest since it appeared to be slipping toward recession in late spring.

After hitting a 30-year low in 2009, U.S. auto sales are poised for a second straight year of growth - the result of easier credit, low interest rates and pent-up demand for cars and trucks created by the Great Recession....

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5% in the three months ending Sept. 30, the government reported, easing fears that the nation would fall into a second recession but still too slow a pace to cut significantly into the high unemployment rate.

Stocks got a lift Friday by news that the US economy generated more jobs than anticipated over the past three months, reinforcing hopes that the world's largest economy will not be sliding back into recession. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. added 103,000 jobs in September. That was above expectations for a 60,000 increase. It also revised up the previous two months' figures to show around 90,000 more jobs were created than previously thought.

Another recession isn't likely over the next 12 months. Neither is any meaningful improvement in the economy.

Stocks are edging higher following a four-week losing streak. The Dow Jones industrial average is up 23 points, or 0.2 percent, to 10,844 in midday trading Monday. It had been up as many as 203 points. The Dow fell 4 percent last week as worries deepened that the U.S. could slip into a recession. The S&P 500 rose less than a point to 1,124. The Nasdaq was up less than a point at 2,342.