The Long Recovery

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently noted that our current recovery is in its 58^th month. That ties it with the expansion that lasted from 1975 to 1980 for the fourth-longest economic recovery since World War II. The longest recovery was the high-tech boom that lasted from 1991 to 2001; it ran for 120 months, or exactly 10 years.

Following that one, we had:

• The expansion from 1961 to 1969, lasting 106 months
• The Reagan-era expansion from 1982 to 1990, lasting 92 months
• The Bush II-era expansion from 2001 to 2007, lasting 73 months

This recovery has been unusually sluggish in terms of growth, but that slow pace could bode well for its continued existence. The Fed forecasts the current expansion to go on for a total of 90 months, while the Congressional Budget Office forecasts it to go on for 102 months.