, Columnist
Volatility Beckons After Warp-Speed Recovery
The record-quick Covid recession and rebound raises the question of whether we’re really in a new economic cycle. The answer matters for financial markets.
It’s all a question of timing.
Photographer: daneger/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
To get John Authers' newsletter delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here.
The most startling announcement this week concerned news that was more than a year old. In the U.S., the recession driven by the Covid-19 shutdown ended in April 2020. It only lasted two months. So said the National Bureau of Economic Research, and it’s a reasonable judgment. It also means that this recession was by far the shortest on record, as well as the deepest if judged by the increase in unemployment: