The recession of the U.S. economy started in December 2007. This is pronounvement of the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research, which met by conference call on 28 November 2008. A recession is characterized by the Committe in this manner:

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators. A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.

We learned of this press release through an article in the Wall Street Journal. The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. It claims to be the leading nonprofit economic research organization in the United States. Read more about the NBER; the full report here.

The release further reads: "The committee maintains a chronology of the beginning and ending dates (months and quarters) of U.S. recessions. The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months."

This is about a recession in the US, so what's the relevance for Pinoy Entrepreneurs? Plenty. While it's arguable that the Philippines is not in a recession, it's also undeniable that a US recession has an impact on the world economy, the Philippines included. Philippine exports as well as Filipino local and overseas employment would be greatly dampened by a [possible] U.S. recession, as previous reports indicate. Philippine and Asian stocks took a plunge. Indeed, when the US sneezes, the world catches a cold. Then again, Pinoy Entrepreneurs could find opportunities even in a recession and finance officials had long sought to allay fears of such adverse impact. Let's see in the months to come. What do you think?