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Recession Ledger

An independent record of the downturn that began in 2008 and the years after it. Every forecast here is dated, and checked at the foot of its page.

Subject

Markets

Stocks, bonds, housing and retail.

The market pages are about what happens to prices when the largest buyer is a central bank and then stops being one. Housing in 2017, the Dow in December 2018, the growth stocks of 2022, the retailers that spring, and the artificial-intelligence boom of 2023 are each a chapter of that.

They are read best alongside the Fed pages, which explain the buyer.

4 essays, 2017โ€“2023

20231 essay

  1. The mad men of artificial intelligence: developers claim their creation verges on the godlike

20221 essay

  1. The retail apocalypse was bloodier than it looked

20181 essay

  1. It's up, it's down, it's done: a day in the year of the Dow

20171 essay

  1. 2017 economic headwinds: housing bubbles popping up, and popping, everywhere