Local News

Live chat about the Great Recession's toll at noon Tuesday

For most of us, Washington’s economy has never been this bad. Since the mortgage bubble popped, we’ve lost more jobs faster, and recovered more slowly, than at any time since the Second World War. That includes iconic slumps such as the Boeing Bust, the early-’80s double-dip and the dot-com crash barely a decade ago.

As these charts and graphs show, the recession has fallen hardest on people in the lower-middle and working classes — folks who were just getting by or maybe starting to make some headway when the bottom fell out. Statistics can’t capture the pervasive sense of economic dislocation the slump has engendered. But they can at least help us understand what’s happening and to whom. — Drew DeSilver / The Seattle Times

Below is a chat about the Great Recession and its effects on the Northwest with Seattle Times business reporters Drew DeSilver, Sanjay Bhatt and local economist Dick Conway in a live chat at noon Tuesday. We talked about who has been affected by the downturn, where the jobs are and aren’t, and what the outlook is going into 2012.

(more…)

0 comments | More in Business/Technology, Live chats | Topics: becky bisbee, depression, dick conway