La più lunga recessione dai tempi della grande depressione

Chartoftheday.com fa notare come la recessione iniziata nel dicembre 2007 e conclusasi nel giugno 2009 sia stata la più lunga dai tempi della grande depressione, che mantiene solidamente il suo recod di durata (44 mesi!!). 
Il record poco invidiabile della depressione del 1929 viene però messo in discussione da ... Warren Buffett, secondo il quale in termini reali l'economia U.S.A. è ancora alle prese con la recessione.
Il quadro poco edificante dell'economia U.S.A. si è poi arricchito di un ulteriore capitolo, con il salvataggio delle credit unions. Secondo il New York Times

Nearly two years after Wall Street’s giants were rescued by the federal government, regulators on Friday took over three financial institutions that provide the underpinning for hundreds of the nation’s credit unions.(...)
Of the 27 wholesale credit unions operating in the United States, five have been seized by regulators over the last 18 months. The agency announced a plan Friday to separate billions of dollars of the bad assets that have crippled those institutions and then repackage them for sale with a federal guarantee. It also established a set of regulations that will require wholesale credit unions to hold more capital and improve their risk management and governance practices.
It is the latest action by regulators to try to put the financial system on stronger footing, and comes as the nation’s banks and thrifts have shown signs that they are gradually returning to health. Many of the biggest and most troubled institutions, like IndyMac and Washington Mutual, were resolved in the early days of the financial crisis.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures money deposited in commercial and savings banks, has shuttered more than 295 lenders over the last few years, including two on Friday. The pace of those interventions has been slowing.
The credit union rescue, however, presents a new twist. Credit unions have billed themselves as conservative safe havens that were insulated from risky business like subprime and commercial real estate lending. Now, two years into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, it seems that no area of the financial industry managed to escape the effects of the credit bubble.