It's official, just in case we were in any doubt ... the UK's in recession!

The UK is now in recession for the first time since 1991, official government figures have confirmed. Gross domestic product fell by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008 after a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter. That means that the widely accepted definition of a recession - two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth - has been met. It represents the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline since 1980, and a 1.8% fall on the same quarter a year ago.

Link to BBC News

An article in The Guardian details the events leading up to the recession.

Link to 'Countdown to Recession'

Link to analysis 'We will pull through this ... eventually!
Also, there is a graphic showing the cyclical pattern of the UK economy since 1955.
Link to graphic

Suddenly its OK to be a Keynesian again!

Geoff Riley on tutor2u highlights the focus on Keynes this weekend in his article on the blog. (Mr Keynes makes a return) As well as putting government policy into a Keynesian context, it includes links to a selection of the comment this weekend. The Guardian published the cartoon above together with the article 'Darling invokes Keynes as he eases spending rules to fight recession.'