What is the NBER?
The NBER was founded in 1920 by a group of economists who wanted to study business cycles. It is a non-profit research organization with more than 1,000 university professors and researchers functioning as “associates,” who study how the U.S. economy works. Since the 1960s it has been considered the official arbiter of when the U.S. is in recession. The NBER’s business cycle dating committee actually makes the decision to declare a recession. That key committee is currently composed of economists from Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Conference Board. The Americans “stimulated” their economy by issuing cheques to millions of citizens this past spring. Has Canada ever done anything like that? Canada has never sent cheques directly to its citizens to try to stimulate the economy. The closest thing to that took place early in 2006 when the Alberta government sent $400 “resource rebate cheques” to every resident of the provi
