Andrew Samwick writes
Over the past few years, cheap credit and imprudent lending policies by some bad actors generated excessive consumption and investment in the real estate sector. This boosted economic activity beyond the level that would have prevailed with policies that we now wish, with hindsight, had been in place. That level of economic activity is the starting point for discussion of a recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GDP. If we acknowledge that bad loans fueled the activity, why is it now a widely shared policy objective to maintain that level of activity?
Indeed.
HT: Larry White
The Everyday Economist 