5 May 2004

In March 2001, the U.S. economy went into recession for the first time in ten years

Claims that the "media" has "backdated" the recession.
Even before President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, his surrogates began to suggest that the Bush administration was inheriting an economic recession from the Clinton administration. Over the last three and a half years, the media has been awash in false references to Bush "inheriting a recession" from Clinton. A recent Media Matters for America poll found that 62 percent of Americans hold the false belief that the recession began under Clinton.
At least according to the NBER.

Comments

Bush did inherit a recession from Clinton. TIME magazine's article in December of 2000 was "Survivng the Slump". Most leading indicators had already started to go down. The stock market bubble peaked in March and burst throughout the year.

The recession started in March 2001, 3 months after Bush took office. It intensified due to 9/11. Look at the GDP data.

Bush DID inherit a weakening economy.