The Federal Reserve released data on industrial production for March 2020 and there is little doubt left that the United States economy has begun a period of economic recession. But, do the data point to the possibility that the US economy was already heading for a recession without the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. And, if so, could the addition of the pandemic impact to the economic downturn make the recession even worse?
An economic recession is recorded when the economy has two full quarters of negative growth for real Gross Domestic Product. It is