Graph of the day - recessions since 1857

The top line indicates that the current recession, which started in December 2007, is 487 days old, which means that we have almost matched the longest pot-WWII recession. The purple bars indicate the length of the recession in days; the recessions are organized with the most recent at the top.
This comes via The Big Picture blog.

NOTE: The end of each recession, as declared by the National Bureau of Economic Research, is typically recognized and announced months after the actual end of the recession.

In related news: Oxford Round Table has announced their July 2009 roundtable theme "Money, Politics, and Law: Effects of the Meltdown on the Human Condition" (with subtopics Keynes Revisited and Roosevelt Redux). Who will vote with me that our discussion group should be sent (by our employer, of course) to Oxford this coming July? :) (cost is $2940 per guest plus the travel fees).