An economy on the brink

Every day seems to reveal a new, grimmer economic number. This week it’s a big drop in home prices, small economic growth, and a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Board. Peter Goodman of The New York Times helps The Takeaway understand what those numbers will mean for our pocketbooks.
Takeaway facts:
* What is a recession? One definition: two consecutive quarters with declining gross domestic product (GDP).
* By that definition, we aren’t in a recession. In the last quarter, GDP rose by a small amount, 0.6 percent. It rose 4.9 percent in the quarter before that.
* It’s a hold-your-breath moment that could last six months. It takes that long for interest rates to influence the broader economy, and the first economic stimulus rebate checks are reaching bank accounts this week.
* In February, home prices fell by 12.7 percent over the previous year. It’s the largest drop recorded since the Standard and Poor/Case Shiller home price index was created in 2001.
* Foreclosures doubled in the first part of 2008 when compared to the previous year. Nationwide, 649,917 received at least one foreclosure-related filing in the first three months of this year. It was 306,722 during the same period last year.