Colorado is about two-thirds of the way through a recession that will end in late 2009, VectraBank Colorado’s chief economist said Wednesday at the bank’s annual economic forecast breakfast.
Most economists believe the national recession will end in the third or fourth quarter, economist Jeff Thredgold said. “I’m more of a fourth-quarter guy, myself.”
The U.S. recession, now in its 13th month, is the result of a “de-leveraging of a financial house of cards that was built up over the past 10 years,” Thredgold said. “We will get out of this. We will get through this.”
Vectra’s 16th annual Economic Forecast Breakfast was held at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Donald R. Seawell ballroom.
Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., said the state has been through worse.
“This is my fourth recession,” Clark said. “It’s like a bad marriage — it’s not very good, it’s self-destructive, but it’s pretty familiar and comfortable.”
Clark reminded the audience about Colorado’s downturn in the 1980s, the “flat spot” in the 1990s, and the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, when the state lost about 85,000 jobs in two years.
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