Get ready for the big "R".

AuthorHarrington, Susan
PositionFROM THE EDITOR

R starts a lot of words--good, bad, and indifferent--some words just are. The big "R" word Alaskans are holding their breath for these days is recession. In Anchorage's first one hundred years there have a been a few, the first one probably occurring after the completion of the railroad when those thousands of railroad workers left and the community heard the first whoosh as all those workforce wages disappeared from the new economy.

Looking statewide, though, better known Alaska recessions are more recent--1977, 1985, 2009. The one that began in 1977 happened after the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was complete and thousands of pipeline jobs disappeared. The 1985 recession has been attributed to the price of oil; however, it happened after the state-funded mega projects known as Project 80s were complete and the banks fell when the housing market crashed. The most recent one, the one that began in 2009, was a delayed reaction in Alaska to the 2007 "subprime spillover" national housing market crash that lead to the stock market crash and national recession in 2008-2009 and lasted until the federal government's stimulus program and bank bailout pumped trillions of dollars into the national economy.

This recession, Alaska's latest recession--some say it began in summer 2014 and some say it is likely to begin soon--will probably be long and hard. There will be no big money bailout, no federal stimulus package, no state spending spree, no oil price recovery to $100 barrel--no cure save time and economic growth.

So what can be done...

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