When will this great recession end???.

This is the question that is almost in everyone's mind these days. The Federal Reserve chairman Mr. Ben Bernanke was on record, at the recent congressional hearings, that the economy would be out of recession in 2010. Based on that statement New York Times asked about 11 experts to give their opinions as to when this painful recession would end. Their opinions are linked in this blog headline.

Every one of them, seems to echo similar sentiments, but in a different way. The earliest call was for it to end this year and the longest call was to last for 3 years, though not with any confidence.

James Grant, the Editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer and the author, most recently, of “Mr. Market Miscalculates.”, said "Today’s low prices, painful though they may be, are the market’s own shovel-ready stimulus. Before you know it, the stock market, and the residential real-estate market, too, will be on their way back up again — just don’t ask when."

Stephen S. Roach, the Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said "it looks to me as if this recession won’t end until late 2010 or early 2011."

A. Michael Spencer, an Emeritus Professor of Management at Stanford and also the Winner of the Nobel prize in economics in 2001, said "Not too soon." He also added "If governments are quick and clear in their intentions and intervene in a coordinated way in both the real economy and the financial sector, we will probably have an unusually long and deep global recession through 2010. If they don’t, it is likely to be worse than that."

William Poole. a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis from 1998 to 2008. said "I believe, though without great confidence, that the recession will end in the second half of this year. "

Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, said "ECONOMISTS hesitate to predict the future for good reason. But when looking at our economic decline, we can all agree on two things: we did not get here overnight and we will not recover tomorrow."

George Cooper, the author of “The Origin of Financial Crises: Central Banks, Credit Bubbles and the Efficient Market Fallacy.”, said "while the technical recession could be over by the end of the year, the broader credit cycle will likely remain a significant drag on economic activity well into the next decade. Either way, we have a long way to go."

Niall Ferguson, a professor at Harvard and the author of “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.”, said "So far in this recession, remember, we have had only two consecutive quarters of declining gross domestic product. At the moment, I find it quite easy to imagine two consecutive years of contraction. And I don’t rule out two more lean years after that. "

Alan S. Blinder a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, said "HERE’S the hard truth: Nobody knows when this recession will end."

Marcelle Chauvet, an associate professor of economics at the University of California at Riverside and Kevin A. Hasset, the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said " RECESSIONS end, and this one will, too. But the sad truth is, the probability of leaving a recession once you are in one is about the same each month — about 8 percent. It is as if God rolls two dice each month, and the recession ends when he rolls a 10."

Carmen M. Reinhart, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, said " After the most severe banking crises around the world in the postwar period, the economy has taken an average of four years to return to its previous peak in personal income. After the Depression, it took the United States 10 years. "

Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the New York University Stern School of Business, and the chairman of an economic consulting firm, said "Even if appropriate aggressive policy actions were undertaken — monetary and fiscal stimulus, bank clean-up and credit restoration, mortgage debt reduction for insolvent households — the growth rate would not rise closer to 2 percent until 2011. So this recession may last 36 months."

When we read all of their opinions, it seems as if no one is sure as to how and when this will end. Everyone seems to be saying with confidence though, that this will be very painful while it lasts. How ever long this lasts, we will all come out of it together, hopefully sooner than later, in this once in a lifetime Global Recession.