Similarities And Differences Between 1973 And 1973-2003 Recessions

The Great Recession is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Many people who are ignorant of economics have the tendency to blame financial institutions for the recession. Economists and writers, such as Robert D. Putnam and David Colander have adopted their own hypothesis as to why the recession occurred and have offered their solutions on how the economy is able to recover. The decline of the American economy was caused by specific aspects, such as gentrification and unemployment.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics characterizes a recession as a general slowdown in economic activity, a downturn in the business cycle, and a reduction in the amount of goods and services produced and sold. But what usually causes this slowdown to begin with? Each recession has its own specific causes, but all of them are usually preceded by a period of irrational exuberance which is part of the expansion phase of the business cycle. The most recent one, which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, produced the greatest US labor-market meltdown since the Great Depression. This Great Recession began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. Irrational exuberance in the housing market led many people to buy houses they couldn’t afford because the thought was that housing prices could only go up. The bubble burst in 2006 as housing prices started to decline, threw many homeowners off guard, who had taken loans with little money down. When the realization set in that they would lose money by selling the house for less than their mortgage, they foreclosed. This triggered an enormous foreclosure rate which caused many banks and hedge funds to panic after realizing the looming huge losses due to the buying of mortgage-backed securities on the secondary market. By August 2007, banks were afraid to lend to one another because they did not want these toxic loans as collateral. This led to the $700 billion bailout, and bankruptcies or government nationalization of Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac Bank, and Washington Mutual. Consumer spending experienced sharp cutbacks due to the resulting loss of wealth. The combination of this along with the financial market chaos elicited by the bursting of th...

In recent years, the economy in the United States has been in what most would see as a recession. American people differ in the way they react to a recession. Some, such as Michael Moore, feel it becomes a downward spiral as big business and it’s stockholders gain more money and power, and it’s workers gain less money and stability.

By definition, an economic depression is a “sustained, long-term downturn in economic activity in one or more economies.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_depression) The latter, is far worse then a recession. A recession is merely an economic slowdown, which was experienced by most Atlantic Provinces in the late 19th century.

The phrase “History repeats itself” is a commonly used paradigm when it comes to events that happen in a repetitive notion. The recession that has recently been witnessed by the millions is a great example of history repeating itself. How did it happen, did we know it was going to happen, and was there anything that could have been done to prevent it? There are a multitude of questions that could be asked, with the most important of them all, will it happen again? In just the past two hundred years, the United States has seen “Black Friday” in 1869, “The Great Depression” in 1929, and the most current recession of 2009. Recessions, depressions, inflation, economic boom, these are all terms used to describe the financial events that have taken place in the United States as far back as 1819. Known as the first major recession, an economic boom took place just after the war of 1812. According to an article in American History Magazine, most recessions that the US has seen last an average of 10 months, and reoccur on average every 4.6 years. It has become a cycle, a business cycle, one that we will most likely see several times over again during our time. These events among others that deal with financial crisis, weather it be a loss of stock or inflation of goods, have had a tremendous effect on our country, and is believed that it will happen again.

According to the article on “Economic Recession” from Issues and Controversies, a panel of economists determined that the U.S. was in a recession from December 2007 to June 2009, making it the longest ...

As an illustration, Michael Grabell speaks about signs of recession in March 2009; and how the recession consumed many states across the United States in the fall of 2008. Employment rates were decreasing, Unemployment rates were off the charts and there were many house foreclosures. Furthermore, in Krugman’s Economics for AP* it goes more into depth about the signs of recessions and house foreclosures which can be seen in Module 2. Here, it talks about the many signs of recessions-- inflation, deflation and labor force, which is the total amount of people that are employed and unemployed. In addition to, which they are vigorously looking for work but are not currently employed. Moreover, a few modules ahead Krugman’s textbook also talks about what some individuals did to survive the recession. For instance, Home foreclosures caused tax revenues to plummet. Not to mention, how at the same time more people sought Medicaid and food stamps to survive the recession.

A recession is a decline of economic activity. This slowdown means there are less goods produced in a market, which reduces number of those who are employed, and increases the price of goods in that market. There were many causes of the 1973 recession. One of the causes that really started the recession was the oil crisis of 1973. Members of the OPEC raise the price of oil from 3 dollars to nearly 12 dollars. This decreased the demand for vehicle’s made in the United States. The reason f...

This recession has been the biggest economic struggle in my lifetime. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The event that led to this recession is the housing crisis, where banks were giving out loans, almost without any restrictions. People were getting involved in one of the best economic times in our history. Confidence was everywhere and the ideal mindset hit everyone. When the economy hit all new highs, people thought the supply and demand chain would continuously rise. The business cycle seemed to be a lie to many Americans. However, the business cycle is real and the world lives a part of it everyday. When deregulation became extreme and private companies, especially banks, got all the power, nothing could stop them from making money. In order for the banks to make large sums of money is by giving out loans. However, the economy went out of control. Now, there are many unemployed without money and a house. The amount of foreclosures increased dramatically from the beginning of the recession. Well, it is horrible that all these fellow citizens lost their homes to foreclosure, but as a country, we need to look ahead and figure out how to fix the situation.

Ever since the recession we have we experienced a serious economic depression. People loosing jobs that they were going to retire from. A change of location and lifestyle has left thousands of families in America out in the cold. Due to financial hardships homes all over America are experiencing a foreclosure crisis.

A recession is where there is temporary economic deterioration which lasts longer than a few months, sometimes years. This can be seen by the employment rate decreasing and the reduction of trade and industry work. This is determined by the Gross Domestic Product (GPD) which is a government statistic which shows the total country’s economy movement. This is measured every 3 months (quarterly) and it is said that if after two consecutive quarters the GPD is down then the country is seen to be in recession. (Kollewe, 2009). The most recent recession in the UK kick-started in 2008, which was seen to be one of the worst recessions the UK has seen since the Great Depression. In July 2008 was when it became increasingly obvious that we was about to enter a recession; the unemployment rate kept rising, the housing industry started to cut thousands of jobs and the whole-sale industry was declining in production. (Allen, 2010)

Since being founded, America became a capitalist society. Being a capitalist society obtains luxurious benefits and rather harsh consequences if gone bad. In a capitalist society people must buy products and spend money to keep the economy balanced, but once those people stop spending money, the economy goes off balance and the nation enters a recession. Once a recession drastically takes a downturn, the nation enters what is known as a depression. In 2008 America entered a recession and its consequences were severe enough for some people, such as President Barack Obama, to compare the recent crisis to the world’s darkest economic depression in history, the Great Depression. Although the Great Depression and the Great Recession of 2008 hold similarities and differences between the stock market and government spending, political issues, lifestyle changes, and wealth distribution, the Great Depression proved far more detrimental consequences than the Recession.

Regardless of the current economic strength, the United States government has failed its citizens repeatedly, which has led to some major economic downfalls in the past. Some of these failures include The Great Depression, the 1981 Recession, and the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic catastrophe that caused unemployment rates to surge and pushed economic production rates to fail. The early 1980s recession was marked by astronomical interest rates, accompanied by high unemployment and the rising cost of living. The sharp decline in the economy that was considered the most significant failure since the Great Depression came to be known as the Great Recession, also called the Recession of 2007-2009. The

What caused the Great Recession that lasted from December 2007 to June 2009 in the United States? The United States a country with abundance of resources from jobs, education, money and power went from one day of economic balance to the next suffering major dimensions crisis. According to the Economic Policy Institute, it all began in 2007 from the credit crisis, which resulted in an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble (n.d.). This said by Economist analysts to attributed to the collapse in the United States. Even today, strong debates continue over major issues caused by the Great Recession in part over the accommodative federal monetary and fiscal policy (Economic Policy Institute, 2013). The Great Recession of 2007 – 2009 enlarges the longest financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929 – 1932 that damaged the economy.

In economics, a recession occurs when there is a slowdown in the spending of goods and services in the market. A recession causes a drop in employment, GDP growth, investment, as well as societal well-being. All recessions are caused by a specific cause, but the Great Recession of 2007-2009 was caused by a crash in the housing market. This crash was triggered by a steep decline in housing prices. All of a sudden, people bought houses because there was an excessive amount of money in the economy and they thought the price of houses would only increase. (Amadeo, 2012). There was a financial frenzy as the growing desire for homes expanded. People held a lot of faith in the economy and began spending irrationally on houses that they couldn’t afford. This led to overvalued estate and unsustainable mortgage debt. (McConnell, Brue, Flynn, 2012).