The Great Recession Of The United States

Max: Hi I’m Max Lessins. This is Crash Course for economics and today we’ll be discussing the Great Recession, focusing on the fiscal and monetary policies used to recover from the 2008 economic meltdown.

At the end of the 20th century, it was clear that the United States national economy was on a incline. The U.S began winning the worldwide arms race, holding 50% of the world weapons stockpile (Taylor 10). Capitalism, the main trademark of the United States economy, spread like a wildfire across the majority of the world (Taylor 10). To the uneducated ear, news like this sounds great; the United States is slowly taking over the world. However, this insane growth was actually poising the U.S. for an extreme downfall in the coming years of the early 21st century. The major downfall would come to be known as the worst recession in our history since the infamous Great Depression.

The United States is a country that over the years has relied on its economic stability to continue providing acceptable living for its citizens and continue its leadership of the free world. This country went through an economic depression which lasted several years throughout the 1920’s and the 1940’s but successfully recovered from it after World War II. An economic boom in the 1990’s during George Clinton’s Presidency the federal budget was managed to be balanced and helped increase the economic crisis of the United States. The recovery did not last long as the United Stated went through a huge recession during George Bush’s Presidency in what many experts called the “Great Recession” which affected many especially businesses and middle class citizens. Although today many consider the recession to be over the effects of it can still be felt today specially by many middle class families like my own. I come from a small family of three which includes my parents and me. My family comes from minimum wage salaries and have been part of same line of work for many years however, the amount of necessities the family can afford has definitely changed. For example, the amount of groceries you can buy nowadays with a $20 bill is much less than those of the 1990‘s. The price of gas has certainly gone up which has caused many companies to outsource jobs or close down. My dad was laid off his dream job due to budgets cuts while my mom’s working hours have been reduced. As a result my

During the great recession era that began in late-2007 and lasted until mid-2009, the labor market took a major loss. The reasons that caused the labor market to plummet during this time frame were due to unemployment, a decrease in income and lack of education. Despite the efforts from the government to help as much as possible, the labor market had taken the worst hit and was at its lowest since the last three decades. It is important for everyone to understand what a weak labor market can result in. In this paper, I will discuss these findings and what impact they had on the labor market to weaken it to such a low point.

Every American was impacted in some way or another during the 2008 recession. Whether one was worried about their bank closing its doors, their business closing up or filling for bankruptcy it changed the way Americans save and think. The recession personally affected me for my father works at one of the “big three” car companies. And the fear of being let go of or laid off was something that every person in the industry had to deal with. But it was just in the car industry that suffered, it was every industry. All the financial suffering was rooted in one of the most essential needs of every human being, housing.

The banking crisis of the late 2000s, often called the Great Recession, is labelled by many economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Its effect on the markets around the world can still be felt. Many countries suffered a drop in GDP, small or even negative growth, bankrupting businesses and rise in unemployment. The welfare cost that society had to paid lead to an obvious question: ‘Who’s to blame?’ The fingers are pointed to the United States of America, as it is obvious that this is where the crisis began, but who exactly is responsible? Many people believe that the banks are the only ones that are guilty, but this is just not true. The crisis was really a systematic failure, in which many problems in the

A recession is full-proof sign of declined activity within the economic environment. Many economists generally define the attributes of a recession are two consecutive quarters with declining GDP. Many factors contribute to an economy's fall into a recession, but the major cause argued is inflation. As individuals or even businesses try to cut costs and spending this causes GDP to decline, unemployment rate can rise due to less spending which can be one of the combined factors when an economy falls into a recession. Inflation is the general rise in prices of goods and services over a period of time. Inflation can happen for reasons such as higher energy and production costs and that includes governmental debt.

The unprecedented government intervention during the massive economic crisis of the late 2000’s was met with varied sentiment of economists (Lee, 2009). For example, economist Marci Rossell felt that government intervention was arbitrary and lacked clarity as to which firms would receive government aid (Lee, 2009). She furthered her argument by stating that if the government bailed out homeowners and banks that were borrowing and lending “over their heads,” they were creating a dangerous precedent to set (Lee, 2009, p.40). However, Rossell praised the Obama administration for having a clear grasp on the economic situation and trusted in this administration’s guidance to recover from the economic crisis. Conversely, economist Steven Schwarcz said that though the government bailout in 2008 would cost more than it would have if the government had reacted more swiftly to early signs of recession, these institutions would collapse and fail without government aid (“How Three Economists,” 2008). If these institutions failed, the ripple effect of this failure to the U.S. economy would be irreparable.

The Great Recession, beginning in 2007 and ending around 2009, caused some serious repercussions on the United States economic system and left millions of jobs and housing at a stand still. Though a couple big business and stockholding companies caused this decline in the U.S., those businesses were the ones experiencing little to no cost for their actions.

When a government is faced with an economic downturn it has really has two options. The first option is to do nothing since periods of growth and decline are natural part of the economic cycle. However, if the decline appears to be more than just a general economic correction, then the second option comes into play. This second option is to enact various forms of legislation to help create an environment more acceptable to economic growth. The legislation can be industry specific, such as helping to increase home purchases, or more wide spread, like lowering of federal funds rate to help make the lending of money for all businesses more cost effective.

The financial collapse of the U.S. economy that occurred in 2008 created a foreclosure crisis that resulted in thousands of homeowners losing their properties nationwide. This great recession caused many homeowners to even lose their jobs, savings, and credit worthiness. Predatory lending was a major contributing factor in these foreclosures.

The definition of a recession is this: a significant decline in general economic activity, typically involving two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic product (GDP). In December of 2007, the American economy experienced an event of this nature—the Great Recession. This global financial crisis stemmed from what seemed like an isolated disturbance within the subprime US housing market but transformed into a catastrophic event. The GR officially ended in June of 2009.

The Great Recession, coinciding with the subprime mortgage crisis, lasted from the end of 2007 to the middle of 2009. This downturn became the biggest economic crisis that the United States had faced since the Great Depression. Causing high unemployment rates, a decline in consumer confidence and home values, the recession had a great impact on both Americans and immigrants in the United States. Since the 1990s to a few years before the recession, the number of immigrants entering the United States increased at a constant rate as more and more people came to the country in search for better job and education opportunities. This number dropped, however, when the country entered the economic crisis in 2007. The American Community Survey

The great recession of 2008 affected everyone around the world. The great Recession is considered the second worst economic crisis in American history, behind the Great Depression.

Thesis Statement: Although the recession that dates back in 2007 is still long and deep and surely has shown some recovery, the potential that it will completely recover is still vague.