The economy is on a sliding scale depicting how well or poorly it’s doing. On the not-doing-so-hot half of the scale, we have “recessions” in the middle (so, at the third-quartile, you could say). Further down—when economic recessions are really bad—we call them “economic collapses.” On the edge, we have societal collapse, but nobody likes to talk about that.
How do you know an economic collapse when you see one? When the economy tanked so bad that it’s in the gutter for years...or decades...paired with a side of civil unrest (like street riots, strikes, peaceful protests, or not-so-peaceful protests) and salted with increased poverty. Not the kind of meal we want to be eating.
Why does this happen? Financial markets crashing down onto us is a common one, but so is hyperinflation (when inflation goes crayyyy) and stagflation (when, counterintuitively, the economy is doing badly, unemployment is high, and yet prices are still rising). While the Great Recession of ‘07-’09 was pretty bad, it wasn’t Great-Depression-bad (24% unemployment, 25% of GDP went poof).
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Finance: What is Recession?15 Views
finance a la shmoop what is recession well here's one here's another and
another and well here's an economic recession so technically when GDP [Set of teeth appear]
declines for two sequential quarters that is a recession and you can glean
enough from this most excellent chart that in most years GDP grows not
massively but relatively steadily and with compounding the US has grown GDP
from a trickle to a torrent in a recession economic activity declines [Recession definition appears]
maybe a half a percent a percent maybe two percent and you might not think
that's a big deal but we're a nation living on credit that is plastic these [Man using credit card]
things mortgages car loans bunch of other credit II kind of things so a
decline of even 1% when we were expecting growth of two is a delta of 3%
and that change is exacerbated with leverage when people fear for their job
safety they stop buying those extra pairs of earrings at the mall they get [Woman biting her nails]
one less tattoo and they stop making appointments at Botox Depot so all of
the sudden activity in given quote luxury sectors or otherwise unquote just [Person receiving a tattoo]
stops dead and there's a multiplier effect here as well because a wealthy
banker who used to throw 20 parties a year now only throws four so all those [Calendar displaying party days appears]
bartenders and oboe players and ice sculptors yeah they're all out of work
as well and then they buy less beer and that new ice pick the sculptor was gonna
buy yeah well she'll just sharpen her own and make do with it you know until
the GDP grows again after the recession is over in a few years so yeah [Boom/bust cycle appears]
recessions they're dangerous and credit high credit makes them all the more
dangerous so be wary