Recession

From Free net encyclopedia

A recession is usually defined in macroeconomics as a fall of a country's real Gross Domestic Product in two or more successive quarters of a year. A recession may also involve falling prices, called deflation; alternatively it may involve sharply rising prices (inflation), in which case this process is known as stagflation. A severe or long recession is referred to as an economic depression or slump. A recession can also be defined as two consecutive periods of negative growth.

In a developed capitalist / free market economy, recessions come and go at fairly regular intervals - often 5-10 years - in what is known as the business cycle. There is much debate as to whether Government intervention smooths the cycle (see also Keynesianism) or worsens it (see also monetarism).

1 Causes of recessions
2 Depression
3 See also
4 External links

[edit]

Causes of recessions

Recessions are mostly caused by external economic shocks, or the unwinding of major imbalances in the economy.

One mechanism is based substantially on the role of consumer confidence and business confidence, which are important for example for individuals and organizations to decide whether their current investment or debt levels are correct. A wave of bad news (e.g. job losses at a big company) may lead enough people to worry about the future, increase their saving and reduce their spending, so that further bad news is caused. This can cause a recession through the multiplier effect.

The greatest worldwide recession that humanity has ever experienced was the beginning of the Great Depression (late 1920s and 1930s); other notable recessions include the two Oil Crises in the 1970s and the Long Depression of the late nineteenth century. The sharpest recession on record is that following the First World War when hyperinflation hit much of Europe; this recession did not last very long, however.

There is some debate as to whether a recession is a normal part of the business cycle. The theory of business cycles suggests that there will be times when employment and growth are relatively low. However, this does not mean that the economy will enter a recession on the formal definition.

Marxists hold that economic "crisis" is an inevitable part of capitalism, while Austrian economists hold that it is inevitable and has some desirable consequences.

[edit]

Depression

Main article: Great Depression

Prior to the Great Depression a huge wave of investing in the stock market had taken place which created artificially high prices of stock. This process was driven by the fact that shares were being used as a collateral for loans in order to buy more stocks. When the economy showed signs of slowing and share prices plummeted, this caused an extensive domino effect. The investments lost their face value and the loans on them "went bad", which, among other things, triggered a crisis of the banking system. In consequence, there was the famous run on banks, with people not being able to access their deposits. They had disappeared. After this, people grew extremely wary of investment which resulted in extreme deflation.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt entered office in 1933, he was intending to continue a relatively conservative fiscal policy to placate his business critics (Herbert Hoover in particular had warned him that any controversial early action would affect business confidence very adversely). However, after Black Tuesday Roosevelt was forced to change his mind, and instituted the "New Deal" economic reforms to stave off any future depressions. Contrary to myth, Roosevelt did not engage in sustained deficit spending until World War II neared, so that the Depression continued.

To date no repetitions of the Great Depression have happened in the United States. At least, none that the politicians and the media call "depressions", regardless of their impact on actual human lives. However, Japan suffered from a depression during the 1990s, while this word may be used to describe the situation of many poorer countries (although in many cases these countries never achieved sustained economic development in the first place).

It is an open question whether a "depression" can even be noticed at all under the terminology in use among technical economists today. Galbraith among others thought it could not, and that the terminology was merely exercise in concealment - a potent criticism from an economist who was a central part of that Administration during the war years.

[edit]