After a Good 10 Years

After a Good 10 Years

“US officially enters a recession”, “Jobless Claims Rise Again”, “Stagnant Labor Market”, these are just a sample of news headlines Americans have seen for the past two years. These really allow you to be optimistic about America’s future. Many factors influence America’s outlook on spending, savings, and working today.

According to BBC news the US officially entered a recession in November of 2001, despite the fact that senior economists had been predicting it since March of 2001. The US has endured 10 recessions since WWII. The last was in March of 1991. The ten years following that had been the longest period of expansion in history. We all hope that the recession we are currently in will eventually lead to a long period of expansion. All good things come to an end and that is exactly what has happened here.

You may be asking yourself, what exactly a recession is. Well, there are many definitions but the one that was the easiest to understand was online on Encyclopedia Britannica’s website. It is defined as a downward trend in the business cycle characterized by a decline in the production and employment, which in turn causes incomes and spending of households to decline. Even though not all households and businesses experience actual declines in income, expectations about the future become less certain during a recession and cause them to delay.

All of these characteristics meet and may even exceed what is going on in our economy