"Great Recession" Being Used to Describe the Current Economic Downturn

The current economic downturn that we are still suffering through began (according to most experts) in December of 2007.

As the global economy imploded, people scrambled to come up with a name that would properly convey the severity the downturn.

Would it just be a run-of-the-mill recession? Not a chance - the severity of the downturn made it much more than just a normal recession.

Would it be a depression, similar to the one experienced in Japan in the 1990s? Maybe (it still could happen), but probably not. The coordinated response and subsequent injection of massive amounts of liquidity into the global economy by the major economic powers of the world probably prevented this from happening.

Would it be another Great Depression? Probably not. There are a few major differences between now and then:

1. Back then, most households had just one income. These days, many households have more than one income. While many American families have had to adjust their budgets, they have not (for the most part) had to contend with the loss of 100% of their income as many did during the Great Depression.

2. Government safety nets. There is assistance available to people today that just wasn't available back in the 1930s.

So if it's not a recession, depression or Great Depression, then what are we currently living through right now?

How about the "Great Recession"?

The term "Great Recession" was recently used by Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman, at a speech in Washington.

Volcker wasn't the first person to use the term to describe the current economic downturn. However, the media seems to have latched on to the term after Volcker used it.

According to Google News, the term "Great Recession" has been used in 1,063 different articles over the past week. Many publications, including the New York Times and Financial Times, have used the term as well.

Given how the media has really started to sink their teeth into using the term "Great Recession", it is just a matter of time before the term becomes a popular buzzword.

Like it or not, "the Great Recession" it is.

Filed under: General Knowledge