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A recession is a contraction phase of the business cycle, or "a period of reduced economic activity."[1][2] The U.S. based National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) defines a recession more broadly as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."[3] A sustained recession may become a depression.
Some business & investment glossaries add to the general definition a rule of thumb that recessions are often indicated by two consecutive quarters of negative growth (or contraction) of gross domestic product (GDP).[4][5] Newspapers often quote this rule of thumb, however the measure fails to register several official (NBER defined) US recessions.[6]
Contents
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• 1 Attributes of recessions
• 2 Predictors of a recession
• 3 Responding to a recession
• 4 Central bank response
• 5 Stock market and recessions
• 6 Recession and politics
• 7 History of recessions
o 7.1 Global recessions
o 7.2 United States recessions
• 8 Possible 2008 recession in some countries
o 8.1 United States
o 8.2 Other countries
• 9 See also
o 9.1 Causes of recessions
o 9.2 Effects of recessions
• 10 References
• 11 External links

[edit] Attributes of recessions
A recession has many attributes that can occur simultaneously and can include declines in coincident measures of overall economic activity such as employment, investment, and corporate profits. Recessions are the result of falling demand and may be associated with falling prices (deflation), or sharply rising prices (inflation) or a combination of rising prices and stagnant economic growth (stagflation). A severe or prolonged recession is referred to as an economic depression. Although the distinction between a recession and a depression is not clearly defined, it is often said that a decline in GDP of...