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Notification What Is a Recession? For more than a year, barely a
day has passed that we have not heard dire economic news about
the United States, Europe, or Japan. Unemployment has been
rising, company profits have been falling, financial markets
have been tumbling, and the housing sector has been collapsing.
Is there a single word to describe these developments? Yes:
"recession." The ongoing global financial crisis has been
accompanied by recessions in many countries. This pattern is
consistent with the historical record. Synchronized recessions
have occurred in advanced economies several times in the past
four decades—the mid-70s, early 80s, early 90s, and early 2000s.
Because the United States is t