What is a recession?

Answer 1

a return of ownership to a former possessor.

Answer 2

A recession is traditionally defined in macroeconomics as a decline in a country's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters of a year (equivalently, two consecutive quarters of negative real economic growth). However this definition is not universally accepted. The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession more ambiguously as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months." A recession may involve simultaneous declines in coincident measures of overall economic activity such as employment, investment, and corporate profits. Recessions may be associated with falling prices (deflation), or, alternatively, sharply rising prices (inflation) in a process known as stagflation. A severe or long recession is referred to as an economic depression. A devastating breakdown of an economy is called economic collapse.

Answer 3

A recession is a decrease in the level of economic activity as measure by GDP (gross domestic product). A nation must have at least 6 consecutive month of slow down before a recession is declared. Use of the word prior to this is wrong and dangerous.

Answer 4

In economic terms (MACRO-ECONOMICS) "recession" is when the economic growth is negative and this is measured by the rate of change of output (national output) by GDP (Groos Domestic Product).
For every country there is a different target, for instance, for the UK is 4%. In 2006 it was 2.9% which is average I assume.

The opposite of "recession" would mean "overheating" which means "positive growth" and is likely to be happening in China. A very fast economic growth.

Economic growth can move in a cycle. Times of high growth are known as periods of "boom". HOwever, these periods can be followed by times when national incomes start to fall. This is called a "recession". This will be a period of falling output & rising unemployment. If it lasts a long time, its known as "depression". Eventually, output will rise again. This is called "recovery".

However, "recession" & "overheating" are not meant to be very good to an economy. It should always be average.

hope it helps:)

Answer 5

A recession is traditionally defined in macroeconomics as a decline in a country's real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters of a year (equivalently, two consecutive quarters of negative real economic growth).

However this definition is not universally accepted. The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession more ambiguously as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months." A recession may involve simultaneous declines in coincident measures of overall economic activity such as employment, investment, and corporate profits.

Recessions may be associated with falling prices (deflation), or, alternatively, sharply rising prices (inflation) in a process known as stagflation. A severe or long recession is referred to as an economic depression. A devastating breakdown of an economy is called economic collapse.

Market-oriented economies are characterized by economic cycles, but actual recessions (declines in economic activity) do not always result. There is much debate as to whether government intervention smooths the cycle (see Keynesianism), exaggerates it, or even creates it.

Causes of recessions
The precise causes of recession are the subject of fierce debate among academics and policy makers although most would agree that recessions are caused by some combination of endogenous cyclical forces and exogenous shocks. For example, Keynesian economists and Real business cycle theorists would all disagree about the precise cause of the business cycle, but most would agree that purely exogenous factors like the price of oil, weather conditions, or a war could by themselves cause a temporary recession, or, conversely, short term economic growth. Austrian school economists hold that it is an inflation of the money supply that causes modern recessions and that recessions are positive forces in-so-much that they are the market's natural mechanism of undoing the misallocation of resources present during the “boom” or inflationary phase. Most monetarists believe that the cause of most recessions in the United States is this mishandling of the money supply, while extreme changes in the structure of the economy are responsible for very few.

The Great 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 (ie. buying stocks on margins). When the economy showed signs of slowing and share prices plummeted, this caused an extensive domino effect. As investments lost their face value and the loans on them "went bad," many financial institutions collapsed, triggering a monetary crisis. This analysis has been sharply disputed by noted monetarist economists such as Milton Friedman (dubbing the Great Depression the Great Contraction) who wrote that the Great Depression would have been merely a "garden-variety recession" if it weren't for the response of the Federal Reserve to the following runs on the banks and that most investments were made unsound by the effects of a massive deflation, the increase in real interest rates and decline of real personal and business incomes. This led to the famous run on the banks, in which massive withdrawals of bank deposits led some banks to collapse, confirming investors' fears and inspiring more withdrawals. From the beginning to end, it has been calculated that the money supply declined by one third thus forcing down production while prices adjusted.

When U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt entered office in 1933, he began an aggressive program of reform called the New Deal with three goals, to provide immediate relief for the unemployed, to recover the economy to normal levels, and to reform the system so it would never happen again. Roosevelt got GNP moving upward again, with 11% annual growth 1933-36.

To date no repetitions of the Great Depression have happened in the industrial world. However, many Latin American countries suffered a severe economic slump coupled with high inflation in the 1980s, Japan suffered from a depression during the 1990s, and the former Communist states of central and eastern Europe also fell into an economic depression during the transition to capitalist economies. Additionally, the term "depression" may be used to describe the situation of many poorer countries in the Third World (although in many cases these countries never achieved sustained economic development in the first place).

The Great Depression in Europe was one of the reasons for the public acceptance of Adolf Hitler and other extremist fascist groups. Some of the other reasons for Hitler's acceptance was that of the over 100 political parties in Germany, about 7 were most powerful and Hitler had his brown shirts asassinate any serious competition. Their power was the main cause of World War II which, ironically, was a source of great (but costly) economic stimulation

Answer 6

when your neighbour is out of work , a depression is when your out of work, hope this helps