what is the difference in a recession and a depression?

Answer 1

A depression is a longer, more sustained recession with a larger fall in GDP. Often it is thought of as a period of GDP decrease beyond that considered normal for the business cycle. Check out http://economics.about.com/cs/businesscycles/a/depressions.htm
An oft repeated definition is when a recession causes GDP to decrease by 10% it becomes a depression.

Answer 2

They are both refer to periods of negative economic growth. . They use to be called panics but the powers that be decided that panic sounded bad after the panic of 1893 so they substituted depression for panic. After the 1930's depressions sounded bad too so it is now called recession but politicians say downturns or slowdowns when such periods happen while they are in charge. Recession are what happens when they other party has power. The term used to describe negative growth depends on which historical time period it occured

Answer 3

think of a recession as a lake and a depression as a sea. There is a clear difference in depth and length between a small lake (mild recession) and a large sea (deep depression) but sometimes it can be hard to tell them apart.