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Learning from Past Financial Recessions

There is a lot to learn from past financial recessions. There have been as many as 48 financial recessions in the US going back to the Articles of Confederation. Though some of these are disputed by economists and historians. The good news is going back to 1926 we have some very good reliable data on receissions. In the article below they look at the sixteen of them since 1926 to allow us to learn from them. 

What is a Financial Recession?

A recession is a slowdown or contraction of the economy over a business cycle and is often defined as two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product, or GDP. However, in the US we have the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), who ultimately makes recession related determinations. NBER has expanded the definition of recession beyond GDP to capture a range of indicators such as real personal income, employment, personal consumption spending, wholesale-retail sales, and industrial production.

Looking Back at Past Recessions

In the article below you can take an inveractive look at past recessions dating back to 1926. It gives data around the economic impacts as well as the market impact. However, you will notice that the market impact and economic impact don’t always happen at the same time. An economic recession can lead to a market recession and vice versa. They don’t usually happen in the exact same timeline. The market impact typically happens before the economic impact, since the market it is a forward looking mechanism. 

 

We hope you enjoy this PDF

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