Aftermath of the Great Recession: The Anemic Recovery

Abstract

The Great Recession has been dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research to have extended from December 2007 through June 2009. By the criterion of percentage peak-to-trough decline in real GDP as well as numerous other standards reported in chapter 6, this was the deepest U.S. economic contraction since the Great Depression of 1929–1933. Real GDP declined by 4.7 percent from peak to trough, and during the ensuing recovery it failed to achieve parity with the prerecession level until the second quarter of 2011—nearly four years after the recession began. In real terms, both median household income and per capita GDP remained lower in 2013 than in 2007. Owing to the severe decline and slow recovery of house prices, real median household wealth was also lower in 2013 than in 2007.