History of US Economic Recessions

Economic recessions have occured all throughout the history of modern economics. The National Bureau of Economic Research defines economic recession as a significant decline in the economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months. As familiar as people in the U.S. are right now with economic recession, the United States is not the only county to suffer from them. Any country that has even a remotely similar modern economic structure has suffered to some degree from economic recession.
The United States suffered its first recession back in the years between 1797 and 1800. It was called the panic of 1797, and it was primarily caused by the deflating effects of the Bank of England as they crossed the Ocean to American soil. This disrupted commercial real estate markets in the U.S. Britain’s economy was in a strained state already, because it was fighting France in the French Revolutionary wars at the time. This is just one example of how the effects of recession on one country can travel quickly to another. Economists all agree that what effects one country, especially a key country, will affect the rest of the world in at least one way, shape, or form, before the recession is over. Recession history has shown that U.S. economic recession history is full of trials that have helped bring about many other recessions since the Panic of 1797. Luckily though, the Panic of 1797 was the last recession of the 1700s.
The next recession confirmed occurred in the years between 1807 and 1814, and was called the Depression of 1807. This depression was primarily caused by the Embargo Act of 1807, signed into effect by then President Thomas Jefferson. This act destroyed a good part of the shipping related industries, and it was fought hard by the Federalists, who allowed smuggling to take effect in New England as a result of the Act.
The Panic of 1819 soon followed. This was considered the first major financial crisis to unveil itself before the relatively new U.S. economy. This panic brought with it widespread foreclosures, failing banks, huge unemployment rates, and a gigantic slump in manufacturing and agriculture that caused havoc among Americans. This recession also marked the end of great economic expansion that had taken place following the War of 1812.
Economic recessions in America continued with the Panic of 1837. This recession can really be attributed to failing banks, and to the lack of confidence people had in paper currency, which was becoming popular at the time. Banks stopped paying out in gold and silver, which really took its toll on American confidence.
The Panic of 1857 followed not long after. With the failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company (which at the time was one of the biggest in the United States) came the explosion of a European confidence bubble in the U.S. This greatly affected the railroads and U.S. banks, causing over 5,000 businesses in America to fail in the first year of the panic alone. Unemployment rose, and protest meetings became popular.
Recessions continued to plague not only America, but the rest of the world as well. Considered part of the natural cycle of the modern economic system, no one can really escape recession in the long run. Countries like Germany, the U.K., China, and Japan have all had trouble with recessions. In fact, economists say that Germany is in for what might be the biggest recession in all of German history not too far down the road. Japanese economic recession has also played a huge part in their history. Japanese recession, just like economic recessions in America, can be linked to the dreadful cycle of imbalanced inflation, money supply, and interest rates that keep things in balance, rolling, and functioning properly.
In the year 2001, the early 2000s recession hit America. The collapse of the dot.com bubble was truly the cause of these recessions, as well as the attacks that occurred on September 11th on the World Trade Center Towers in New York City. Accounting scandals also ran rampant, contributing to the overall downward financial spiral that America faced. Everyone remembers the attacks on America’s soil, and nobody will forget how, despite economic trouble, the attacks brought Americans together, more united than ever. And with that kind of perseverance, America was led out of that struggle to a new future of prosperity.
And lastly, America has been hit by what has been called the Late 2000s recession. The collapse of the housing market really set this one off on a bad note, and it, coupled with bank collapses in the U.S. and Europe, have caused consumer confidence and credit availability to plummet to new lows. Hopefully, things will turn around. But for now, the modern economic cycle again comes around to purge itself of the problems put on it by humanity, and unfortunately, that purge is known to us as recession.

$Boopathi$, August 27, 2009