A fall in national output continuing for a few years. Over the past 200 years, there have been several depressions, especially in the nineteenth century, in the economies of Western countries. The term is often used loosely to refer to a period of...

1 A phase of the business cycle which succeeds a boom and precedes a trough. 2 A six-month fall in GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT according to the NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH of Washington, DC. The principal indicators of this are falling output and...

In macroeconomics, a recession is a decline in any country's gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year. However, in the United States the official designation of recessions is done by...

Some economists say yes, but others disagree Nicholas Perna, former chief economist at the Fleet Financial Group, brushes aside the notion that the economy is in a recession. "Basically, what's happened is that we've gone through a very dramatic slowing of...

RECESS APPOINTMENTS are a tool that presidents should use sparingly -- in egregious cases where congressional gridlock has been unfair to the nominee and unhealthy for government. The Bush administration, though, is said to be weighing a spate of recess appointments to the Federal...

Globalization: As anxiety rises about a looming recession, one way to head it off is through free trade. Long a bulwark against recession, the U.S. has four free trade pacts waiting to help. Why is Congress dithering?All eyes seem to be turned to the Federal...

Two days before Thanksgiving the Senate had a 22-second session, a fleeting moment in the life of an occasionally droning body but plenty of time for majority Democrats to keep President Bush from making "recess" appointments.Senators have been taking turns standing sentry duty this week...

Discusses the effectiveness of using monetary policy alone to bring an economy out of recession. Considers macroeconomic objectives achieved by fiscal and monetary tools. Describes a recession and details possible causes.