The Pros And Cons Of The Great Recession

December of 2007 saw the beginning of the worst economic downturn in memorable history; not since the end of the Great Depression in 1939 has the world seen such a devastating and long-lasting economic breakdown. The Great Recession shook the public’s faith in the capitalist system and silenced those who claimed a modern economy was impervious to another broad collapse like the one in 1929. Discontent and mistrust from the public has built not only with large corporations and the financial sector, but also with the government whose legislature and policies in recent decades seem to coincide with the interests of private corporate power-houses. These lenient policies contributed directly to the recession that affected individuals across the globe. Stunted wages, increased poverty,
However prior to 2008, nearly everyone was blind to their impending doom; investors, bankers, government regulators, the general population, and even the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, a man who was considered the economic guru, was fooled into believing the prosperity America had been enjoying would last for the foreseeable future (“Rethinking” 20). By this time there had been only mild economic downturns or, at most, short periods of turmoil. Financial institutions and large corporations had grown accustomed to the decades of economic prosperity resulting from the post-war economic boom, long forgetting the lessons learned from the Great Depression (“Rethinking” 20). In fact, economists concluded that America had entered a new era of calm. After a generation of portfolio managers and investors profiting from decades of favorable returns on stocks they believed the modern economy was impervious to major calamities (“Rethinking” 20). As inflation rates fell from record highs in the late 1970s and early 1980s to the record lows that they are today, interest rates followed enabling Americans to borrow more money from