What is the recession and how does it affect families?

by State Library of Queensland, Australia

Question by Caroline: What is the recession and how does it affect families?

I have to write an essay about the recession that america is in, right now, and how it affects families. There for, I need to know what a recession is. What is a recession? What is the difference between a recession and a depression? How is the recession affecting you and your family?




Best answer:

Answer by capwest5a
Recession:

A period of general economic decline; typically defined as a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters. A recession is typically accompanied by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment, and a decline in the housing market.
A recession is generally considered less severe than a depression, and if a recession continues long enough it is often then classified as a depression. There is no one obvious cause of a recession, although overall blame generally falls on the federal leadership, often either the President himself, the head of the Federal Reserve, or the entire administration.
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The unemployment rate in the United States was 9.90 percent in April of 2010. Which means that 99 out of each 1,000 available workers are not working or are unable to find work. Just, as an example, think about how rough your life would be if both your mom and dad were unemployed. Pretty soon they would possibly lose their house due to not being able to pay the mortgage, or if it's an apartment, that could be a bad situation as well. In this fictional scenario, your parents would probably end up going on welfare, which doesn't pay very much. They would be moving to a low-income apartment building fairly soon.

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