From an economics perspective, macroeconomics is the study of the behavior and trends of the aggregate economic factors including (un)employment, national income, economic growth rate, gross domestic production, inflation, and general price levels; with a view to assess, manage and improve the economic situation in a nation through the development of macroeconomic policies (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). In the US, this obligation falls under the ambit of the business cycle dating committee of the national bureau of economic research who attempt to create a stable upward economic trend through structured economic policies.
One of the key macroeconomic issues is the business cycle which denotes the general downward and upward movement of the national economy. Albeit generally average, business cycles can exhibit extreme curves with whose zenith is referred to as an economic boom, the nadir being economic recession. The United States has experienced both extremities and different instances with the economic booms largely overshadowing the recessions thus resulting in the general economic growth that has ensured the nation’s economic dominance in the world (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015).
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It has however suffered several serious economic recessions after the second world war which include the recession of 1949 which took place between November, 1948 and October, 1949: whereas most commentators and experts expected a long and debilitating recessions, the same was curbed though a spending tightening macroeconomic policy (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). Recession of 1953 between July 1953 and May 1954 which was blamed on the restrictive reaction by Federal Reserve in the aftermath of the Korean War which saw the government overspend and divert most of its monies towards the war effort. Thirdly is the recession of 1958 between August 1957 and April 1958 blamed on a monetary policy that tightened spending for two years in a row to wit 1955 and 1956 (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015).
Recession of 1960–61 between April 1960 and February 1961 was occasioned by a gradual increase in interest rates perhaps in response to the 1958 recession. This particular recession led to one of the longest periods of Economic Boom in the US history after the inauguration of President JF Kennedy. Recession of 1969 occurred between December 1969 and November 1970, which was a generally brief and mild recession that had followed an elongated boom and may have been contributed to by the effects of the Vietnam War and the Federal Reserve reaction thereto (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). The 1973–75 recession between November 1973 and March 1975 incorporated steep rise in employment and inflation and is blamed in the quadrupling of the oil price at the advent of OPEC (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015).
The 1980 recession between January and July1980 was a short and mild prelude to the major early 1980s recession (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). The early 1980s recession between July 1981 and November 1982 was generally blamed in the steep oil prices occasioned by the Iranian Revolution (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). The early 1990s recession between July 1990 and March 1991 came towards the end of the great 1980s boom perchance due to the raising in interest rates to check the late 1980s inflation coupled with the1990 oil price shock (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). Early 2000s recession between March 2001 and November 2001, was a short and shallow recession occasioned by the burst of the much anticipated .com and augmented by the infamous September 2001 terrorist attack (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015). Finally, the Great Recession between December 2007 and June 2009 perhaps among the major recessions of our times was expected to get much worse but whose effects were mitigated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which embodied the controversial Obama Economic Rescue Plan that dug into taxpayers coffers to assist private entities (Hummel, Timberlake & Selgin, 2015).
Just as in politics, economic commentators and opinion leaders may never agree on the general health of the Economy, it is however my informed pinion that the economy of the US has exhibited general growth since the end of the Second World War despite the recessions outlined above with the economic booms far outweighing the recessions. This does not mean that it is at its best, a fact that has been confirmed by the need to controversially utilize taxpayer’s monies to jumpstart private entities: proper economic policies need to be put in place more so regarding cost of production, management of labor costs and influx of low coat goods from developing economies.
The longest economic boom period was in the 1990s between the 1991 and the year 2001 lasting 10 years, the current economic boom period, being 7 years may be poised to break this record more so as it has even been predicted that the recently anticipated recession will not happen as predicted or at all (Zumbrun, 2016). Further due to better economic stabilization policies and the general independence of the private sector due to increased capitalistic tendencies, recessions have reduced in frequency, duration and magnitude: if more refined, more practical domestic economic policies were applied and more stringent rules are put in place regarding interferences from cheaper foreign producers like China, Vietnam and Mexico, the US economy is poised to thrive.
References
Hummel, J. R., Timberlake, R., & Selgin, G. (2015). The history of U.S. Recessions and banking crises. Retrieved from <http://www.alt-m.org/2015/10/22/the-history-of-u-s-recessions-and-banking-crises/>
Zumbrun, J. (2016). Recession warnings may not come to pass. The Wall Street Journal.
