9781422281185

During the Great Recession that began in 2007, long-term unemployment figures reached record highs. In 2011, almost 33 percent of unemployed Americans had been without a job for 52 weeks. Fifteen percent had been unemployed for more than 99 weeks. African Americans and Asians suffered long-term unemployment at a higher rate than whites and Hispanics.

ers. A recession occurs when a bust lasts more than six months. Most times, a recession lasts from 6-18 months; six to ten percent of the workers are without jobs. A depression is a severe recession. This boom-bust cycle happened 11 times between 1945 and 2009. The Housing Bubble Bursts In the mid-1990s prices of houses began rising around 10 percent per year. The more they went up, the more people wanted to buy homes. Some worried that they would not be

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The Economics of Global Trade