9781422281185

stock market dropped. At the lowest point, stocks fell 54 percent from the market high in October 2007. Businesses slowed their operations or closed. Unemployment grew to 10.2 percent, the highest it had been in about twenty years. This period became known as the Great Recession. It last- ed from December 2007 to June 2009. The US government took many measures to halt the damage from the recession. It helped keep interest rates

The period of economic hard times known as the Great Depression lasted for about eleven years. The US economy did not start to grow again until the late 1930s. This was because the start of the Second World War increased the global demand for American manufactur- ing and agricultural products to a greater level than ever before.

Economic Booms and Busts 13