3.+Recession+Blues



In December 2007, The United States economy went into the longest recession since the great depression. In 2007, the banking and housing sectors of the economy began to fail which brought financial animosity. At the end of 2008, about one million houses had been lost and another two million were being repossessed. The many forecloses were a product of insufficient lending practices that foolishly lent mortgages to people who they knew could not pay them back. Unemployment became another stressful side effect of the recession. In 2008, over three million people had lost their jobs. So many people were out of work that unemployment offices could not keep up with the influx of unemployment claims filed. In April of 2009, the national unemployment rate was an astounding 8.5% and was much higher in some places. It is estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that between December 2007 and April 2009, over five million jobs were lost. Also, the collapse of the banking industry unsettled many. The government takeover of Washington Mutual is said to be the largest bank failure in U.S. history. On October 3, 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was passed. This historic $700 billion bailout plan was designed to boost the housing and banking markets. But after the act was passed, the economy continued to worsen. In June of 2009, the recession was declared officially over but America is still continuing to recover.

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