ABSTRACT
The recession of 1990–1991 began in July 1990 and ended in March 1991. The background discussion of the 1980s preceding the onset of the 1990–1991 recession is in two parts. The first part contains narratives of international political and economic events, the savings and loan associations failures, the stock market crash of 1987, the deregulatory program of the 1980s, and the natural disasters of Hurricane Hugo and the San Francisco Bay Area earthquake. The second part describes the fiscal-policy-driven federal government budget deficits preceding the onset of the 1990–1991 recession. The chapter provides an analysis of the monthly and quarterly movements of a number of economic indicators during the eighteen to twenty-four months that constituted the last phase of the expansion period. The economic indicators include employment, unemployment, inflation and deflation, industrial production, housing starts, worker earnings in manufacturing, interest rates and bank loans, consumer durable goods spending, and gross national product.
