ABSTRACT
The Great Recession, dated from the December 2007 peak to the June 2009 trough, deserved its name. The 4.7 percent fall in real GDP exceeded all previous post-World War II declines (the next largest, 1973–5, was 3.2 percent), although it did not approach the one-third fall of the Great Depression of 1929–33, or the 10-percent fall of 1937–8.
