The United States has been a land of opportunity and growth from the time that early settlers first landed in Jamestown long before a first-world capitalistic country was founded in this part of North America. Of course, with every opportunity and with growth comes periods where things temporarily move backward and economies falter. This section of HistoryB explores major economic events from expansive booms and periods of irrational exuberance to economic contractions, including recessions and depressions and other busts and bursts.
Significant Recessions / Depressions:
Panic of 1796–1797
Panic of 1837
Long Depression
Panic of 1893
Panic of 1907
Great Depression
1973–1975 Recession
Great Recession 2007
COVID-19 recession
(See All Below)
Significant Economic Expansions
Reconstruction (1865-1877)
Gilded Age (1877-1900)
Post War Prosperity (1945–1973)
Dot Com (1991–2001)
Real Estate Bubble (2001–2007)
U.S. Longest (2009–2020)
FULL LIST >
Significant Crashes & Crisis
Financial Crisis of 1791–92
Black Friday 1869
Panic of 1873
1907 Bankers Panic
Wall Crash of 1929
Flash Crash of 1962
Black Monday 1987
Friday the 13th mini-crash 1989
Black Wednesday 1992
Dot-com bubble Burst 2000
Financial crisis of 2007-08
2020 Stock Market Crash
FULL LIST >
Jump to: Early recessions and crises (1785-1836)
Jump to: Free Banking Era to the Great Depression (1836-1929)
Jump to: Great Depression onward (1929–present)
| Name of Economic Period | Description |
| Early recessions and crises (1785-1836) | |
| Panic of 1785 1785–1788 | Ended the business boom that followed the American Revolution. The causes of the crisis lay in the overexpansion and debts incurred after the victory at Yorktown, a postwar deflation, competition in the manufacturing sector from Britain, and lack of adequate credit and a sound currency. The downturn was exacerbated by the absence of any significant interstate trade. |
| Copper Panic of 1789 1789–1793 | Loss of confidence in copper coins due to debasement and counterfeiting led to commercial freeze up that halted the economy of several northern States and was not alleviated until the introduction of new paper money to restore confidence |
| Panic of 1792 1792–1792 | Caused by the extension of credit and excessive speculation. The panic was largely solved by providing banks the necessary funds to make open market purchases. |
| Panic of 1796–1797 1796–1799 | Just as a land speculation bubble was bursting, deflation from the Bank of England (which was facing insolvency because of the cost of Great Britain’s involvement in the French Revolutionary Wars) crossed to North America and disrupted commercial and real estate markets in the United States and the Caribbean, and caused a major financial panic. Prosperity continued in the Southern United States, but economic activity was stagnant in the Northern United States for three years. |
| 1802–1804 Recession | A boom of war-time activity led to a decline after the Peace of Amiens ended the war between the United Kingdom and France. Commodity prices fell dramatically. Trade was disrupted by pirates, leading to the First Barbary War. |
| Depression of 1807 1807–1810 | The Embargo Act of 1807 was passed by the United States Congress under President Thomas Jefferson as tensions increased with the United Kingdom. Along with trade restrictions imposed by the British, shipping-related industries were hard hit. The Federalists fought the embargo and allowed smuggling to take place in New England. Trade volumes, commodity prices and securities prices all began to fall. |
| 1812 Recession | The United States entered a brief recession at the beginning of 1812. The decline was brief primarily because the United States soon increased production to fight the War of 1812, which began June 18, 1812. |
| 1815–1821 Depression 1815–1821 | Shortly after the war ended on March 23, 1815, the United States entered a period of financial panic as bank notes rapidly depreciated because of inflation following the war. The 1815 panic was followed by several years of mild depression, and then a major financial crisis – the Panic of 1819, which featured widespread foreclosures, bank failures, unemployment, a collapse in real estate prices, and a slump in agriculture and manufacturing. |
| 1822–1823 Recession | After only a mild recovery following the lengthy 1815–1821 depression, commodity prices hit a peak in March 1822 and began to fall. Many businesses failed, unemployment rose and an increase in imports worsened the trade balance. |
| 1825–1826 Recession | The Panic of 1825, a stock crash following a bubble of speculative investments in Latin America led to a decline in business activity in the United States and England. The recession coincided with a major panic, the date of which may be more easily determined than general cycle changes associated with other recessions. |
| 1828–1829 Recession | In 1826, England forbade the United States to trade with English colonies, and in 1827, the United States adopted a counter-prohibition. Trade declined, just as credit became tight for manufacturers in New England. |
| 1833–1834 Recession | The United States’ economy declined moderately in 1833–34. News accounts of the time confirm the slowdown. The subsequent expansion was driven by land speculation. |
| Name of Economic Period | Description |
| Free Banking Era to the Great Depression (1836-1929) | |
| 1836–1838 Recession | (Business Activity: –32.8%) A sharp downturn in the American economy was caused by bank failures, lack of confidence in the paper currency, tightening of English Credit, crop failures and Jacksonian policy. Speculation markets were greatly affected when American banks stopped payment in specie (gold and silver coinage). Over 600 banks failed in this period. In the Southern United States, the cotton market completely collapsed. |
| Late 1839–Late 1843 Recession | (Business Activity: -34.3%) This was one of the longest and deepest depressions of the 19th century. It was a period of pronounced deflation and massive default on debt. The Cleveland Trust Company Index showed the economy spent 68 months below its trend and only 9 months above it. |
| 1845–late 1846 Recession | (Business Activity: −5.9%) This recession was mild enough that it may have only been a slowdown in the growth cycle. One theory holds that this would have been a recession, except the United States began to gear up for the Mexican–American War, which began April 25, 1846. |
| 1847–1848 Recession | (Business Activity: −19.7%) Associated with a financial crisis in Great Britain. |
| 1853–1854 Recession | (Business Activity: −18.4%) Interest rates rose in this period, contributing to a decrease in railroad investment. Security prices fell during this period. With the exception of falling business investment there is little evidence of contraction in this period. |
| Panic of 1857 June 1857 – December 1858 | (Business Activity: −23.1%) Failure of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company burst a European speculative bubble in United States’ railroads and caused a loss of confidence in American banks. Over 5,000 businesses failed within the first year of the Panic, and unemployment was accompanied by protest meetings in urban areas. |
| 1860–1861 Recession October 1860 – June 1861 | (Business Activity: −14.5%) There was a mild recession before the American Civil War, which began on April 12, 1861, although the recession was only limited to some areas. Zarnowitz says the data generally show a contraction occurred in this period, but it was quite mild.[19] A financial panic was narrowly averted in 1860 by the first use of clearing house certificates between banks. |
| 1865–1867 Recession April 1865 – December 1867 | (Business Activity: −23.8%) The American Civil War ended in April 1865, and the country entered a lengthy period of general deflation that lasted until 1896. The United States occasionally experienced periods of recession during the Reconstruction era. Production increased in the years following the Civil War, but the country still had financial difficulties. The post-war period coincided with a period of some international financial instability. |
| 1869–1870 Recession June 1869 – December 1870 | (Business Activity: −9.7%) A few years after the Civil War, a short recession occurred. It was unusual since it came amid a period when railroad investment was greatly accelerating, even producing the First transcontinental railroad. The railroads built in this period opened up the interior of the country, giving birth to the Farmers’ movement. The recession may be explained partly by ongoing financial difficulties following the war, which discouraged businesses from building up inventories. Several months into the recession, there was a major financial panic. |
| Panic of 1873 and the Long Depression October 1873 – March 1879 | (Business Activity: −33.6%) Economic problems in Europe prompted the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, the largest bank in the United States, which burst the post-Civil War speculative bubble. The Coinage Act of 1873 also contributed by immediately depressing the price of silver, which hurt North American mining interests. The deflation and wage cuts of the era led to labor turmoil, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In 1879, the United States returned to the gold standard with the Specie Payment Resumption Act. |
| Depression of 1882–1885 March 1882 – May 1885 | (Business Activity: −32.8%) Like the Long Depression that preceded it, the recession of 1882–1885 was more of a price depression than a production depression. From 1879 to 1882, there had been a boom in railroad construction which came to an end, resulting in a decline in both railroad construction and in related industries, particularly iron and steel. A major economic event during the recession was the Panic of 1884. |
| 1887–1888 Recession March 1887 – April 1888 | (Business Activity: −14.6%) Investments in railroads and buildings weakened during this period. This slowdown was so mild that it is not always considered a recession. Contemporary accounts apparently indicate it was considered a slight recession |
| 1890–1891 Recession July 1890 – May 1891 | (Business Activity: −22.1%) Although shorter than the recession in 1887–1888 and still modest, a slowdown in 1890–1891 was somewhat more pronounced than the preceding recession. International monetary disturbances are blamed for this recession, such as the Panic of 1890 in the United Kingdom. |
| Panic of 1893 January 1893 – June 1894 | (Business Activity: −37.3%) Failure of the United States Reading Railroad and withdrawal of European investment led to a stock market and banking collapse. This Panic was also precipitated in part by a run on the gold supply. The Treasury had to issue bonds to purchase enough gold. Profits, investment and income all fell, leading to political instability, the height of the U.S. populist movement and the Free Silver movement. Estimates on unemployment vary, it may have peaked anywhere from 8.2 to 18.4%. |
| Panic of 1896 December 1895 – June 1897 | (Business Activity: −25.2%) The period of 1893–1897 is seen as a generally depressed cycle that had a short spurt of growth in the middle, following the Panic of 1893. Production shrank and deflation reigned. |
| 1899–1900 Recession June 1899 – December 1900 | (Business Activity: −15.5%) This was a mild recession in the period of general growth beginning after 1897. |
| 1902–1904 Recession September 1902 –August 1904 | (Business Activity: −16.2%) Though not severe, this downturn lasted for nearly two years and saw a distinct decline in the national product. Industrial and commercial production both declined, albeit fairly modestly.[26] The recession came about a year after a 1901 stock crash. |
| Panic of 1907 May 1907 – June 1908 | (Business Activity: −29.2%) A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company deposits on October 22, 1907, set events in motion that would lead to a severe monetary contraction. The fallout from the panic led to Congress creating the Federal Reserve System. |
| Panic of 1910–1911 January 1910 – January 1912 | (Business Activity: −14.7%) This was a mild but lengthy recession. The national product grew by less than 1%, and commercial activity and industrial activity declined. The period was also marked by deflation. |
| Recession of 1913–1914 January 1913 – December 1914 | (Business Activity: −25.9%) Productions and real income declined during this period and were not offset until the start of WWI increased demand.Incidentally, the Federal Reserve Act was signed during this recession, creating the Federal Reserve System, the culmination of a sequence of events following the Panic of 1907. Financial crisis of 1914 occurred following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, the subsequent July Crisis, and British declaration of war on Germany, which led to closure of the New York Stock Exchange beginning on July 31. |
| Post-World War I Recession August 1918 – March 1919 | (Business Activity: −24.5%) Severe hyperinflation in Europe took place over production in North America. This was a brief but very sharp recession and was caused by the end of wartime production, along with an influx of labor from returning troops. This, in turn, caused high unemployment |
| Depression of 1920–1921 January 1920 – July 1921 | (Business Activity: −38.1%) The 1921 recession began a mere 10 months after the post-World War I recession, as the economy continued working through the shift to a peacetime economy. The recession was short, but extremely painful. The year 1920 was the single most deflationary year in American history; production, however, did not fall as much as might be expected from the deflation. GNP may have declined between 2.5 and 7 percent, even as wholesale prices declined by 36.8%. The economy had a strong recovery following the recession. |
| 1923–1924 Recession May 1923 – June 1924 | (Business Activity: −25.4%) From the depression of 1920–1921 until the Great Depression, an era dubbed the Roaring Twenties, the economy was generally expanding. Industrial production declined in 1923–24, but on the whole this was a mild recession. |
| 1926–1927 Recession October 1926 – November 1927 | (Business Activity: −12.2%) This was an unusual and mild recession, thought to be caused largely because Henry Ford closed production in his factories for six months to switch from production of the Model T to the Model A. Charles P. Kindleberger says the period from 1925 to the start of the Great Depression is best thought of as a boom, and this minor recession just proof that the boom “was not general, uninterrupted or extensive”. |
| Name of Economic Time Period | Description |
| Great Depression onward (1929–present) | |
| Great Depression August 1929 – March 1933 | (GDP Decline: −26.7%) A banking panic and a collapse in the money supply took place in the United States that was exacerbated by international commitment to the gold standard. Extensive new tariffs and other factors contributed to an extremely deep depression. GDP, industrial production, employment, and prices fell substantially. A small economic expansion within the depression began in 1933, with gold inflow expanding the money supply and improving expectations; the expansion would end in 1937. The ultimate recovery, which would occur with the start of World War II in 1940, was credited to monetary policy and monetary expansion. |
| Recession of 1937–1938 May 1937 – June 1938 | (GDP Decline: −26.7%) The Recession of 1937 is only considered minor when compared to the Great Depression, but is otherwise among the worst recessions of the 20th century. Three explanations are offered as causes for the recession: the tight fiscal policy resulting from an attempt to balance the budget after New Deal spending; the tight monetary policy of the Federal Reserve; and the declining profits of businesses leading to a reduction in business investment. |
| Recession of 1945 February 1945 – October 1945 | (GDP Decline: −12.7%) The decline in government spending at the end of World War II led to an enormous drop in gross domestic product, making this technically a recession. This was the result of demobilization and the shift from a wartime to peacetime economy. The post-war years were unusual in a number of ways (unemployment was never high), and this era may be considered an end-of-the-war recession. |
| Recession of 1949 November 1948 – October 1949 | (GDP Decline: −1.7%) The 1948 recession was a brief economic downturn; forecasters of the time expected much worse, perhaps influenced by the poor economy in their recent lifetimes. The recession also followed a period of monetary tightening. |
| Recession of 1953 July 1953 – May 1954 | (GDP Decline: −2.6%) After a post-Korean War inflationary period, more funds were transferred to national security. In 1951, the Federal Reserve reasserted its independence from the U.S. Treasury and in 1952, the Federal Reserve changed monetary policy to be more restrictive because of fears of further inflation or of a bubble forming. |
| Recession of 1958 August 1957 – April 1958 | (GDP Decline: −3.7%) Monetary policy was tightened during the two years preceding 1957, followed by an easing of policy at the end of 1957. The budget balance resulted in a change in budget surplus of 0.8% of GDP in 1957 to a budget deficit of 0.6% of GDP in 1958, and then to 2.6% of GDP in 1959. |
| Recession of 1960–1961 April 1960 – February 1961 | (GDP Decline: −1.6%) Another primarily monetary recession occurred after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 1959. The government switched from deficit (or 2.6% in 1959) to surplus (of 0.1% in 1960). The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) finally reached its lowest point on February 20, 1961, about 4 weeks after President John F. Kennedy was inaugurated |
| Recession of 1969–1970 December 1969 – November 1970 | (GDP Decline: −3.2%) The relatively mild 1969 recession followed a lengthy expansion. At the end of the expansion, inflation was rising, possibly a result of increased deficits. This relatively mild recession coincided with an attempt to start closing the budget deficits of the Vietnam War (fiscal tightening) and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates (monetary tightening). |
| 1973–1975 Recession November 1973 – March 1975 | (GDP Decline: −3.2%) The 1973 oil crisis, a quadrupling of oil prices by OPEC, coupled with the 1973–1974 stock market crash led to a stagflation recession in the United States. |
| 1980 Recession January 1980 – July 1980 | (GDP Decline: −2.2%) A very short recession occurred in 1980, followed by a short period of growth and then a deep recession. Unemployment remained relatively elevated in between recessions. The recession began as the Federal Reserve, under Paul Volcker, raised interest rates dramatically to fight the inflation of the 1970s. The early 1980s are sometimes referred to as a “double-dip” or “W-shaped” recession. |
| 1981–1982 Recession July 1981 – November 1982 | (GDP Decline: −2.7%) The Iranian Revolution sharply increased the price of oil around the world in 1979, causing the 1979 energy crisis. This was caused by the new regime in power in Iran, which exported oil at inconsistent intervals and at a lower volume, forcing prices up. Tight monetary policy in the United States to control inflation led to another recession. The changes were made largely because of inflation carried over from the previous decade because of the 1973 oil crisis and the 1979 energy crisis. |
| Early 1990s recession July 1990 – March 1991 | (GDP Decline: −2.7%) After the lengthy peacetime expansion of the 1980s, inflation began to increase and the Federal Reserve responded by raising interest rates from 1986 to 1989. This weakened but did not stop growth, but some combination of the subsequent 1990 oil price shock, the debt accumulation of the 1980s, and growing consumer pessimism combined with the weakened economy to produce a brief recession. |
| Early 2000s Recession March 2001 – November 2001 | (GDP Decline: −0.3%) The 1990s were the longest period of economic growth in American history up to that point. The collapse of the speculative dot-com bubble, a fall in business outlays and investments, and the September 11th attacks, brought the decade of growth to an end. Despite these major shocks, the recession was brief and shallow. |
| Subprime Mortgage Crisis & Great Recession December 2007 – June 2009 | (GDP Decline: −5.1%) The subprime mortgage crisis led to the collapse of the United States housing bubble. Falling housing-related assets contributed to a global financial crisis, even as oil and food prices soared. The crisis led to the failure or collapse of many of the United States’ largest financial institutions: Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and AIG, as well as a crisis in the automobile industry. The government responded with an unprecedented $700 billion bank bailout and $787 billion fiscal stimulus package. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared the end of this recession over a year after the end date. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) finally reached its lowest point on March 9, 2009. |
| COVID-19 Recession February 2020 – April 2020 | (GDP Decline: −19.2%) The economic effects of the pandemic were severe after the first quarter of 2020. More than 24 million people lost jobs in the United States in just three weeks in April. Official economic impact of the virus is still being determined, but the recession was one of the shortest on record, helped in part by online purchases, zero interest rates, and loosening of fiscal policies by the Fed to prop up the economy. |
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