Longest Economic Expansion in U.S. History

It is no secret that the U.S. has the largest economy in the world. However, for the first time in U.S. history, a decade ended without a recession. Current economic expansion defied that trend for the first time in 170 years.

The last time when the U.S. economy fell into a recession was a period of time from December 2007 to June 2009. This severe downturn also caused a global financial crisis.

Moreover, in every decade since the Civil war, the U.S. economy was having trouble as it was falling into a recession.

As a reminder, a recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contracting gross domestic product.

The factors that fueled the economic expansion

The current economic expansion started during the previous administration and continued under President Trump. Several economists explained how the U.S. economy reached this milestone.  One of the major factors relates to the last recession. It was to bad that the economy only had the room to grow in the last decade according to Dr. Ioana Marinescu.

Moreover, recovery followed the worst recession in more than 85 years. Consequently, the economy had the opportunity to grow without any serious obstacles in its way.

Additionally, what helped the economy is the growth rate of real GDP, which was stable although at a low average rate.

Nevertheless, there are some sensitive topics such as wealth inequality and worsened career opportunities. It means that even the longest economic expansion was unable to solve some of the biggest challenges. Also, wages increased at a lower rate than after previous recessions.

The United States of America is a superpower thanks to its economy as well as the armed forces. The longest expansion continues, and it is hard to say when it will end. Economists are unable to anticipate the recession due to various factors. However, the unresolved trade war is one of the problems which may trigger the next economic downturn.