5-Year Anniversary Of The Great Recession

The Great Recession officially started five years ago in December. This Washington Post article looks back at the Great Recession and its continuing aftermath:

That fourth quarter of 2008 the U.S. economy shrank at an 8.9 percent annual rate. Many economists had viewed a collapse like that to be unfathomable. (The post-war record had been a 6.4 percent rate of decline, in 1982).

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And we all know what else happened in the fourth quarter of 2008: the Fed set the fed funds rate to near zero. After 4 years, it remains unchanged with no end in sight.