hypercrites

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the U.S. economy was in a
recession for 18 months from December 2007 to June 2009. It was the longest and deepest
recession of the post-World War II era. The recession can be separated into two distinct phases.
During the first phase, which lasted for the first half of 2008, the recession was not deep as
measured by the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) or the rise in unemployment. It then
deepened from the third quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. The economy continued to
contract slightly in the second quarter of 2009, before returning to expansion in the third quarter.
The recent recession features the largest decline in output, consumption, and investment, and the
largest increase in unemployment, of any post-war recession.