Crises and the great recession

The U.S. economy suffered in 2007-10 from crises in mortgage foreclosures and in financial markets, as well as a long recession that some have referred to as the Great Recession. The links between these events, or more broadly their causes, extent, and effects are sources of continuing controversy and uncertainty. This paper attempts to disentangle the links between the mortgage foreclosure crisis, the financial crisis, a possible banking crisis, and the Great Recession, at least in terms of timing, and also to provide an alternative view to the conventional wisdom, especially for the links of the crises to the recession and to each other. © National Association for Business Economics.