Can someone explain what a recession is?

Question

Start from the very basics... like explain stocks and everything? Why does the USA play such a key role? I'm only 14 and I want to understand economics.

What can we do to avoid a recession?

Why is it happening?

and above all

WHAT IS IT!!!

Thank you so much for your time... I will choose a best answer...

Answer 1

A recession is a circle of consumers not spending money and businesses being affected by it.  When consumers don't buy a product (for whatever reason), the business raises prices and lays off employees so that they can meet the overhead (all of the costs of running a business) and make a profit.  The high prices cause more people to avoid spending money, and the business lays off even more employees.  Businesses close down as a result, and the lack of spending affects a larger number of businesses.

This recession in America is partly due to the fact that the economy has hit record highs in the stock market for the last 3 or 4 years.  People bought items that they needed, and they don't want or need to spend more of their money.  The high gas prices are a factor.  Consumers might stay home rather than spend money.

If consumers spend money, that can end a recession.  Good business practices like successful products and wise investing in equipment or new employees will help to end a recession.  More people will be hired and start spending money again.

Answer 2

a recession is when the republicans get done their 8 years of robbing us, and the bills come due

______________________________________...

alright that was my wiseguy answer.

(it's true but)-

At 14 to find out about economics (and also what stocks and the stockmarket are), you're gonna' have to turn to books, and library videos you could borrow  (maybe not the school library, the real one).

PBS has college telecourses that run every fall and spring, which sometimes offer some fine, easy enough to understand explanations.  If you write to the station's address (appears between shows sometimes), and ask for a telecourse schedule, they'll send you one (or look online).

Also can watch a business news show in eves (around 6 PM, and start checking out C-SPAN, and also magazines - all good sources of undestanding what's going on, and following it.

Beware of political explanations (anyone who's a politician is going to talk rubbish about what's "bad" that actually isnt, and tell gargantuan stories about whose to blame (and why) and that can really confuse you when you just want basics..

Politics is the adults playing us versus them, in a really really sad awful way which we should all feel embarrassed by (and because there ARE NO real adults, apparently.

So maybe YOU try and be one!  

(Well, I'm just saying they team up on 2 sides ("parties") and fight each other (by badmouthing) to see who gets control, instead of just attending to the things that need to get done.  And then when one party DOES win the all-control, they start to robbing the till and passing laws that say they can and all that sort of anti-US stuff).  

(((I mention politics at all because it's so much a part of the business climate, and world.

    Just try not to get sucked in by Republicans claiming to be people who CARE about the economy. They've actually just got done bankrupting us with DEBT some more. And thats DAMAGING(imagine if your father borrowed more money than he could actually EVER pay back. What might eventually happen?  Right, the bank comes and takes the house and car and furniture away, and you go live in a tent.

   The US is the world's largest DEBTOR nation (and we owe most of it TO CHINA!). It's a precarious situation.

    It's very unwise to keep running up debt, and instead of paying it down, just running up some more. Under the republicans this is what we've been doing (Even all that talk of how Social Security is going broke, is actually government lies to try to fool us from the truth which is social security is A SAVING PLAN---and they've stolen the money from it.

   This subject you want to know cant all be answered here.

Find a good economics 101 book. One that explains the fundamentals real well. (Like maybe one of those "for dummies series books at the bookstore)

THEN go after the more advanced knowledge.,  Good luck. Have fun with it!

Answer 3

a recession is two quarters in a row (of the year) where the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of goods and services we produce is negative. For example, we are averaging a GDP of almost 2 percent annually. If we started June through December with a negative GDP of -2% we'd officially be in recession.

Answer 4

A recession is what we are in right now thanks to Bush. Have you noticed anyone talking about the fact that everything is going up EXCEPT  their paycheck. This is recession. When the ability to financially keep up with the economic trend.

A DEPRESSION is what is gonna happen pretty soon because the only people who can afford the inflated prices are government officials (notice they keep getting inflated pay raises). Kinda like when it was time for a revolution. A time to stand up and take back. This is starting to show a little bit now, from all kinds of people losing all their possessions. Thus the inability to keep up with inflated prices.

Answer 5

A recession, generally speaking, is a large economic slump that affects large areas, such as a country, like the USA.  The USA actually doesn't necessarily play a huge role in other large countries' financial situations in purely economic ways.  Sometimes they occur due to bad money management, like spending far too much money on war, or having to give away too much of our own products and resources in order to buy ridiculously overpriced oil.  Other times, natural disasters can hit economies very hard, such as the Hurricane Katrina crisis in Louisiana.