Have we gone through recessions before?

Question

is this something pretty normal that just goes up and down?

Answer 1

The Great Depression was in the late 1930s, read "The Grapes of Wrath" to learn what it was like. Nowadays, if they economy crashes we will be much worse off because no one even has their own land anymore to grow food. If you are worried about this please encourage people to forget about bombing Iran. This recession right now is from overspending on the various unnecessary wars by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Answer 2

yes, they are fairly common.  Each tends to have a somewhat unique facet, since we try pretty hard to avoid them, but in the long run the expectation is that they are going to happen as part of a natural cycle, and what you do is try to minimize them, reducing frequency and duration and intensity

Answer 3

yes, latest one was in 2001, then there was something in early 90's and late 80's, and a really bad one in late 70's when price of OPEC pushed up the price of oil.

it is pretty normal for a market economy to develop in cycles.

Answer 4

Supply and demand my friend :)