Recession of 1949

The Recession of 1949 was a downturn in the United States lasting for 11 months. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the recession began in November 1948 and lasted until October 1949.[1]

The 1949 recession was a brief economic downturn; forecasters of the time expected much worse, perhaps influenced by the poor economy in their recent lifetime.[2] The recession began shortly after President Truman's "Fair Deal" economic reforms. The recession also followed a period of monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve.[3]

The GDP of the U.S.

During this recession, the Gross domestic product of the United States fell 1.7 percent. In October 1949, the unemployment rate reached its peak for the cycle of 7.9 percent.[4]

Main causes of the recession

Many regard the aftermath of the end of World War II to be the main cause of the recession. According to C. A. Blyth "the most important cause of 1948-1949 recession was substantial fall in the fixed investments".[5]

The severity of this recession

Maximum unemployment was about 7.9%. Change in Gross National Product GNP reduced by up to -1.5%. Department store sales fell 22%. The wholesale price and cost of living indexes fell 12 and 5 points.[6]

References

1. "NBER Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions". NBER. Retrieved 2008-10-01.
2. Zarnowitz, Victor (1996). Business Cycles: Theory, History, Indicators, and Forecasting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 416. ISBN 0-226-97891-5.
3. Labonte, Marc (2002-01-10). "The Current Economic Recession" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-10-10. Retrieved 2008-03-05.
4. Labour Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, Bureau of Labour Statistics. Retrieved on September 19, 2009
5. Arnold Zellner (August 1957). "Consumption and the Consumption Function in the U.S. 1948-1949 Recession". The Review of Economics and Statistics. 39 (3): 303–311. doi:10.2307/1926046.
6. D. Hamberg (March 1952). "The Recession of 1948-49 in the United States". The Economic Journal. 62 (245): 1–14. doi:10.2307/2227168.

Further reading

• Friedman, Milton; Schwartz, Anna J. (1993) [1963]. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 604–610. ISBN 978-0691003542.
• Meltzer, Allan H. (2003). A History of the Federal Reserve – Volume 1: 1913–1951. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 667–681. ISBN 978-0226520001.
• Bremner, Robert P. (2004). Chairman of the Fed: William McChesney Martin Jr. and the Creation of the American Financial System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. pp. 69–72. ISBN 978-0300105087.