Recession & Depression Facts
August 15th, 2009 value investor 4 comments Print Investment Article Print Investment Article Email Investment Article Email Investment Article

recessions 200x200 Recession & Depression Facts



The following are a compilation of interesting US recession facts I have collected by examining the DOW indicies between 1929 and now. All facts are compiled as a result of data drawn from yahoo finance and the use of the wikipedia page List of Recessions in the United States.

  • The longest US recession took 84 months to run its course (Depression of 1807)
  • The shortest US recession took just 6 months (Recession of 1980).
  • The average recession/ depression lasts 20 months.
  • The median recession runs 14 months.
  • The current recession has run 21 months.
US Recessions

 There have been a total of 14 major recessions or depressions in the US. If we were to plot out the changes in the DOW from the start of each recession to the end of each recession it would look like this:

Positive Recessions
 As you can see the DOW doesn’t always go down or stay down during a recession, in fact the DOW has been known to rise over the course of a recession. If we break this chart into two charts to show those recessions where the DOW was higher than where it was when the recession started we end up with 8.

Negative Recessions
 If we show those recessions where the DOW was lower than where it was when the recession started we end up with 5.

If we look at the cases where the DOW rises above its starting point in a recession it does this only during the closing days. Whereas when the DOW sinks over the course of a recession it does so in a consistent stepwise manner.
 
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4 responses to “Recession & Depression Facts”

    Chris August 15th, 2009 at 12:40

    I am confused. I thought the recession “officially” started in 12/2007 ? Based on NBER announcemets

    value investor August 15th, 2009 at 23:10

    You couldn’t be more right Chris. I corrected the month count- thanks for the catch.

    Weekly Dividend Investing Roundup – August 22, 2009 | The Dividend Guy Blog August 22nd, 2009 at 18:02

    [...] Recession & Depression Facts [...]

    Weekly Links: August 23, 2009 | Dividends Value August 23rd, 2009 at 17:33

    [...] Buy Value presented Recession & Depression Facts [...]

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