The Longest Recessions in U.S. History

Bad times

Nobody likes recessions. People lose jobs. Stocks lose value. Emotions are down. It’s not fun.

When times are bad, people always say that you should try to look on the bright side and practice gratitude. One good way to do this is by putting things into perspective like, “Oh, maybe things are bad but they could be worse!”

Since times are tough now and given that we are likely in a recession, let’s look back at previous recessions to see how bad those were:

Past recessions are kind of like the stories grandparents tell about having to walk uphill both ways to and from school in two feet of snow back in their day. Except, when it comes to recession severity in terms of duration, it’s not really an exaggeration to say that times used to be a whole lot worse. Imagine dealing with over five years of recession during the 1870s!

What’s crazy is, only one recession in the chart above comes from our generation and makes the cut here - the Financial Crisis. And we know how bad that was.

It’s important to remember that while this time in history is challenging in its own right, that we are descendants of individuals who had plenty of their own issues to deal with. And, hopefully, these hard times will pave the way for a better future. Then, one day, a newsletter a hundred years from now can update this chart and say, “Wow, can you imagine having to deal with what people had to go through back in the 2020’s?”