Abstract
The current paper explores the main differences of the Great Recession in 2007-2009 from other economic collapses in the history if the United States. Section I discusses the general features of a recession and describes the main responsibilities of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Section II is devoted to the comparison of the Great Recession with the recession of 1980s. The section is divided into four subsections. Subsection A presents the basic comparison of recessions in the U.S. history and explains the choice of the 1980s period for the further comparison. Subsection B explores differences in unemployment in ...