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The Great Recession

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The Great Recession of 2008 was the biggest global financial crisis that the world witnessed after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Collapsing markets, failure of banks and drastic decrease in international trade were just some key characteristics of the great recession. It became clear after the collapse of the capitalist ideology enforced by United States that this was the end of America-centred age of globalization (Lecture 2). This paper will compare and contrast the key characteristics of the great recession and the great depression. It will also emphasize that the root causes of the financial collapse of 2008 were first, unfavourable macroeconomic factors such as increasing deficits in the current account of advanced countries and loose …show more content…

Baldwin in his book, “The Great Trade Collapse”, explains that the financial collapse was very sudden and synchronized which increased its severity. The trade collapse in 2008 was not as severe as the Great Depression, however, the fall was very quick as it took 9 months for trade to fall at the same level which took 24 months in 1930s (Baldwin, Pg. 1). The gradual trade collapse was an initial sign that a severe financial crisis is about to come as countries that were dependent on commodity exports (oil and minerals) were hit the most which includes Canada as well. Additionally, uncertainty about the future spread globally and as a result people began to delay their unnecessary expenses. With consumption rate decreasing globally, imports and exports were adversely affected as well resulting into decreasing GDP in US, European Union and Japan (Baldwin, 2009). It can be concluded from the stated facts that the nature of the Great Recession was widespread primarily due to the internationalization of trade. Capitalism, with its main concept of globalization had made the great recession a global phenomenon since after the triumph of United States in Cold War, capitalism was adopted as the new world order. The expansion of MNCs and global supply chains which were created to reduce operational costs meant that disruption in one country of operation would likely cause problems with associated subsidiaries in other countries. Thus, the connectedness of the financial markets and trade contributed in creating a synchronized and severe recession

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