The following is excerpted from a 27 November 2012 speech by John Murray, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008 triggered a precipitous worldwide economic collapse. What had previously been viewed as a passing bout of “financial turbulence” was suddenly transformed into a full-blown panic. The U.S. economy, which was at the epicentre of the crisis, suffered its most severe downturn since the Great Depression. It could have been much worse.
Prompt and aggressive countermeasures by fiscal and monetary policy authorities eventually helped to stabilize the situation, and output began to recover toward the end of 2009 (Chart 1). However, a full four years after the collapse, real economic activity in the United States is scarcely above its pre-recession peak, and more than 4.5 million (net) jobs that were lost during the crisis have yet to be recovered. U.S. GDP is roughly 10 per cent below the level it would have reached had it continued to increase at the same trend rate of growth it experienced prior to the crisis (equivalent to more than $1 trillion).
This speech is available in its entirety at:
http://www.bankofcanada.ca/2012/11/speeches/great-frustration-hesitant-steps-toward/
Topic(s)
International Trade and Border Management
Information source
Canadian News Channel
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