The Worst Recession since the 1930s?

Politicians love to bandy about their estimates of past recessions. It comes in handy when they are running for office and they need to paint a suitable bleak economic picture for which the present officeholder bears responsibility.

In the year 2000, with unemployment about 4.0%, we were being told by Democrats out of office, that we had the worst depression since the 1930s. We actually were in the midst of a boom economy.

What about the mid 1970s when President Reagan took over. We were experiencing a severe downturn that can be considered worse than what we have today. The fall in GDP was 4.9%. Compared to a drop of 18.2% in 1937-38. That truly was the worst economic cycle since the 1930s.

What we can therefore correctly say is that today’s is the worst recession since 1973-75.