The '''Recession of 2008''' is a major worldwide economic downturn that was caused by the [[Financial Crisis of 2008]]. It continues to deepen in February 2009 and is the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and is on the verge of becoming '''The Second Great Depression'''. It began in January 2008 as in financial sector as major banks in the U.S. and Europe got into serious trouble by investing in bad mortgages. Trouble spread to the [[automobile]] industry, where General Motors and Chrysler verged on bankruptcy in December, 2008, because people were not buying any new cars. They were rescued by an emergency bailout ordered by President [[George W. Bush]] over the objections of Congressional [[Republican Party|Republicans]]. In the U.S. GDP fell in the fourth quarter of 2008 (October-November-December), by 6.2% annual rate, with declines heaviest in business investment, exports, finance, autos, housing, construction, and retail sales.<ref>Three of the four engines of economic growth -- consumer spending, business investment and exports -- declined sharply. Consumer spending fell at an annualized rate of 4.3%; bsiness investment in equipment and software sank at an astonishing annual rate of 29%; exports of goods and services plunged 24%. ''Washington Post'' Feb. 28, 2009 </ref> The stock market fell by 50% in 2008, wiping out trillions of dollars in assets. More trillions were lost as housing prices fell by 20%. Adding together the declines in housing and the stock market, the net worth of American households declined from $63.7 trillion in January 2008 to $51.5 trillion in January 2009, a decline of $11.2 trillion or 18%. That is, Americans owned $11 trillion less wealth, and adjusted by buying less and investing less. Meanwhile mortgages and credit-card debt together reached $13 trillion, or 123% of after-tax income, a huge jump since 1995, when it was 83% of income.<ref> see [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123687371369308675.html?mod=djemalertNEWS S. Mitra Kalita, "Americans See 18% of Wealth Vanish," ''Wall Street Journal'' Mar. 13, 2009]</ref> Wealth levels plunged worldwide. Stock markets in other major countries fell even faster than the U.S. Most companies worldwide reported reduced sales and sharply reduced profits, as banks refused to lend and consumers refused to spend, fearing the worst.
A series of emergency measures enacted by the Federal Reserve (on its own authority) and Congress after heavy prodding by presidents Bush and Obama resulted in trillions of dollars in loans, banking bailouts and guarantees, a half-trillion new stimulus spending and a third of a trillion in tax cuts, but by mid-March 2009 the outlook remained bleak as the economy coontinued downward.