The Economic Crisis Of The United States - 1900 Words

The Great Recession, coinciding with the subprime mortgage crisis, lasted from the end of 2007 to the middle of 2009. This downturn became the biggest economic crisis that the United States had faced since the Great Depression. Causing high unemployment rates, a decline in consumer confidence and home values, the recession had a great impact on both Americans and immigrants in the United States. Since the 1990s to a few years before the recession, the number of immigrants entering the United States increased at a constant rate as more and more people came to the country in search for better job and education opportunities. This number dropped, however, when the country entered the economic crisis in 2007. The American Community Survey†¦show more content†¦This recession was a combination of the United States recession, that lasted from December of 2007 to approximately June of 2009, and the global recession in 2009 that proceeded. The recession in the United States was a res ult of the banks’ inability to pay off their accumulated debt. It all began when there were housing booms, which involved mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), or stocks backed by mortgages. Due to the real estate market collapse in 2007, those securities declined in value and jeopardized solvency, or â€Å"the ability of a company to meet its long-term financial obligations†, of banks that were too much in debt. Though there were many major problems that resulted from the recession, the drastic increase in unemployment rates became the biggest negative effect of the economic crisis. According to the statistics from The Encyclopedia of the Great Recession, â€Å"By March 2008, 63,000 jobs were lost, the most in five years†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Rosenberg, 599: Unemployment). During the period of decline in economy, revenues decreased and businesses stopped expanding. Moreover, when demand was too low to support the businesses, employers needed to reduce their spendings and save money by lowering wages, stop hiring new workers, and firing old ones. The Great Recession, therefore, initiated the mass discharge of employers and reduced job opportunities for immigrants who had come to