Subscribe for news updates every 10 minutes. Like/Dislike, Favorite, Comment, Embed on Blog, Facebook Share, and Tweet this video. Get the word out on this video. Get an email once a day tinyurl.com Like on Facebook to get updates tinyurl.com Follow on Twitter to get updates tinyurl.com - Monday June 6 2011 7:35 am en.wikipedia.org In the United States the unofficial beginning and ending dates of national recessions have been defined by an American private nonprofit research organization known as the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The NBER defines a recession as 'a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real gross domestic product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales'. There have been as many as 47 recessions in the United States since 1790 (although economists and historians dispute certain 19th-century recessions). These downturns are driven by changes in the government's regulatory, fiscal, trade and monetary policies. Cycles in agriculture, consumption, and business investment, and the health of the banking industry also contribute to these declines. US recessions have increasingly affected economies on a worldwide scale, especially as countries' economies become more intertwined. In the 19th century, recessions frequently coincided with financial crises. Determining the occurrence of pre-20th-century recessions is more difficult ...