The recession of 1949 was a downturn in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

lasting for 11 months. According to the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...

, the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...

began in November 1948 and lasted until October 1949. The 1949 recession was a brief economic downturn; forecasters of the time expected much worse, perhaps influenced by the poor economy in their recent lifetime. The recession began shortly after

President Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th Vice president of the United States, vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Frank ...

's " Fair Deal" economic reforms. Many regard the aftermath of the end of World War II to be the main cause of the recession. According to C. A. Blyth, "the most important cause of 1948–1949 recession was substantial fall in the fixed investments". The recession also followed a period of monetary tightening by the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...

. During this recession, the

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

of the United States fell 1.7 percentage points. In October 1949, the unemployment rate reached its peak for the cycle of 7.9 percent. Department store sales fell 22%. The wholesale price and cost of living indexes fell 12 and 5 points respectively.

References

Further reading