In 2007 and 2008, much of the industrialized world entered into a deep recession The complex of vicious circles which contributed to this crisis included high oil prices, high food prices and the collapse of a substantial housing bubble centered in the United States, which sparked an interrelated and ongoing financial crisis. Around the world, many large and well established investment and commercial banks suffered massive losses and even faced bankruptcy. It has been argued that the huge increases in commodity and asset prices came as a consequence of an extended period of easily available credit and that the primary cause of the downturn was exceptionally financial. This crisis has led to increased unemployment, and other signs of contemporaneous economic downturns in major economies of the world.
In December 2008, the NBER declared that the United States had been in recession since December 2007, and several economists expressed their concern that there is no end in sight for the downturn. The recession could be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.