Recession of Dates President at Start Worst Unemp.
1949 Nov 1948 – Oct 1949 Truman (D) 7.9%
1953 July 1953 – May 1954 Eisenhower (R) 6.1%
1958 Aug 1957 – April 1958 Eisenhower (R) 7.5%
1960–61 Apr 1960 – Feb 1961 Eisenhower (R) 7.1%
1969–70 Dec 1969 – Nov 1970 Nixon (R) 6.1%
1973–75 Nov 1973 – Mar 1975 Nixon (R) 9.0%
1980 Jan – July 1980 Carter (D) 7.8%
Early 1980s July 1981 – Nov 1982 Reagan (R) 10.8%
Early 1990s July 1990 – Mar 1991 Bush I (R) 7.8%
Early 2000s March 2001 – Nov 2001 Bush II (R) 6.3%
Late-2000s Dec 2007 – June 2009 Bush II (R) 10.0%
Of the 11 post-War recessions, only 2 started during a time when a Democrat was President. One could argue that perhaps in some of these the downturn actually started during the prior administration and the actual economic effects were not felt until the next Presidency.
- How many months must a President be in office before the recession is considered on his "watch?"
- Below is a list of how long it was between inauguration and the first recession under each President.
- Presidents Kennedy, Clinton and Obama all inherited recessions that began in the prior administration. All were over within 5 months of their inauguration.
- No Republican President inherited a Recession begun during a prior Democrat administration.
Each of these Presidents was sworn into office in January.
President Date in Office Months until 1st Rec.
Roosevelt/Truman until 1953
Eisenhower January, 1953 - 1961 5
Kennedy/Johnson January, 1961 - 1969 No recessions
Nixon/Ford January, 1969 - 1977 11
Carter January, 1977 - 1981 36
Reagan/Bush January, 1981 - 1993 5
Clinton January, 1993 - 2001 No recessions
Bush January, 2001 - 2009 2
Obama January, 2009 - present. No recessions
You can click on each of the recessions above and go to the Wiki site that will tell you more about each one and why it happened.
The National Bureau of Economic Research decides when a "Recession" begins or ends. 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 GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales" http://www.nber.org/cycles.html
Seemed interesting.
For a graph of the recesions go to: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.pdf?&chart_type=line&graph_id=&category_id=&recession_bars=On&width=630&height=378&bgcolor=%23b3cde7&graph_bgcolor=%23ffffff&txtcolor=%23000000&ts=8&preserve_ratio=true&fo=ve&id=USREC&transformation=lin&scale=Left&range=Custom&cosd=1948-12-01&coed=2012-09-01&line_color=%230000ff&link_values=&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&line_style=Solid&lw=1&vintage_date=2012-10-01&revision_date=2012-10-01&mma=0&nd=&ost=&oet=&fml=a&fq=Monthly&fam=avg&fgst=lin
