TOURISM

In 2008–2009 much of the industrialized world entered into a recession, the late-2000s recession, sparked by a financial crisis that had its origins in reckless lending practices involving the origination and distribution of mortgage debt in the United States. Sub-prime loans losses in 2007 exposed other risky loans and over-inflated asset prices. With the losses mounting, a panic developed in inter-bank lending. The precarious financial situation was made more difficult by a sharp increase in oil and food prices. The exorbitant rise in asset prices and associated boom in economic demand is considered a result of the extended period of easily available credit, inadequate regulation and oversight, or increasing inequality. As share and housing prices declined many large and well established investment and commercial banks in the United States and Europe suffered huge losses and even faced bankruptcy, resulting in massive public financial assistance. A global recession has resulted in a sharp drop in international trade, rising unemployment and slumping commodity prices.
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 and that recovery may not appear until as late as 2011. The recession is considered the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.