问答题 There are two senses of the word “recession” : a less precise sense, referring broadly to “a period of reduced economic activity” , and the academic sense used most often in economics, which is defined operationally, referring specifically to the contraction phase of a business cycle, with two or more consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. If one analyses the event using the economics-academic definition of the word, the recession ended in the U. S. in June or July 2009. However, in the broader, lay sense of the word, many people use the term to refer to the ongoing hardship (in the same way that the term “Great Depression” is also popularly used) . In the U. S. , for example, persistent high unemployment remains, along with low consumer confidence, the continuing decline in home values and increase in foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, an escalating federal debt crisis, inflation, and rising petroleum and food prices.无