On Recession and Recovery

1. The unemployment rate was 4.7 percent at the start of the financial crisis. How high did unemployment get at its postcrisis peak in October 2009?

8 percent
10 percent
12 percent

2. Who was Treasury secretary at the onset of the financial crisis in 2007?

Henry Paulson
Timothy Geithner
Jack Lew

3. After the previous six recessions, gross domestic product (GDP) growth typically rebounded to 4 percent annually. Coming out of the last recession, GDP has averaged what growth rate?

1 percent
2 percent
3 percent

4. True or false: More Americans than ever are employed.

True
False

5. The Federal Reserve created innovative new policy tools to combat the financial crisis. Which policymaking tool did the Fed create during the crisis?

The discount window
The Troubled Asset Relief Program
Currency swaps

6. The aging U.S. population is impeding economic growth. In 1940, 7 percent of the U.S. population was 65 years or older. What share of the population is forecast to be 65 or older in 2060?

14 percent
19 percent
24 percent

7. True or false: The labor force participation rate, which began declining around the turn of the century, has since attained prerecession levels.

True
False

8. The investment bank Bear Stearns failed in March 2008. Which investment bank bought its remaining assets?

Goldman Sachs
JP Morgan Chase
Morgan Stanley

9. Consumer confidence began falling in the summer of 2006, prior to the recession. When did consumer confidence again reach the level seen in July 2006?

June 2012
June 2013
June 2014

10. The Federal Open Market Committee's monetary policy action nicknamed "Operation Twist" was first undertaken in 1961 and most recently used in 2011, in response to ongoing economic sluggishness. True or false: Operation Twist's name derived from the early 1960s dance craze.

True
False

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On Recession and Recovery