The entire world, as well as the United States, experienced an economic downturn starting with the 2008 recession, and unemployment due to recessions affects society as a whole. There is always unemployment, it is natural, and that is why it is called the natural unemployment rate, and it is normally 3-5% of the labor force, due to frictional unemployment of workers with skills readily available and who are either between jobs or fresh off the market. education system. However, during recessions, economies face higher unemployment rates. To fully understand unemployment and the recessions that cause it, you need to know how to define the GDP that defines the recessions. GDP, which is short for Gross Domestic Product, is a method of measuring economic growth and prosperity. GDP is measured each year with a specific formula with several components: GDP=C+I+G+ “X_n” represents net exports, which are the goods exported subtracted from the goods imported that year. Growth is measured by comparing the current year's GDP to the previous GDP and determining whether or not there was a positive or negative percentage growth. If the quantity produced exceeds the previous year, the economy is growing and experiencing expansion within the business cycle. If growth does not exceed the previous year's growth, the economy experiences a recession and contractions of the economy within the business cycle. Once recession is defined, it is important to understand that unemployment arises from expansions and contractions of the business cycle, which is the natural cyclical way the economy operates. Contractions are where recessions ...... middle of paper ...... y concluding that "In 1966 we had a stable dollar under the Bretton Woods gold standard. In 2009 and the years before that, we experienced an extremely unstable dollar under the leadership of Federal Reserve Chairs Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.” In evaluating the article I have to agree with the cross comparison of the US economy in 1966 and 2012, the statistics and evidence presented prove that investment spending has indeed declined and US businesses as well as the US fiscal and monetary policy are the only things keeping the recession alive. . The GDP output shows that there has been growth in recent years, but the 4th quarter 2012 GDP shows that investment as well as growth has declined. America needs the confidence to spend again, as we have done before, and the unemployment rate would see improvement as businesses have the courage to hire again to end this stagnation..