What Americans have learned about the recession to prepare for its impact

Like a tsunami : You can see them coming from a mile away — the problem is getting out of their way. 

As Americans prepare for another possible recession, Experts say that although recessions share common characteristics, no two recessions are exactly alike. Some recessions have their origins on the supply side, such as when oil prices soared in 1973. Others, such as the Great Recession following the housing crash, are caused by sharp declines in demand that evaporate consumer spending. 

Today, } Inflation is soaring, consumers are being forced to tighten their belts, and the Federal Reserve is plunging interest rates, a key economic stick. Interest rates - in a desperate bid to keep inflation down.

Darrell Cronk, president of the Wells Fargo Investment Institute, said, "Every recession is different. 

In this case, the Fed official borrows a page from former Chairman Paul Volcker, who in the late 1970s was tasked with lowering the country's runaway inflation, even at the cost of triggering a recession in the 1980s.

"The end of 1979 and the early 1980s saw a very steep rise in interest rates because Volcker was ultimately successful in bringing inflation under control." But it took a while," White, an economics professor at the Lawrence J. New York University Stern School of Business, told CBS News. 

Tight monetary policy to combat inflation also led to the recession of 1981-82.

After the Storm

One economics professor comparedpreparing for a looming recession to preparing for a literal storm. did. 

"We have to watch, we have to pay attention, and we have to say, 'When the hurricane comes, prepare for the hurricane, prepare for the storm.'" And wait for that," Fordham University economics professor Giacomo Santangelo told CBS News. A recession occurred in 

The Great Recession of 2008 was on the horizon long before US housing prices crashed, triggering the deepest global financial crisis since the Great Depression. 

"In 2006, we knew perfectly well that we were going into a recession. Everyone knew. It was a question of when it would happen," said SantAngelo. said. 

2020, COVID-19 March and April.

If there is one more lesson to be learned in sifting through economic history, it is this.

"In the 1970s we had this bad inflation. We had before that. So there will be more periods of inflation like this. We recovered in the 1970s. From now on."