The global financial crisis dramatically harmed the U.S. economy, reducing overall output by $455 billion in real terms. Typically after recessions, the economy quickly recovers. However, this recovery has not been quick. While the U.S. economy has been growing for the past couple of years, it has been slow—too slow to fully recover from the crisis. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the U.S. economy will permanently remain below the pre-recession trend. This permanent gap due to the recession means that the economy will still be $4.5 trillion below its previous trend by 2020. For more charts like this, please see our new chart book, Business in America: Illustrated.
