<P> Among the causes were the 1973 oil crisis and the fall of the Bretton Woods system after the Nixon Shock . The emergence of newly industrialized countries increased competition in the metal industry, triggering a steel crisis, where industrial core areas in North America and Europe were forced to re-structure . The 1973--74 stock market crash made the recession evident . </P> <P> The recession in the United States lasted from November 1973 (the Richard Nixon presidency) to March 1975 (the Gerald Ford presidency), although its effects on the US were felt through the Jimmy Carter presidency until the mid-term of Ronald Reagan's first term as president, characterized by low economic growth . Although the economy was expanding from 1975 to the first recession of the early 1980s, which began in January 1980, inflation remained extremely high until the early years of the 1980s . </P> <P> Though the recession ended in March 1975, the unemployment rate did not peak for several months . In May 1975, the rate reached its height for the cycle of 9 percent . (Three cycles have higher peaks than this, the late 2000s recession, where the unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 in the United States, the Early 1980s recession where unemployment peaked at 10.8% in November and December 1982, and the Great Depression, where unemployment peaked at 25% in 1933 .) </P> <P> The recession also lasted from 1973--75 in the United Kingdom . The GDP declined by 3.9% or 3.37% depending on the source . It took 14 quarters for the UK's GDP to recover to that at the start of recession . </P>

Between 1983 and 2007 the u.s. economy was in recession