From Wikipedia:

In 2008, a recession throughout the industrialized world was suggested by several important indicators of economic downturn. Contributors to this downturn included high oil prices, high food prices, and a substantial credit crisis leading to the drastic bankruptcy of large and well established investment banks as well as commercial banks in many nations around the world. This crisis has led to increased unemployment, and other signs of contemporaneous economic downturns in major economies of the world.

In December 2008, the NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research) declared that the United States had been in recession since December 2007, and several economists expressed their concern that there is no end in sight for the downturn.