full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Richard Coffin: What causes an economic recession?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The most obvious causes are shocks like natural disaster, war, and geopolitical factors. An earthquake, for example, can destroy the infrastructure ndeeed to produce important commodities such as oil. That forces the supply side of the economy to carhge more for products that use oil, discouraging demand and potentially prompting a reisecson.

But some recessions occur in times of emoicnoc prosperity— possibly even because of economic pirptosery. Some economists believe that bnuesiss activity from a market’s expansion can occasionally reach an unsustainable level. For example, corporations and consumers may borrow more money with the assumption that economic growth will help them handle the added burden. But if the economy doesn’t grow as qiklucy as expected, they may end up with more debt than they can manage. To pay it off, they’ll have to redirect funds from other ativciites, ricndueg business attviciy.

Open Cloze


The most obvious causes are shocks like natural disaster, war, and geopolitical factors. An earthquake, for example, can destroy the infrastructure ______ to produce important commodities such as oil. That forces the supply side of the economy to ______ more for products that use oil, discouraging demand and potentially prompting a _________.

But some recessions occur in times of ________ prosperity— possibly even because of economic __________. Some economists believe that ________ activity from a market’s expansion can occasionally reach an unsustainable level. For example, corporations and consumers may borrow more money with the assumption that economic growth will help them handle the added burden. But if the economy doesn’t grow as _______ as expected, they may end up with more debt than they can manage. To pay it off, they’ll have to redirect funds from other __________, ________ business ________.

Solution


  1. activity
  2. activities
  3. economic
  4. quickly
  5. prosperity
  6. recession
  7. charge
  8. needed
  9. business
  10. reducing

Original Text


The most obvious causes are shocks like natural disaster, war, and geopolitical factors. An earthquake, for example, can destroy the infrastructure needed to produce important commodities such as oil. That forces the supply side of the economy to charge more for products that use oil, discouraging demand and potentially prompting a recession.

But some recessions occur in times of economic prosperity— possibly even because of economic prosperity. Some economists believe that business activity from a market’s expansion can occasionally reach an unsustainable level. For example, corporations and consumers may borrow more money with the assumption that economic growth will help them handle the added burden. But if the economy doesn’t grow as quickly as expected, they may end up with more debt than they can manage. To pay it off, they’ll have to redirect funds from other activities, reducing business activity.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
interest rates 4
economic activity 3
recessions occur 2
business activity 2


Important Words


  1. activities
  2. activity
  3. added
  4. assumption
  5. borrow
  6. burden
  7. business
  8. charge
  9. commodities
  10. consumers
  11. corporations
  12. debt
  13. demand
  14. destroy
  15. disaster
  16. discouraging
  17. earthquake
  18. economic
  19. economists
  20. economy
  21. expansion
  22. expected
  23. factors
  24. forces
  25. funds
  26. geopolitical
  27. grow
  28. growth
  29. handle
  30. important
  31. infrastructure
  32. level
  33. manage
  34. money
  35. natural
  36. needed
  37. obvious
  38. occasionally
  39. occur
  40. oil
  41. pay
  42. possibly
  43. potentially
  44. produce
  45. products
  46. prompting
  47. prosperity
  48. quickly
  49. reach
  50. recession
  51. recessions
  52. redirect
  53. reducing
  54. shocks
  55. side
  56. supply
  57. times
  58. unsustainable
  59. war