The Great Recession is the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Many people who ignore the economy have a tendency to blame financial institutions for the recession. Economists and writers, such as Robert D. Putnam and David Colander, have taken their own hypotheses about why the recession occurred and offered their own solutions for how the economy is able to recover. The decline of the American economy has been caused by specific aspects, such as gentrification and unemployment. Robert D. Putnam's New York Times article “Crumbling American Dreams” helps the reader understand the economy from a cultural perspective.“ Over the past two decades, just as Port Clinton's traditional economy was collapsing, wealthy professionals of major Midwestern cities flocked to Port Clinton… As the once-thriving middle class disappeared, adjacent real estate ads in the Port Clinton News Herald advertised nearly million-dollar mansions and dilapidated double wides” (Putnam 2013 ). An example of Putnam's thesis is gentrification in the southeast quadrant of Washington, DC. Michael Neibauer writes an article in the Washington Business Journal to explain this phenomenon. “There was a 275 percent increase in condominium construction in the 18 neighborhoods listed, a 100 percent increase in the number of large commercial office properties, and a $76.6 million increase in district tax collections” ( Neibauer 2013). To help yourself better understand gentrification, you must be able to understand both its negative and positive attributes. While it may make a certain area desirable to live in and create service jobs, this also causes the displacement of people, particularly non-white people. Gentrification also harms po...... middle of paper... an example of this is the current housing crisis. As the job market is more competitive, it will be more difficult for people to purchase unoccupied homes, which will lead to a decrease in demand. The crisis continues to last because people cannot spend money on housing since they have no work. In Jon D. Wisman's article "Wage Stagnation, Growing Inequality, and the 2008 Financial Crisis." He makes two specific points about why the economy went into recession. that is, the rich took larger shares of income and decreased consumption” (Wisman, ). An example of Wisman's thesis is the Occupy Wall Street movement. As the top 1% got richer on Wall Street, they protested the way the rich controlled most of the wealth in the United States. This did not lead to income equality, but rather widened the income inequality that already existed.