Editing Economic depression (section)

==Occurrence== 
Due to the lack of an agreed definition and the strong negative associations, the characterization of any period as a "depression" is contentious. The term was frequently used for regional crises from the early 19th century until the 1930s, and for the more widespread crises of the 1870s and 1930s, but economic crises since 1945 have generally been referred to as "recessions", with the 1970s global crisis referred to as "[[stagflation]]", but not a depression. The only two eras commonly referred to at the current time as "depressions" are the 1870s and 1930s.<ref name="krug2010">{{citation | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html | first = Paul | last = Krugman | author-link = Paul Krugman | title = The Third Depression | date = 27 June 2010 | journal = The New York Times | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120411051630/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html | archive-date = 11 April 2012}}</ref>

To some degree, this is simply a stylistic change, similar to the decline in the use of "panic" to refer to financial crises, but it does also reflect that the [[economic cycle]] – both in the United States and in most [[OECD]] countries – though not in all – has been more moderate since 1945.

There ''have'' been many periods of prolonged economic underperformance in particular countries/regions since 1945, detailed below, but terming these as "depressions" is controversial. The 2008–2009 economic cycle, which has comprised the most significant global crisis since the Great Depression, has at times been termed a depression,<ref name="krug2010" /> but this terminology is not widely used, with the episode instead being referred to by other terms, such as the "[[Great Recession]]".