Note: This is post #109 in a weekly video series on basic economics.

Rather than moving at a steady pace, economic growth ebbs and flows and has booms and busts. Economists refer to these ups and downs around a country’s long-term GDP growth trend as “business fluctuations.”

In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Alex Tabarrok discusses one of the most significant forms of fluctuations: recessions.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Clickhereto see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series.