BUSINESS CYCLE: The recurring expansions and contractions of the national economy (usually measured by real gross domestic product). A complete cycle typically lasts from three to five years, but could last ten years or more. It is divided into four phases -- expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. Unemployment inevitably rises during contractions and inflation tends to worsen during expansions. To avoid the inflation and unemployment problems of business cycles, the federal government frequently undertakes various fiscal and monetary policies.

     See also | real gross domestic product | economy | full-employment production | resources | aggregate expenditures | contraction | recession | expansion | peak | trough | recovery | unemployment | inflation | fiscal policy | monetary policy | business cycle phases | circular flow | business cycle measurement | economic indicators |

BUSINESS CYCLE, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2024. [Accessed: July 26, 2024].

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In terms of macroeconomic analysis, especially the aggregate market (AS-AD) analysis, a period of time in which some prices, notably wages, are rigid, inflexible, or otherwise in the process of adjusting. This is one of two macroeconomic time designations; the other is the long run. Short-run wage and price rigidity prevents some markets, especially resource markets and most notably labor markets, from achieving equilibrium. Wage and price rigidity and the resulting resource market imbalances are the source of the positively-sloped short-run aggregate supply curve.

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