CONTRACTION: A phase of the business cycle characterized by a general period of declining economic activity. A contraction is one of two basic business cycle phases. The other is expansion. The transition from contraction to expansion is termed a trough and the transition from expansion to contraction is termed a peak. The popular term for contraction, one that frequent shows up in the media, is recession. Should you check out the entry recession, you will see information that is essentially identical to that presented here, because they are two terms for the same phenomenon.

     See also | business cycle | recession | expansion | peak | trough | recovery | real gross domestic product | unemployment rate | unemployment | full employment | inflation | aggregate expenditures | National Income and Product Accounts | Great Depression |

CONTRACTION, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: January 15, 2026].

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The notion that an increase in saving, which is generally good advice for an individual during bad economic times, can actually worsen the macroeconomy causing a reduction in aggregate income, production, and paradoxically a decrease in saving. The paradox of thrift is an example of the fallacy of composition stating that what is true for the part is not necessarily true for the whole.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time watching the shopping channel wanting to buy either any book written by Isaac Asimov or a how-to book on building remote controlled airplanes. Be on the lookout for poorly written technical manuals.
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