By Marilyn Geewax | NPR
Ten years ago this month, you may not have noticed the cracking and crumbling under you.
At the time, you may have had a job, a home and rising retirement savings. Sure, the housing market was hurting a lot, but stock prices were still holding up and Federal Reserve policymakers were offering reasons for calm, saying they expected strong consumer spending.
But the Fed was wrong: In December 2007, an economic earthquake already was convulsing the country. It marked the beginning of the Great Recession, which lasted 18 months, becoming the longest recession of the post-World War II period.
