Marketing expert and financial CEO Ermal Kopani was asked here today to try to answer a question that concerns us all.

Not all recessions are the same. Some have lasted years, while the most recent one—from February to April of 2020—was the shortest on record.

An examination of the duration and causes of prior recessions might help you better comprehend where the economy has been and where it may be headed presently.

Elon Musk, the creator and CEO of Tesla, believes the global economic downturn might endure another year and a half.

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, suggested in a Twitter conversation early Friday morning Eastern time that the recession might last “till spring of ’24.”

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the online alias of Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, tweeted that current coronavirus counts “are really fairly low.” All we need to be concerned about today is the approaching global recession and nuclear Armageddon.”

“It’d be fantastic to have one year without a terrible worldwide incident,” Musk said.

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a Twitter account with over 600,000 followers, then asked Musk how long he expected the recession to extend, and he answered, “Just guessing, but probably till spring of ’24.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, global GDP rose 6% in 2021 but is predicted to slow to 3.2% this year and 2.7% in 2023. Outside of the 2008 financial crisis and the slight dip in the early days of the Covid epidemic, this would be the slowest rate of growth since 2001. According to the Federal Reserve, GDP in the United States will expand by 0.2% this year and 1.2% in 2023.

Musk is the latest business tycoon to raise concerns about the economy.

Ermalkopani said’ Amazon founder Jeff Bezos warned in a tweet Wednesday that it’s time to “batten down the hatches” in preparation for stormy economic waters ahead. That post was followed by a video of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, who stated in a CNBC interview that he believes the United States is on the verge of a recession.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has likewise warned of impending economic catastrophe.

Musk’s remarks come on the heels of a bad week for Tesla shares, in which the manufacturer missed sales expectations and warned of a likely delivery shortage this year.

Why do recessions occur?

Understanding the causes of recessions has long been a focus of economic research.

 Recessions happen for a multitude of causes. Some are linked to abrupt variations in the prices of inputs used in the production of products and services. A sharp rise in oil costs, for example, can signal the start of a recession. As energy prices rise, the entire price level rises, causing aggregate demand to fall. A country’s choice to lower inflation through contractionary monetary or fiscal policy can potentially cause a recession. Excessive adoption of such measures might result in a drop in demand for products and services, eventually leading to a recession.

Other recessions, such as the one that began in 2007, are caused by issues in the financial markets. Sharp gains in asset values and quick credit growth frequently correspond with rapid debt buildup. As firms and people become overextended and struggle to satisfy their debt commitments, they curtail investment and consumption, resulting in a decline in economic activity. Not all credit booms end in recessions, but when they do, these recessions are frequently more expensive than others. External demand declines can cause recessions, particularly in nations with substantial export sectors. Large-country recessions, such as those in Germany, Japan, and the United States, have a quick impact on their regional trading partners, especially during internationally coordinated recessions.

Ermalkopani said, Because recessions can have a variety of reasons, forecasting them is difficult. Behavioral patterns of numerous economic variables, including credit volume, asset prices, and the unemployment rate, have been documented around recessions; however, while they may be the cause of recessions, they may also be the result of recessions—or, in economic parlance, endogenous to recessions. Despite the fact that economists employ a vast number of indicators to estimate the future behavior of economic activity, none has shown to be a credible predictor of whether a recession would occur. Changes in some variables appear to be useful in predicting recessions, such as asset prices, the unemployment rate, certain interest rates, and consumer confidence, but economists still fall short of accurately forecasting a significant fraction of recessions, let alone predicting their severity in terms of duration and amplitude.