As of 2020, the U.S. has officially lasted an entire decade without entering a recession. This is the longest period of economic growth in U.S. history, but the growth has also been historically slow.
The beginning of the decade saw the U.S. just beginning to recover from the Great Recession, the worst economic recession in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Basically, there was no way to go but up - as long as policymakers made smart decisions. So far, it seems that they did.
The country has now seen 126 straight months without a recession, a record breaking streak of expansion that began in 2009. However, the expansion that has happened has been slower than in previous economic booms. The unemployment rate, for instance, was so high at the beginning of the decade that it's just taken a long time to turn it around.
As a rule, expansions have been lasting longer since 1945. This is largely because policymakers and the Federal Reserve have improved and learned from past mistakes. The Fed has managed to keep borrowing rates low, excluding a quick cut in 2019 in response to economic uncertainty.
Some analysts say that we're still doing well today because of the stimulus package and quantitative easing after the Great Recession. Because of this aggressive action by policymakers, the U.S. has recovered from the recession faster than other advanced economies.
The biggest winners in this expansion are those who were unemployed during the recession and the wealthiest Americans. Extremely low interest rates meant investors could use loans to create more wealth. Those who are involved in the stock market have benefited greatly, but those without stocks didn't benefit from the low rates. This is largely because corporations participated in stock buybacks rather than investing in workers and raising wages.
Many analysts attribute the length and sluggishness of this expansion to the risk-aversion consumers and businesses developed because of fear of another downturn in the economy. This caution has led to a more stable economic development with low inflation, but also a slow one. Because of the steadiness, however, analysts say there's not much reason for the expansion to end.
There are still some factors that could threaten the growth. Debt, particularly student and corporate debt, is at an all time high. This is partly because of the record low interest rates. Corporate debt has exploded in the past decade, now reaching over $10 trillion. This high level of corporate debt could lead to drops in stock price in 2020 and downgrading of credit rating for some big companies like Amazon
Political and trade uncertainty could also cause problems for the economy, and wealth and income inequality have become alarmingly high, in part because of the lack of investment in increasing workers' wages.
Just as many give credit for the long expansion to good policy decisions, they agree that bad policy decisions are what could threaten it most.
