U.s. Recession | featured news

After a long period of consumer retrenchment, U.S. families have cut their once-out-of-control debt loads down to pre-recession levels, largely removing one major obstacle to a faster economic recovery.

Stocks tumbled on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth straight session, as the Federal Reserve's weak outlook for the U.S. economy and disappointing data from China heightened fears about a global recession.

Call it the recession's lost generation. In record numbers, they're struggling to find work, shunning long-distance moves to live with mom and dad, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock, if they're becoming parents at all. The unemployment rate for them is the highest since World War II, and they risk living in poverty more than others - nearly 1 in 5.

The longest U.S. recession since the Great Depression ended in June 2009, lasting 18 months, the National Bureau of Economic Research said.