As economies around the world face up to the “perfect storm” slowly building around us, with various “crunches” lethally combining their woes, the word recession is on everyone’s lips.

Does the past tell us anything we ought to know? Here is a list of the five worst slumps of the past century in rough order of magnitude. They may provide some sort of comparison, but we should remember that the current episode may have several years to run:

1 1929-33: Great Depression 11,000 of America’s 25,000 banks closed and number of unemployed rocketed. Result: global depression

2 1989-93: The savings and loans crisis More than 700 lenders failed. The crisis cost more than $160bn. Result: recession

3 Now: Collapse of US sub-prime mortgage market This has spread financial panic worldwide. Result: unclear

4 1980s: Latin American debt crisis The flow of international capital to region dried up, leaving massive debts. Result: global economy weakened

5 1973-74: Secondary banking crisis Slowdown led to three-day week in Britain. Result: recession

Source: Times Archive