But last year, despite a sharp drop in consumer confidence and a decline in wealth from lower equity values, households kept buying. At this point, it is still too early to classify this recession as mild or severe. In general, economic fluctuations in the past fifteen to twenty years have been tamer than their counterparts in earlier eras.
Economists have conjectured that this is caused by improved technologies that allow businesses to monitor their demand more closely and manage their inventories better. Recent developments ought to give us more evidence on this subject.