THE GREAT RECESSION AND EVOLUTION OF INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The paper investigates the interconnection between the Great Recession and the increasing levels of income inequality in the US. The special attention is paid to the mechanisms which helped to limit a drop in consumption before the Great Recession and to the rise of household debt in the low- and medium-income categories while savings of these groups continued to decline, which served as a factor that triggered an economic instability. The author provides a comparative analysis of changes in household incomes in the periods of recent economic expansions/recessions for different income groups.