2000s in economics

* Globalization: Transnational companies become more pervasive, and anti-globalization protests occur frequently during meetings of IMF and WTO, especially in the early 2000s.
* The euro becomes legal tender in twelve European Union countries in 2002. It is the largest monetary union in history. The euro eases trade in the Eurozone. By 2009, four more countries join the euro, Slovenia in 2007,Malta and Cyprus in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009.
* The NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange closed for six days after the September 11th, 2001 attacks the longest close since the Great Depression in 1929.
* Major downturn in the value of dot-com shares, with occasional exceptions (Google's IPO on August 13, 2004). The Internet itself continues to grow as a business and advertising medium, with steady increases in online shopping and banking activities. Other successful firms include Amazon.com and eBay.
* The US dominance over the world economy continues, but economically rising nations and organizations like China and India show signs of becoming contending world powers.
* Significant oil price rises. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline opens on 25 May 2005, potentially removing the dependence of the United States and other Western nations on Middle Eastern oil.
* Enron and other major accounting and corporate governance scandals prompt reviews of corporate government legislation worldwide (eg Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
* The 1990s stock market boom ends in Mid-March to Early September 2000-2001, due to 9/11 and the tech-bubble burst.
* Post-9/11 Recession from 2001-2002. The Dow Jones average would sink to the 7000 level during July 2002. Continuing stagnation in US and global monthly jobs growth afterwards. A recovery in US GDP growth begins after May 2003, but with continuing weakness on many indicators as of 2006.
* American automobile companies General Motors and Ford lose market share to Japanese Makes such as Toyota and Honda in the US. This trend of General Motors and Ford losing market share to Honda and Toyota started around 1998 in the US and still continues in 2006.
* By 2006, the U.S. economy had reached new heights, with the stock market breaking records, home prices rising and flattening study, and interest rates curbed. Gas prices lowered out by September 2006, further fueling economic prospects.
* The Dow Jones surpasses 12,000 for the first time in history, in mid-2006, and hits levels above 14,000 in 2007; however levels have dropped to around 12,000 due to the Mortgage Credit Crisis.
* In 2006-2007, the United States housing market made a sharp downturn, with home sales falling to levels not seen in a decade. Median home prices began slipping. In 2007, economists raised the point of a "mortgage meltdown", referring to a dramatic rise in housing foreclosures and issues with sub-prime loans. The effects of the housing downturn on the overall economy are still being determined as of 2007, though by July-August 2007, worries over a "credit crunch" emerged and increasing numbers of economists and CEOs feared the economy would slip into a recession. The gross domestic product in the United States continued slowing in 2007.
*In late 2007, the collapse of British banking company Northern Rock caused fear of a breakdown of the British housing market.
*By early 2008, the fears of a credit crunch were confirmed, as a barrel of oil peaked at $140 in mid 2008, and as banks became less willing to lend money to each other, the public fear that interest rates could rise. Inflation is already rising across many industrialized countries. Public spending has fallen greatly, which led to the minor fall in the price of oil by late-mid 2008
*The collapse of the American housing market caused difficulty for the two mortgage brokers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been subject to fears of collapse.

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