Atmosphere around Wall Street and the New York Stock exchange. In 2008-2009 much of the industrialized world entered into a deep recession. The complex of vicious circles which contributed to this crisis included high oil prices, high food prices and the collapse of a substantial housing bubble centered in the United States, which sparked an interrelated and ongoing financial crisis.

A protester spleep on the ground at Zuccotti Park as the Occupy Wall street movement enters in its third week in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011. Demonstrators from New York City to San Francisco took to the streets to protest what they call a growing wealth disparity between large U.S. corporations and average citizens in the wake of the financial crisis.

Crowds gather on the National Mall near the Washington Monument to watch on a giant screen, the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the nation's first African-American president. Nearly two-million people are estimated to have packed the Capitol for the event. Jubilant rowds in the National Mall near Washington Monument wave flags.