on 29-Sep-2022 (Thu)

in a complex environment where there are multiple streams of data, such as in a data-rich environment where the analyst has access to historical marketing activity of various sorts (e.g., multiple types of solicitations sent through various marketing channels) and diverse customer behaviors (e.g., purchase histories across various product categories and sales channels) observed across different contexts (e.g., multiple business units or websites, see Park & Fader, 2004), the vast number and exponential complexity of inter-sequence and inter-temporal interactions (e.g., sequences of marketing actions, such as email–phone–catalog vs. catalog–email– phone) will make the data analyst's job arduous

arduous

/ˈɑːdjʊəs,ˈɑːdʒʊəs/

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adjective

1. involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring

2. "an arduous journey"

   Similar:

   onerous

   taxing

   difficult

   hard

   heavy

   laborious

   burdensome

The financial crisis of 2008, or Global Financial Crisis (GFC), was a severe worldwide economic crisis that occurred in the early 21st century. It was the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression (1929). Predatory lending targeting low-income homebuyers,^[1] excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions,^[2] and the bursting of the United States housing bubble culminated in a "perfect storm." Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to American real estate, as well as a vast web of derivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value. Financial institutions worldwide suffered severe damage,^[3] reaching a climax with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, and a subsequent international banking crisis.^[4]

The preconditions for the financial crisis were complex and multi-causal.^[5][6][7] Almost two decades prior, the U.S. Congress had passed legislation encouraging financing for affordable housing.^[8] In 1999, parts of the Glass-Steagall legislation were repealed, permitting financial institutions to comingle their commercial (risk-averse) and proprietary trading (risk-taking) operations.^[9] Arguably the largest contributor to the conditions necessary for financial collapse was the rapid development in predatory financial products which targeted low-income, low-information homebuyers who largely belonged to racial minorities.^[10] This market development went unattended by regulators and thus caught the U.S. government by surprise.

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The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone member states (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus) were unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like other eurozone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The eurozone crisis was caused by a balance-of-payments crisis, which is a sudden stop of foreign capital into countries that had substantial deficits and were dependent on foreign lending. The crisis was worsened by the inability of states to resort to devaluation (reductions in the value of the national currency).^[3][4] Debt accumulation in some eurozone members was in part due to macroeconomic differences among eurozone member states prior to the adoption of the euro. The European Central Bank adopted an interest rate that incentivized investors in Northern eurozone members to lend to the South, whereas the South was incentivized to borrow because interest rates were very low. Over time, this led to the accumulation of deficits in the South, primarily by private economic actors.^[3][4] A lack of fiscal policy coordination among eurozone member states contributed to imbalanced capital flows in the eurozone,^[3][4] while a lack of financial regulatory centralization or harmonization among eurozone states, coupled with a lack of credible commitments to provide bailouts to banks, incentivized risky financial transactions by banks.^[3][4] The detailed causes of the crisis varied from country to country. In several countries, private debts arising from a property bubble were transferred to sovereign debt as a result of banking system bailouts and government responses to slowing economies post-bubble. European banks own a significant amount of sovereign debt, such that concerns regarding the solvency of banking systems or sovereigns are negatively reinforcing.

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The COVID-19 recession, also referred to as the Great Lockdown, is a global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The recession began in most countries in February 2020.

After a year of global economic slowdown that saw stagnation of economic growth and consumer activity, the COVID-19 lockdowns and other precautions taken in early 2020 drove the global economy into crisis.^[1][2][3][4] Within seven months, every advanced economy had fallen to recession.^[5][6]

The first major sign of recession was the 2020 stock market crash, which saw major indices drop 20 to 30% in late February and March. Recovery began in early April 2020; by April 2022, the GDP for most major economies had either returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels ^[7] and many market indices recovered or even set new records by late 2020.^[8][9][10]

The recession saw unusually high and rapid increases in unemployment in many countries. By October 2020, more than 10 million unemployment cases had been filed in the United States,^[11] swamping state-funded unemployment insurance computer systems and processes.^[12][13] The United Nations (UN) predicted in April 2020 that global unemployment would wipe out 6.7% of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020—equivalent to 195 million full-time workers.^[14] In some countries, unemployment was expected to be around 10%, with more severely affected nations from the pandemic having higher unemployment rates.^[15][16][17] Developing countries were also affected by a drop in remittances^[18] and exacerbating COVID-19 pandemic–related famines.^[19]

The recession and the accompanying

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