As the economy slows in 2008, this article sketches out some key features of past recessions in New Zealand – all the downturns since the mid-1960s, plus the Depression of the 1930s. Each recession was triggered, in significant part, by international events, but each was exacerbated, in part, by domestic pressures or imbalances. History doesn’t mechanically repeat itself, but these past experiences are a sobering backdrop against which to consider the outlook for the New Zealand economy over the next year or two.