as recessions go

[Eartha]

Dear all,

How to understand "go" in the underlined sentence?

Does it mean "progressed" or "the recessions left the country"?

Thank you in advance.

As recessions go, the Panic of 1907 was relatively short-lived. But its eventual impact was significant. It started when two Montana mine owners and a New York City banker tried to corner the national copper market in October 1907.

[BobK]

'As <noun-plural> go' is an informal way of saying 'in comparison with others'. In this case, other recessions had been longer than the one in 1907.'

This idiom was [ab]used by Saki in 1904: 'The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went' - in which the second 'go' (as the 'went' suggests) really means GO. (Read more about him here; he's 'worth a visit': Saki - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

b