The Economist mag: US in Depression not Recession.

[xyz123]

I've always heard it's a recession when your neighbor loses his job, and it's a depression when you lose your job.

So would the best definition be when the whole neighborhood - everyone having lost their respective jobs - has arrived at the common consensus that it is indeed a depression?

 

[sevin]

So would the best definition be when the whole neighborhood - everyone having lost their respective jobs - has arrived at the common consensus that it is indeed a depression?

Actually, I think they're going to need a new term to describe the coming years.

 

[JRegs85]

The government says we have unemployment of less than 7%. Using calculations that we have used during most of the 20th century, including the Great Depression, we have unemployment around 16%.

Great Depression unemployment was 25%. This depression will be much worse than the Great Depression.

We have a long way to go.

 

[HOLLYWOOD]

The government says we have unemployment of less than 7%. Using calculations that we have used during most of the 20th century, including the Great Depression, we have unemployment around 16%.

Great Depression unemployment was 25%. This depression will be much worse than the Great Depression.

We have a long way to go.

Hey the government is hiring... more WASTE and LIABILTIES!

50% of employed are ar all levels of government. Take their SPENDING/WASTE out of the mix on GDP and Private sector employment and the numbers are truly STARTLING.

No One on ANY of the financial or business show/news ever look at the TRUE numbers....

The TRUE NUMBERS are the NUMBERS that the economy is doing good or bad are the Private sector numbers. NOT GOVERNMENT NUMBERS!

Always Scammed... I'm so surprised a Princeton, or Columbia haven't done a true economy numbers and not this Propaganda Crap.

 

[icon124]

At this point how can you assume we are in a depression using government figures, which are severely corrupted?

We are in a depression. I don't need an economist to tell me, I can tell you we are heading into a collapse. What constitutes a collapse?LOL

cmon...seriously...

We aren't going to collapse...plain and simple. We ARE going through a very rough time, but we won't completely collapse.

 

[Anti Federalist]

cmon...seriously...

We aren't going to collapse...plain and simple. We ARE going through a very rough time, but we won't completely collapse.

I'd love to share your optimism, and I am in earnest...

Lay out the reasons why a collapse simply won't happen.

 

[icon124]

Well we can start with no exapansion in the money supply what so ever.

Or all of the programs in place to obsorb money if/when lending begins again. Lending would have to be 5 times stronger than before to significantly outpace the programs in place to counteract inflation. Yes we may, and probably will see inflation, but nothing to the extent of a collapse.

Or we can start talking about how, whether you like to admit it or not, the US is the strongest country during this crisis...and that alone decreases the chances of a collapse.

Or the vested interest of other nations. Countries are so intertwind now it would make no sense for a foreign country to escape the dollar because the damage done would probably hurt the home country just as bad as the U.S.

 

[Michigan11]

Well we can start with no exapansion in the money supply what so ever.

Or all of the programs in place to obsorb money if/when lending begins again. Lending would have to be 5 times stronger than before to significantly outpace the programs in place to counteract inflation. Yes we may, and probably will see inflation, but nothing to the extent of a collapse.

Or we can start talking about how, whether you like to admit it or not, the US is the strongest country during this crisis...and that alone decreases the chances of a collapse.

Or the vested interest of other nations. Countries are so intertwind now it would make no sense for a foreign country to escape the dollar because the damage done would probably hurt the home country just as bad as the U.S.

I don't share your optimism, but you make valid points as to why our economy won't crash.

It's my belief that our economy is a dead, standing forrest. The fed/government are propping up dead trees to try and keep the free market from taking it's course. I believe once these trees fall, the soil is too sick to support new growth. Taxes, regulations, free trade agreements, and fiat money has caused the corruption of the soil. Therefore, the free market is working it's way through this system, even as these artificial props are keeping up the appearance of a functioning economy, yet the actions the free market is taking is a collapse. The dollar is a dead tree, the auto industry is a dead tree, the banking industry is a dead tree, along with many other remaning interconnected industries, none of which can any longer stand on their own, even amongst the most manipulative interest and monetary policies the fed can feed them with.

I know this is sort of an abstract analogy, but that is the best way to describe my view, in short. There are many more signs of a collapse of society at the individual level, yet few choose to see it. That's my opinion of course.

 

[RickyJ]

The piece also states that assurances from economists who say that a repeat of the 1930’s is impossible“because policymakers are unlikely to repeat the mistakes of the past,
Exactly, they are making bigger dumber mistakes. So of course it's not going to be a repeat of the 1930's. Its gonna be much worse!

Well, when people can't find jobs and they are hungry things will get ugly. Very few are use to starving in the USA. I doubt even our military will be strong enough to handle the riots. America could very well be a mad max type environment soon.

 

[RickyJ]

cmon...seriously...

We aren't going to collapse...plain and simple. We ARE going through a very rough time, but we won't completely collapse.

You hope the USA won't collapse because if it does it will hurt you. I hope it doesn't as well, but logic and reason say that it is inevitable the USA will collapse. The only question is when the USA will collapse, not if it will collapse. Facing hard facts is better than pretending they don't exist.