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What To Call This Next U.S. Depression?
Posted by humanrubberband • 2/20/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: depression, us
If the last U.S. depression was called the "Great Depression"......What should we call the one that the US is heading into?
User Comments
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Bushwhacked or We The Sheeple-
Those are good!
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Excellent!
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We should name them like they name tornadoes and hurricanes, I'm calling this one Keith.-
Don't they usually name those after women cuz they tend to be ferocious? I think you should pick a different name that would fit this mess better.
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How do you know depression Keith didn't used to be a woman?
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Lucy 'n Ethel?
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Lucy! You have some 'splaining to do!
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I would call it "Again?" -
I like we should call it George. -
The Next Greatest Depression -
The End-
Yeow! Hey buddy can you spare a million?
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The Depression Strikes Back-
Does that come from somewhere particular? lol!
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Well I was going for the whole Star Wars vibe but I know it didn't particularly work
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I got and laughed!
How about Revenge of the Depression -
Lol! That's a better one me thinks!
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I'd name it, Hand your ass over on a platter, suckers. Anyone like that one? -
Lint -
Ya, if the other one was the great depression, this could be called the best depression? Oxymoronic, but I like its competitive feel. Especially since it should not ever be as bad as the great depression.-
By the way this one will be worse.
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How about "the great depression 2"--We brought this on ourselves
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Why does there ALWAYS have to be a sequel?
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Insanity--repetition of the same thing expecting a different outcome.-
- Hmmmm ... what's in a name and who is the winner in any blame game? It seems to me that a thorny rose by any other name is still a thorny rose.
Are we convinced that the two depressions had the same causes? These days citizens are eagerly pointing the finger at the governments they elected as the culprits who caused the economic collapse, but how accurate and how encompassing is that finger pointing?
Is the notion of unregulated so-called "free market" economy underpinning the pursuit of the American Dream still an idol to be worshiped, or are the citizens ready to melt it down yet?
The US public debt exceeded over $9 trillion dollars in 2007 and practically all of the US national debt owned by foreigners is held by private investors except for central banks, which hold 64%. In June 2007 the Federal Reserve reported its amount at US $755 billion. That means the size of the foreign owned portion of the amount owing was almost three times the total amount of currency in circulation.
With regard to the citizens hell bent in their pursuit of realizing the American Dream, maybe the fact that more that 40 % of American families spend more than they earn, and have been doing so for years, and still continue to do so has been and continues to be overlooked.
The average US family’s credit card balance is has been almost 5 % of its annual income (with a median U.S. household income presently at $43,200) for some time, personal bankruptcies in US doubled in the last decade, and the overall consumer debt has reached $2.46 Trillion as of June 2007 (excluding the $440 billion of revolving home equity loans, $600 Billion owed for second mortgages and an overall $9 Trillion in mortgage debt). As such, the total US consumer revolving debt grew to $904 Billion in 2008.
Maybe the finger ought to be pointing back at the citizens too. -
Actually, enforcing my point, but I don't separate government from people.
Government debt and consumer debt is still debt and is driven by wants, not needs.
The expectation of growth to grow a person, corporation or government out of their debt has been tried many times and fails.
Also, it is not just the debt. The savings rate is below zero. People expected houses (and stocks) to bail them out of debt, much as people of the 1920, expected the good times to keep rolling--and let the roaring stock market continue the Roaring Twenties.
The "solutions" so far do not address the problems. We still subsidize housing and expenditures, but never encourage savings. Things will get worse.
Remember, in terms of the stock market, the highs reach in 1928 were not revisited until 1953, and many of the people who lived through the Great Depression say that the four years after WWII were as bad as any of the 1930s.
Hold on. The insanity isn't government or citizen it is in our brains. And, it's not over. -
- Agreed. We are on the same page but many others aren't. In Canada the words "socialism" and "communism" are just words that describe political systems. Here we comprehend that we became a social democracy eons ago and we aren't the least bit intimidated by right wing zealots shrieking McCarthy speak at us.
We support government regulation of all financial intuitions and banks because we know they are headed by evil and psychotic corporate kings with addictions to usury, and we know they are focused only on their own survival -- not ours. Why is it then that citizens South of the border are reluctant to admit that the USA is also a social republic, and that has been such since the First New Deal.
The bottom line is that the world over countries, corporations and individuals, directly and indirectly, assign their own fiscal strength based on the US dollar’s standard. It's high time for citizens down there to get their own act together and recognize the fingers of other citizens all over the world are pointing at them. Will they rise to the moment? -
Not until it is too late. It isn't even one late now.
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Blaming a single politician or administration is extremely narrow-minded. We have been on this course for decades, through numerous presidents and political cycles.
We depeg the dollar from gold and go on a printing spree, and our currency loses value with each passing year.
We shift our jobs overseas in the name of "free trade". Elitists proclaim our economy is "modernizing", and manufacturing is a thing of the past.
We consume and consume and consume, and we can't pay for this useless junk, so we charge it or extract fictitious equity from our obscenely over-valued homes.
Right or left doesn't matter. It's either tax and spend or borrow and spend (and then tax more later to pay the effing bill). Government is not the solution; it is the cause and the problem. And we are part of the problem because we listen to the same old drivel every election cycle, and we elect the same douchebags to run this country into the ground, and we expect whoever the next president is to be the savior of all of our problems, to restore the value (and equity) in our homes and bring us back to the days of double-digit returns on our 401(k)s, and by God I want an effing pension and free healthcare while we're at it!
Pardon me while I pick up the pieces of my head that just exploded.
In response to the OP, I wouldn't call it a depression. The word "depression" implies the drop in the economy will be temporary. Longer and more severe than a normal recession, but something we'll pull out of, right? I prefer to think of it as the New Standard of Living. 'Cuz I don't think it's going to change any time soon.
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