[Pen-l] Is we or is we ain't in depression; chicken little

[c b]

From: Jim Devine

I'm glad people have given up the idea that "we're still in a
recession" since a recession refers to the economy going down. It
stopped going down (and may have done so by NBER standards in July of
last year), and has had an anemic and inadequate (i.e. jobless)
recovery which allows it to have a second dip.

The idea that the US is in a depression is more apt, but remember that
history never repeats itself. There are a lot of differences from the
previous two depressions the US has had.

^^^^^
CB: Thanks for this. I didn't realize that a depression was defined
differently than a recession.
I must say that I didn't realize that the definition of recession
didn't include high unemployment as well as three consecutive quarters
of a fall in GDP.  I thought it was both in the late 60's text book by
Samuelson. I thought "they" ( the NC dominators ?) had dropped the
attention to unemployment because of the general conservative turn in
the profession, and a propaganda shift so that they could say the
economy is not so bad when it is bad for working people and the poor.

 Notice there is never any wide publication of the number of people
living below the poverty line as in the "old days" of the sixties and
seventies.  The word "poverty" has dropped out of the oligopoly media
vocabulary.

Seems to me the current definition of "recession" is basically a form
of rightwing propaganda, especially since wages have been stuck for 30
years or whatever it is.

^^^^^^^

Of course, it doesn't matter what we call the situation. What matters
more is how the majority of working people see it. Even if they see it
as a "depression," it's possible that they'll find scapegoats for it
(immigrants, Obama, CB, etc.)

^^^^^
CB: You are funny, Jim (smile).  Yeah, with all the foreclosures,
unemployment, stagnant wages the "workers' economy" is in depression
and the "capitalists' economy" is peachy.  Maybe heterodox economists
could develop a "tale of two economies" like the "tale of two cities".

Stephen Lendman:
> Long-time economic, political and market analyst Bob Chapman
> publishes the International Forecaster, offering incisive analysis
> absent through mainstream sources, especially important now given
> America's deepening economic crisis getting harder to conceal as
> evidence mounts.
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