"the upcoming depression could be greater than the Great Depression."

[ORDagnabbit]

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: There was a-- a meeting in the Roosevelt Room, which is right outside the Oval Office. And Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson were there briefing me on the state of the economy. This is after we had made, you know, some serious decisions like on AIG and-- Freddie and Fannie. And they said the market's just so frozen that if we don't do something-- the-- the upcoming depression could be greater than the Great Depression. In other words, there is a chance that if we don't move, the economy could really go in the tank. And-- I vowed then and there that I wasn't gonna let that happen under my watch.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/17/raw-data-bret-baier-interviews-president-bush/


no maybes.... its an "the upcoming depression"

[SpiralHawk]

1. More stress than the country has ever been through

TRENDS AND PREDICTIONS - 2009

"Big shift. Big changes. No road map. But there are paths. This is what they said. They observed that North American culture and ways of life would experience high stress in the year ahead, perhaps more stress than the country has ever been through, citing the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression. “We have to change,” they said. “Everyone knows it, but no one yet knows what will replace it.”

(snip)

http://www.chiron-communications.com/blog.html

[liberal N proud]

2. I believe the unemployed area already at depression level by numbers

I read or heard something earlier this week about the unemployment today compared to the depression.

[Captain Hilts]

3. NOT anywher close in terms of percentage of unemployed...

even if you include the different ways of calculating the unemployed.

[liberal N proud]

5. Correct

But sheer numbers is astounding and you still have to feed those people.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Yes, indeed. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Of course the government won't admit that -

they just re-jigger the numbers to ignore yet another sector of unemployed.

They don't count 'discouraged' people - people who have been unemployed so long that they no longer qualify for unemployment, yet still cannot find a job and have basically quit trying. They do odd jobs, cutting lawns, buy & sell at flea markets, etc.

And if a person was on unemployment, then got a job but lost the job within a few days - am I right in thinking that the job ended his unemployment, but he cannot apply again for unemployment because he was not at the new job for more than a month?

Also, the person limping along on a 10-15hr/wk PT job is considered 'employed', even though there is no way that person can survive on that job.

I think the REAL unemployment level nationwide is already at 15% or worse, and in some areas it is way over that. Not quite at the 25% Great Depression levels, but close onto it.

[Warpy]

4. Poor stupid Republicans always think the stock market crash

started the Great Depression and WWII ended it.

The truth is that ordinary people had been in real trouble long before the stock market bubble, pumped up by easy credit, finally burst. Farm prices had collapsed, real estate prices had collapsed, wages were low, and most folks were in serious trouble.

The truth is that the programs that put them back to work and put money into their pockets had started to work by 1936, but a nervous Congress full of conservatives wanted those "socialist" programs ended ASAP, ushering in the recession of 1937. The war came along four years later and sent much of the work force into the military, making everybody else think good times were back.

Those boys always think the economy works from the top down, and as long as there is plenty of supply out there, the demand side will magically materialize.

This is just one more time they've been proven dead wrong. Once you manage to collapse the demand side through depressed wages, you no longer have a recession on your hands.

It's a Depression. Again.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. So, We're Taking Bush, Bernanke, & Paulson For Experts?

You know the track record of this gang. If they say it, that's a fairly strong reason to assume it's wrong.

GAC