Reply #38: Martin Weiss: America’s Second Great Depression

[DemReadingDU]

12/1/08 Starting Now: America’s Second Great Depression by Martin Weiss

On this first weekday after Thanksgiving, it’s time to take a moment, look at the changes swirling all around us and think about the tasks we must achieve together in the weeks ahead.

After more than six decades of growth, America is sinking into its Second Great Depression of modern times. The place is every home, business, and community. The time is now.

America’s Second Great Depression is not a typical 20th century recession that happens to strike a bit harder or linger somewhat longer. Nor is it merely a fictional scenario conjured up by economists with a murky crystal ball.

America’s Second Great Depression is the probable consequence of a great housing bust, a massive mortgage meltdown and the biggest financial crisis in history.

It promises to bring the worst wave of bankruptcies, job losses and wealth destruction any citizen under 90 has ever experienced.

It challenges the smartest minds in Washington, defies the deepest pockets on Wall Street and threatens to rip through our life with the force of a Cat-5 hurricane. And yet, among all those making the decisions that could forever change our future, no one has personal experience with a similar episode.

I don’t either. I was born in 1946, just as we were leaving the final vestiges of America’s First Great Depression behind. I’ve studied that historic period with books, charts and numbers, but that’s not the same thing. I’ve lived in Brazil and Japan during tough times, but that, too, was different.

What brings me closer to a visceral understanding of this crisis is the half century I shared with my father, J. Irving Weiss, one of the few economists who not only advised investors during the First Great Depression, but actually predicted it.
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Most of all, he did not want to see America go through another depression ever again. His vision for accomplishing that goal, however, was different from that of most economists in the post-Depression era. Their strategy was to yank the economy out of nearly every slump and slumber, forever seeking to keep the economy growing, always bailing out major institutions that failed. His philosophy was moderation in both directions. “The only way to avoid the pain of a great bust,” he wrote, “is to refrain from the excesses of a great boom.”

I agree, and in the coming weeks, I’ll explain why. Plus, I’ll show you how you can use a similarly moderate approach to secure your own future.

lots more...
http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/starting-now-americas-second-great-depression-3-28428