U.S. Ponders: How Deep is Economic Abyss?

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

US ponders: How deep is economic abyss?

By RACHEL BECK and ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK - For months, Americans have been subjected to a sort of economic water torture — a maddening drip of bad news about jobs, gas prices, sagging home values, creeping inflation, the slouching dollar and a stock market in bumpy descent.

Then came Bear Stearns. One of the five largest U.S. investment banks nearly collapsed in a single day before the government propped it up by backing emergency loans and a rival stepped in to buy it for a paltry $2 per share.

To the drumbeat of signs that seemed to foretell a traditional recession, this added a nightmarish specter — an old-style run on the bank, customers clamoring to pull their cash, a stately Wall Street firm brought to its knees. The combination has forced the economy to the forefront of the national conversation in a way it has not been since the go-go 1990s, and for entirely opposite reasons.

- snip -

They are peering over the edge and asking: How far down? And the scariest part of all? No one can say for sure.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080323/ap_on_bi_ge/economy_on_the_edge

[floridablue]

1. If you did not experience the depression,

then go and talk to an old person about it. I was born in 42, and had activists parents and grandfather who told me many stories. This is by far the closest we have been to it.

[Skittles]

10. I was raised by the double-whammy

Depression era survivor and WWII survivor - they taught me the art of not wanting what I do not need :)

[maryallen]

17. What a wonderful gift they gave you!

My mother never stopped talking about the one "pansy dress" that she wore for every special occasion during the Depression.

Truth is, she only had one dress.

[gateley]

2. I honestly don't know how we can take it.

There are so many MORE of us now than during the Depression. Already, violent crime has increased alarmingly (according to my local news) and I feel that's a symptom of poverty and fear.

I am so sorry for us all.

[kineneb]

3. raised by Depression-era grandparents

They lived for a year in a tent-house in the early 1930s, and considered themselves lucky. They even had a small woodstove. Grandma canned fruit until she was in her early 80s. They recycled almost everything, and were minor packrats.

... a "tent-house" has a wooden floor and wooden sides up about 3', above that are canvas walls and a canvas roof. Rather like some cabins at youth summer camps.

[jwirr]

7. Many lived in tar paper shacks which has wood studs covered with

tar paper and rafters covered with tar paper. Bedrooms were usually cold and you were lucky if you had a feather bed and some homemade quilts. The kitchen area was the center of activity because it was heated from the cook stove. Often these shacks held large extended families. You made do.

[opihimoimoi]

4. We can thank our MBA President and his GOP enablers to keep ourselves

from better times

What the Hell happened to HEALTHY WEALTHY AND WISE anyways???

For Gods Sake VOTE BLUE...fuck Red....

[Hissyspit]

5. You are apparently not alone in your thinking, opihimoimoi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3239463&mesg_id=3239463

[dantyrant]

23. Not so...

We have Clinton to thank for the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the law keeping money center banks and investment banks from merging. These laws go back to the 1930s, and were passed precisely to ensure that banks, vital institutions for a society, are not contaminated by malinvestment, fraud, etc on the investment side. Securitization, the slicing, dicing and repackaging of mortgages and other debt as AAA paper would not have been possible were GS still in effect.

That said, Bush has been terrible for the economy... on that point, you'll get no argument from me.

[HockeyMom]

6. My Dad used rope to hold his worn out shoes on

Just one of the many things my parents and Grandma told me.

[Skittles]

11. as a child my dad shot squirrels to feed his family

yup

[truthisfreedom]

13. Mine did too, and trapped to get pelts to sell.

My mom's family survived because her mom hid cash in the mattress, instead of the bank.

[Skittles]

14. wow

suffice it to say, us kids were not allowed to complain about the small stuff growing up - no INDEED

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Here is my fave part of the article...

"So in the meantime, Americans like Monica Nakamine are planning for a long road ahead.

The 37-year-old took a higher-paying job at a Los Angeles architectural firm, but has been putting the difference in her earnings right into savings. These days she's dyeing her own hair, picking through sales racks when she shops and washing her dog herself, rather than getting him groomed.

And she's considering some drastic actions in case things get worse — like moving to a cheaper city such as Austin, Texas, and getting rid of her gas-guzzling SUV for a hybrid sedan.

"Certainly I don't want it to get any worse," Nakamine said, "but I know it can.""

My question is, why wait on getting that hybrid sedan if she doesn't really need the SUV for work?

[jwirr]

9. I may get flamed here: those days were very hard and all did not

survive but in a way they were better off than today. Back then many lived in rural areas were you could help yourself if need be - today most live in urban centers heavily regulated by laws that keep you from helping yourself. Back then they and their nation were not up to their necks in debt - today it seems like the whole USA is falling under the weight of debt. Back then business/schools/food supplies/etc. were local - today we are almost totally dependant on corporations for every vital need we have. Back then they did not have a "keeping up with the richies" attitude - today the basic goal in life seems to be rich - bigger, better and more - if you are not then there is something wrong. In fact there was a sort of freedom back then that allowed individual innovation and choice - today I feel like a feather in the wind, totally dependent on outside sources that I have no control over.

[HuskiesHowls]

12. You're right, they were better off then.

People had gardens, and put up their own fruits and vegetables for the winter, they raised their own animals for meat. Also, people weren't afraid to help one another, if they could. Now, as you say, everything we need comes from somewhere else.

The group Alabama had the song out, Song of the South that explained it well:
"Well somebody told us wall street fell
But we were so poor that we couldnt tell."
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/alabama/song+of+the+south_20005166.html

I hope it doesn't get that bad.

[hollowdweller]

15. I do that now

I have chickens and milk goats. We deer hunt. We have a garden. A gas well on our farm with 200,000 cu ft of free gas per year. We have 85 acres of woods and a lot of edible wild plants.

Our land is paid off. Our cars are paid off. Ready if it comes to it.

[jwirr]

16. Good, that is where my family is heading also. We have a ways to

go though.

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. In 2005 I insisted that we move

out of the cement city and back to the country.
Talk about great timing and good instincts...
Katrina hit the week we moved back, our mortgage approval was rushed thru because all the paperwork was locked in a dead computer in N.O. so they "made do" till the power came back on weeks later, so we were approved and signed on local paper.
Before the housing bubble broke.
I know that whatever happens, be it weather ( hurricanes and tornadoes here) or economic, all of our neighbors will pitch in and help. That spirit remains alive and well in small rural towns, thank god.
and oh yeah...my money is no longer in the bank.
I can hear Grandma ( she raised 7 kids during the Depression) whispering in the back of my mind, all those stories she told coming in handy now.
There are lots of us who are blessed in having family history or community history to rely on, to be living in areas where folks jest naturally can "turn a hand" to what ever needs doing still.

[rfranklin]

21. And there were plenty of people who couldn't plant a garden...

and though the rats are big in NYC, they are hard to shoot. C'mon, let's not romanticize what was a shitty experience for most people. They had to go through hard times and then had to fight an all-consuming war. It was no picnic. Sure, we have way too much crap these days and think of too much of it as necessities but having nothing and worrying about how to find your next meal or feed your kids is not necessarily a great way to build character. There were plenty of people who could never enjoy the good times after the Depression because they felt like another one was right around the corner.

[Xipe Totec]

19. It's Limbo Economics - How low can you go! nt

[mike3121]

20. Great REPUBLICAN Depression

My father was in the Great Depression. He was working at Chrysler 3 days a week and supported 2 families. They walked along the RR tracks picking up lose coal. He was also beaten during the labor unrest and sit down strikes. In Detroit, to this day, just to mention the name Pinkerton will get you a nasty look.

[NYC]

22. I read about Pinkerton.

Welcome to DU. :hi:

I suppose these days if you picked up loose coal along the railroad tracks, you'd be arrested for theft.