Recession or Depression?

As most of us I have been watching the news, listening to the radio and reading the newspapers. Every day I am hearing, seeing, listening, and reading about the doom and gloom of our economic crisis. In spite of this, there was one word that went unspoken until recently. It was hinted at, and danced around ever so carefully, but never actually verbalized.

I am sure around the dinner table, at the office water fountain, or let’s face it at the unemployment line. We have spoken about it, whispered it to each other, and pondered it in our heads. What vocabulary word is so scary that we can not say it out loud? What declaration is it that the media and the economist have not wanted to articulate? Like, it has not been the giant pink elephant in the room?

As if the whole world has regressed back to their childhood days. And if we don’t say it out loud, write it down, or read it in print, it’s not really happening….. nanananbobo

Until now! I guess it is time to throw our security blankets to the wind, stand up straight, and look the ugly little words in the eye.

Recession, last week it was made official. I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief as the news caster makes the statement.

Well that wasn’t so bad; I mean we all knew this as the truth. We don’t have to be economist to figure this one out.

However, once the band-aide has been pulled why stop there? The next thing is not only are we officially in a severe recession, but we have been in a recession for a year Hmmm… it was a little tougher getting rid of those security blankets than we thought.

Brace yourselves; our blankets are gone and our band-aides have been pulled. There is an even more frightening utterance yet. Since the term Recession has been officially vocalized. There is another ugly little word looming. It has been whispered about, eluded to, and danced around.

Depression….. Yep there you have it. The roaring 20’s are back again. Well that has a nice little ring to it……..they had those cute flapper dresses, and it seemed like it was a pretty fun time in spite of everything……. I mean they call it the roaring 20’s how bad could it be?

Oh crap, never mind! Put away your pearl necklaces and your vintage flapper dresses. Break out your monopoly board, your cheap wine, and put extra locks your doors. The last depression started with the stock market crash in 1929 the official end of the roaring 20’s. And brings us into the Depressed 30’s, with it came Monopoly, Al Capone, and the end of prohibition.

Well, at least there was the end of prohibition. I mean you could drink away your sorrows.

Maybe this is what our beloved stoners need to finally legalize marijuana?

On second thought AA was also started in the 30’s.

Well, this has made me wonder what the difference is between a Recession and a Depression. I was on a mission to find out.

Well actually not so much a mission as a date with Google.

This is what I found:

There is an old economist joke which says the difference between and Recession and a Depression is that when your neighbor losses his job it is a Recession. And when you lose your job it is a Depression.

Aaahh profound, I can just picture a couple economist, gray haired, smoking their cigars, and sipping their brandy. Chuckling over how clever they are.

Well I keep researching and found that most economists cannot agree upon the difference between a Recession and a Depression. There was a lot of writing about the GDP, BCDC, and the NBER.

Well I can break out my old economics text books. Or, I can put my faith of the truth in humor of my dear old cigar smoking economists.
I can’t remember where my textbooks are so I go for the latter of the two.
While evaluating the changes I have made. I discover I have given up my love for Veuve Cliquot, and traded it for another sparkling wine Arbor Mist. No more Rib eye steak, however skirt steak is delicious.

I like Ramen noodles, I have attributed to the rising stock of Wal-Mart and the dollar store. I clip coupons, and have renewed my library card. I stuff my purse full of snacks when I go to the movies vs. buying them at the concession stand. I also learned I can feed five people for under $10.00 thanks to the $ menus of our fast food restaurants’.

So, to all my fellow friends living their lives in a recession or a depression. Let’s raise our arbor mists to a toast and remind ourselves.

The 30’s brought about little orphan Annie, the Wizard of OZ, Clark Gable, and the end of prohibition.

So there are some good times to come even if history repeats itself.

We have earned our place in the history books.

And we have officially earned the right to tell our grandchildren stories about when I was a kid I had to walk five miles up a hill in the snow to get to ……….