I'm intrested to see if anyone will even argue this one.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7860965.stm

Hold on tight its gonna be a bumpy ride.

Maybe. If the Obama administration fails to inject proper regulations and effective stimulus, then most likely we will fall into a depression. If the adminstration succeeds to do this but the American people fail to stimulate the economy from their end (buying s**t), then we'll ride a nasty recession until the markets and consumer confidence rise again. If the administration succeeds and the people buy enough s**t, we'll come out of it clean, and hopefully (though unlikely) with a better head on our shoulders.

The most likely situation? If I allow myself to put a little faith in my gov't, we'll ride a recession for 1.5-4 more years and be back to normal.

Or are we about to witness the death of the age of money based slavery we've been trapped in for years?

You prefer non-money based slavery?

ruveyn

Have Depressions ever been "great"?

It would be nice to get away from Fractional Reserve Accounting / Fiat Money and back to properly tradable Specie...

Money HAS to have intrinsic value - or the system that "controls" it will inevetibly collapse.

How about The Money of Your Choice rather than arbitrairly created by Fiat?

Money has no intrinsic value. It is a token of trade, a symbol. The reality behind the symbol is productivity which is brought about by physical capital and brain power usefully applied. Wits and Work are the realities. Money is just a symbol.

ruveyn

Not precicely true. Any form of Specie has intrinsic value. If a "precious" metal, the coinage can, if nothing else, be reworked into jewelry. Contrawise, jewelry (a produced good) has often through history been used as an exchange good.

Commonly exchanged goods (products of productivity) aquire the cachet of Specie fairly regularly. Some are just easier to carry than others.

Check out the link I embedded above.

I was worried for a while. I mean really scared. But recently I haven't been as scared. My intuition tells me that the way things are going now we're learning the lessons we need to learn about economics. And if we keep this up we'll get through it okay. But if that changes, then I can see it turning into a depression.

Mr.Misanthrope wrote:

Good one.

There are a lot of people losing homes out here in California. Economics is cyclical just like history. Hopefully it won't be like the run on the banks that caused the last "great"
depression. Obama's new plan should provide some relief. Unfortunately, it's too late for many former home owners.

I'm going to save up and buy one of those super cheap homes which foreclosed which are running for like, only a few thousands dollars. Or perhaps find a piece of land out in the country which is selling real low because of the credit crisis. I like a deal, and I probably wont find a better deal on property until the next market crash, which probably wont happen for another century.

There is one thing you should know about history: it repeats itself.

"no" is wishful thinking, in my opinion.
like "will there be another ground war in europe or north america?" "no!"

why not?
war, depression, destruction, famine strikes where the conditions opens for it, regardless of culture and collective perceptions.
YAY!

Yes, this is going to be a depression, but there's one thing about this one that'll make it worse than the last...

...Inflation....

So while everyone's losing their jobs and homes, prices of almost everything are going to skyrocket. That'll just add insult to injury.

If anyone on here is old enough to remember the 1981-82 recession, this go around will make THAT look like a cakewalk.
My state's unemployment is already getting close to what it was at the peak of that recession. It's at 9% now (it peaked at 13% about 26 years ago, and it hasn't been this high for 23 years). My metro area's unemployment is already up to 9.5%, and half of Oregon's counties are already in double digits (with one at 16% already). My county barely has any sheriffs, yet they're going to cut sheriff department funding again. Our county jail is overcrowded, so they're constantly having to release tweakers that are breaking into peoples' cars and houses. Things are still getting worse, too... It's only the beginning.
The depression has already hit in Detroit which now has over 20% unemployment. That means 1 out of every 5 people is unemployed.
All this government action is not only prolonging the inevitable, but making the eventual inevitable WORSE.

If you look at it, the pattern today is reminiscent to the great depression: bank failures, stock market collapse, rising unemployment, senseless government intervention....

Sorry for the rambling...

a great depression..or the greatest depression?

How "set in stone" is the inflation situation really? I mean, Bernanke brought up Japan in his report to Congress the other day as an analogy. And if there's one thing Japan doesn't have, it's inflation. And I've heard a number of people claim that responsible control of money once the economy recovers could well prevent out of hand inflation.

"Control" of fiat money is what CAUSES inflation.

The "controllers" see inflation as a "tool" to control the economy, just like the "fed Rate", and nothing more.

You cannot have inflation without Government Controlled Fiat Money.