[shortonsense]

Judging by the following Bloomberg financial definitions, the latter seems to be where we are. There are some good charts in this article to support his view.

Recession:
A recession occurs when a nation’s living standards drop and prices increase. This downturn in economic activity is widely defined as a decline in a country’s gross domestic product for at least 2 quarters.

Depression:
An economic condition caused by a massive decrease in business activity, falling prices, reduced purchasing power, excess of supply over demand, rising unemployment, and other negative economic factors.

For more, go to LINK.

I would like to know where the dividing line between "downturn in economic activity" and "massive decrease in business activity" is?

Is it somewhere between a little and bunches? More than last time? ( which last time? ) As bad as I can remember? ( common to people <25 years of age )

Lets not forget how bad human males are at knowing the difference between "massive" and "average" folks.

[yesplease]

Recession or depression is one of those in retrospect things since it's a label put on a recession, not a strictly defined term. During the great depression, over three years real GDP supposedly dropped nearly 30%. If we see something like that, I think it is safe to call this recession GD part two, but we're going to have to pull way ahead of the ~.5% drop we've seen since the recession started last December and average a ~15%/year drop in U.S. GDP over the next two years.

[Daniel_Plainview]

Lets not forget how bad human males are at knowing the difference between "massive" and "average" folks.

What matters is "size" rather than "mass."

[Armageddon]

By Summer it should be evident we are in a full blown depression. Give it 2 more quarters of horrific news and the sheep will realize. The estimates are 1 million job losses per month in 2009. I think we are on our way to accomplishing this.

[ReverseEngineer]

Lets not forget how bad human males are at knowing the difference between "massive" and "average" folks.

What matters is "size" rather than "mass."

Its the Motion of the Ocean, not the Size of the Rise

Reverse Engineer

[ReverseEngineer]

Judging by the following Bloomberg financial definitions, the latter seems to be where we are. There are some good charts in this article to support his view.

Recession:
A recession occurs when a nation’s living standards drop and prices increase. This downturn in economic activity is widely defined as a decline in a country’s gross domestic product for at least 2 quarters.

Depression:
An economic condition caused by a massive decrease in business activity, falling prices, reduced purchasing power, excess of supply over demand, rising unemployment, and other negative economic factors.

For more, go to LINK.

Rememer just a few months ago when nobody in the MSM would say the "R" word? Once the R-word was spoken, the "D" word started to surface also. However, as I have said repeatedly, this is neither. It is a monetary system collapse.

The future for the Anglo-Saxon people looks bleak. The sudden withdrawal of overseas investment will see their economies go into free-fall. Their currencies will become worthless. Property prices will collapse. Businesses will fail. Disease will become wide-spread, made worse without the drugs to control that many that is now depended upon. Farmers without the money to purchase fuel and chemicals will no longer have the ability to mass produce food. Starvation and anarchy will prevail. There will be little governments can do to save their people from death and destruction.

Rense.com Feb 2006

Now, this author is clearly a Christian Ideologue with an axe to grind against English speaking nations, but the general predictions made match most of the outcomes we have seen to date. I would mainly only dispute his conclusions that the Euro will survive the collapse any better than the Dollar and that the Asian economies will do any better than the Western ones.

Anyhow, it probably takes another few months to a year before the MSM starts calling this a Depression, by which time it will already be a full fledged Monetary System Collapse, which I will in the future start calling an MSC because its a little unwieldy.

Reverse Engineer

[bratticus]

Remember this character? He looks like this now:

[dinopello]

The best definition is that a Recession is when someone you know loses their job, while a Depression is when you lose your job.

[manu]

The lemmings are now being shoved over the cliff by the other lemmings.

[shortonsense]

By Summer it should be evident we are in a full blown depression. Give it 2 more quarters of horrific news and the sheep will realize.

What horrific news? I haven't seen anything much different than a decent 70's/80's windup yet?

The estimates are 1 million job losses per month in 2009. I think we are on our way to accomplishing this.

Really? If Obama believed that number, I'm betting he would be trumpeting his plan at creating 15 million new jobs rather than 3.

[shortonsense]

The lemmings are now being shoved over the cliff by the other lemmings.

Interestingly descriptive without saying anything. How Peakish!

[bratticus]

The lemmings are now being shoved over the cliff by the other lemmings.

Interestingly descriptive without saying anything. How Peakish!

Like "Yes We Can" but in reverse.

[jasonraymondson]

Lets not forget how bad human males are at knowing the difference between "massive" and "average" folks.

What matters is "size" rather than "mass."

Its the Motion of the Ocean, not the Size of the Rise

Reverse Engineer

Keep telling yourself that tiny

[ReverseEngineer]

By Summer it should be evident we are in a full blown depression. Give it 2 more quarters of horrific news and the sheep will realize.

What horrific news? I haven't seen anything much different than a decent 70's/80's windup yet?

Well, for starters I don't recall 5 Billionaires (or at least $100sM, anyhow) offing themselves at the end of the 70/80s. Nor do I recall nations like Iceland and soon to be Ukraine and Britain going Belly Up. Nor do I recall 20 states or so in debt up to their eyeballs and running out of money to pay unemployment. Nor do I recall seeing For Sale signs on half the houses in any given neighborhood. Nor do I recall the market dropping by near 50% in value from a top around 14,000 to around 8,000 now.

I lived through the 70s, it wasn't anywhere near this bad. Well, with the exception of Nixon, who was as bad as Bush. If its not horrific enough for you yet, give it a few more months. Eventually, you'll be on the Doomer bus also.

Reverse Engineer

[IgnoranceIsBliss]

The author of that article predicts that unemployment will peak at a rate of 12-20%. I think my state is around 8.1% right now, one of the worst in the country. (along with Florida at our southern border).

I'm pretty confident we will see 12% (coming soon to CA and MI), as well as other areas of the US as well. That will surely lead to even more foreclosures. The downward spiral of this whole thing is very alarming, esp after yesterday's layoff numbers.

20% would be unrest in the streets and pretty much TSHTF. Beggars everywhere and crime such that it is unsafe to go to the stores or drive around. (at least in Atlanta, Orlando, and similar metros) If we get to this, I think you will see all real estate agents out of work!

How in the heck to you dig out of a 20% unemployed hole? You don't. This does not look good folks.

[Aaron]

The lemmings are now being shoved over the cliff by the other lemmings.

It's amazing how that Disney film populated the understanding of this arctic rodent in our minds.

Turns out it was all BS & the crew captured Lemmings and literally shoved them off the cliff.

link

Hmmm... maybe they are an apt analogy for this financial collapse?

[Heineken]

The stock market remains the thing to watch, as a sort of barometer.

Overall it's holding up better than I would have thought, despite the big leg down last fall.

Should the Dow get below 6000 and stay there I'd say then we're entering Depression territory.

[ReverseEngineer]

How in the heck to you dig out of a 20% unemployed hole? You don't. This does not look good folks.

Well, just as a hypothetical, if you Nationalized all industries, created an entirely new currency from scratch and created a Make Work project to employ all your Unemployed workers this would resolve your unemployment problem in an instant.

The real bear of course is running this show, state directed economies aren't known for their efficiency of course. However, inefficiency would be better than mass anarchy.

Reverse Engineer

[Blacksmith]

The stock market remains the thing to watch, as a sort of barometer.

Overall it's holding up better than I would have thought, despite the big leg down last fall.

Should the Dow get below 6000 and stay there I'd say then we're entering Depression territory.

I agree, and it is worthy of note that volumes have not been exceptionally high. However, the recent increase in gold prices does have me squirming a bit.

[Ludi]

20% would be unrest in the streets and pretty much TSHTF. Beggars everywhere and crime such that it is unsafe to go to the stores or drive around.

Things have sure changed since the Great Depression, when even 25% unemployment didn't cause those conditions.