Mar 06
Recession? Depression? Or The Great Melancholia?
Cats: Uncategorized|People are saying “recession” but I’ve lived though recessions before and I don’t recall banks collapsing.
Depression? That’s a mental health term, not an economic description. Besides, I’m not sure we’re there just yet. This is bad. But not that bad.
I think we’re somewhere in between recession and depression.
Decession? Repression? How about Economic Trainwreck or The Big Funk?
Maybe we’re in a big collective melancholy – economically and socially.
Maybe it’s the Great Melancholia of 09.
That works for me.
March 6th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I was a little girl during the mid-70s and Jimmy Carter was the US President during the then most severe economic downturn of my life. I did a research paper on Carter’s presidency not long ago, and the famous “malaise” speech seems really relevant now. We do seem to be having what Carter then called a “crisis of confidence”.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
My life philosophy doesn’t allow me to get wrapped up in speculation as to how it will play out, which limits my desire to label ‘it’.
Economic indicators and drivers are so artificial / unnatural that there is no way to get a feel for what is, what is not, what will be, or what will not be.
My overall take is that the more we try to define ‘it’ and/or relate to ‘it’ the worse ‘it’ will become.
So I guess we’re experiencing “It”.
March 6th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I’ve been hearing a number of commentators almost bending backwards to avoid saying “depression”. Phrases like “severe recession” and stuff like that.
Malaise might work just fine, as long as Obama doesn’t say it on TV. Don’t want him going the way of Carter.
March 6th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
It sure feels like a Carter-esque malaise, but some aspects haven’t reached the intensity of those days yet.
In the ’70s we had a gas shortage, unemployment and interest rates in the double digits, and no jobs.
Carter didn’t inspire confidence and so far Obama hasn’t. For the sake of our economy, I sure hope Obama finds it in himself to inspire us. Wasn’t that was all the hope & change stuff was about?
Hope + Change = Chope.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
I just spent the day with people who work for independent lumberyards. For this, this is a Depression. And now that the credit card companies have cut credit limits and jacked up interest rates, both which have served to make people’s credit scores tumble, the lumber dealers are even more worried.
As for your title – Melancholia, Malaise, even Terror fits.
March 7th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Although the precise definition of SNAFU doesn’t fit, the feeling of frustration that it evokes certainly does. Because somebody sure did FU to bring this about, we can actually lay blame here. And there’s some comfort in that, right? Right?
March 9th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Oh, who the fcuk knows any more. (The crustiness of this comment is not directed at you, FYI.)
March 9th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
The label doesn’t matter to me. All I know is that everyone’s scared.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Or how about “S.N.A.H.U?”
Situation normal, all Harpered up…
March 12th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Cormac, you know the way to a Canadian girl’s heart