We may have had a worse time, but if we did, it was called the Great Depression:
…if the economy is about to begin growing again, it will be from a very low level. The recession has produced declines far greater than in previous downturns over the past half-century. As a result, the economy may seem to be depressed even after growth resumes.
One area where that can be seen is shipments of durable goods produced by American companies. The rate of such shipments fell by more than 20 percent during this recession, and would have declined further were it not for increased production of weapons.
In no previous downturn since 1958, when the figures began being recorded, had the decline been as much as 14 percent.
The drop is all the more remarkable because such shipments rose at a relatively restrained rate in the preceding period of economic growth, particularly when military sales were excluded.
We’re not making, mining and growing things – as I keep harping on like a broken record (hmmm…does anyone under 30 even understand the phrase “broken record”? Its terrible when you stop being hip). Anyways….
Do keep in mind that the linked report is from the New York Times. Mish’s has an excellent chart you can click on and see just how miserable it really is. The really bad news is that things got worse in the first quarter of 2009 as opposed to the first quarter of 2008. We’re not bottoming out or starting to rise – we’re still sliding down.
The sooner we all admit that we were suckered – for a century – on the notion of what makes wealth and start setting our minds on creating real wealth, the sooner we get out of this. If anyone is expecting Obama and various Ivy League-educated lawyers and money shufflers to fix the economy, he’s going to be waiting a very long time. It can’t be done – because it never could be done. We floated around on wealth we had built up over a century of hard work and tried to finesse things by moving money around…and it was all a waste of time. It is now time to get back to work.
Or, we can kneel before Obama and Hope and Change our way to nirvana…if you think that’s a good idea.
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