Are we in a recession like back in the 50's, or are we headed there?

Question

I was told by several seniors that we are in a recession, due to gas prices being sky high, milk, eggs going up in price, along with everything else on average going higher. I just want to know if this country USA will fall fast into such a recession it would take 20 years to fix it all back to normal, and I think the government is responsible for it happening this way, at least that what i was told by many others. Will we loose our right to be a free country, and all go without any luxeries like Russia, or Iraq, I couldnt imagine living life like that, would be h**l?

Answer 1

we are heading for a thirthies depression.

Answer 2

I'm assuming you actually mean the 1930s.  All the indications are that we are heading into such a recession, and we have a long way still to go before hitting bottom.  We have not yet reached the depths that were reached then, but we have started from higher up the peak of social wellbeing, and this does not mean to say we will not reach those depths.  It does mean that for many, they will be harder to bear, and there is a real danger of descent into bloodstained criminal anarchy.

Now, as then, we have governments clinging to neoliberal thinking that has failed the test of history again and again.  The developed world was pulled out of the depths by the economics of Keynes, the politics of social democracy, and rearmament for world war.  Whether any two would have succeeded without the third is a moot point.

Sorry not to be able to be more optimistic!

Answer 3

We are just getting started on the sliding down. I'm afraid that the great depression will look like the boon of the 1990's when all is over. Many won't survive it. I don't know that I want to either.

Answer 4

We may be in a recession, but it will likely not last more than a year.  It will not be anywhere near as bad as the Great Depression, and we remained a free country through that, so don't worry about it.

Answer 5

Since I lived through the 50s, I would say this one will make 1957 look like a hiccup.  Actually the 50s were a decade of real growth, not made up of condos and fluff.  No inflation, stable prices, rising wages, good currency and $2 oil.