Great depression?

Question

Does anyone think we're in another one now?

Answer 1

Not even close.  Generally a depression is a GDP dip of 10% or more.  At this point, our GDP hasn't even dipped yet... the economy is still growing.  (See the link below.)

The Great Depression featured unemployment rates above 25% and changed the nature of this entire nation.

The current economic situation still qualifies as an inconvenience.  It only seems that bad because we've had things good for a long time.

Answer 2

No and we are not even close.  The Great Depression started out with a sudden 24% unemployment rate.  We are facing very strong inflationary pressures, a Depression is very unlikely in that scenario.

Answer 3

Were headed for a worse depression then the last . Why, because 75 to 85 percent of the people live in cities . This will cause the greatest chaos . People who can't get food locked in with each other .

Answer 4

This is no simple formal definition of a depression. The Great Depression was called that after the fact since it was a worldwide decline in economic activity that was unprecedented in modern times. In the US, at the nadir of the Great Depression, unemployment reached 25%. It did not happen suddenly. The stock market crashed in October 1929, but the worst years for the economy were in the early 30s. Many banks failed (there was no deposit insurance) and the Fed made matters worse. The Congress helped with foolish tariff legislation. Rearming for war in the late 30s brought us out of it.

We are smarter now. When our current malaise is over, it will probably be officially tagged as a recession by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the NBER. We have had a bunch of them since WWII.